Compare Atlantic Ocean (2005) - British Indian Ocean Territory (2002)

Compare Atlantic Ocean (2005) z British Indian Ocean Territory (2002)

	Atlantic Ocean (2005)	British Indian Ocean Territory (2002)

Airports	-	1 (2001)
Airports - with paved runways	-	total: 1 over 3,047 m: 1 (2002)
Area	total: 76.762 million sq km note: includes Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Caribbean Sea, Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, part of the Drake Passage, Gulf of Mexico, Labrador Sea, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, Norwegian Sea, almost all of the Scotia Sea, and other tributary water bodies	total: 60 sq km land: 60 sq km water: 0 sq km note: includes the entire Chagos Archipelago
Area - comparative	slightly less than 6.5 times the size of the US	about 0.3 times the size of Washington, DC
Background	The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, but larger than the Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean). The Kiel Canal (Germany), Oresund (Denmark-Sweden), Bosporus (Turkey), Strait of Gibraltar (Morocco-Spain), and the Saint Lawrence Seaway (Canada-US) are important strategic access waterways. The decision by the International Hydrographic Organization in the spring of 2000 to delimit a fifth world ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Atlantic Ocean south of 60 degrees south.	Established as a territory of the UK in 1965, a number of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) islands were transferred to the Seychelles when it attained independence in 1976. Subsequently, BIOT has consisted only of the six main island groups comprising the Chagos Archipelago. The largest and most southerly of the islands, Diego Garcia, contains a joint UK-US naval support facility. All of the remaining islands are uninhabited. Former agricultural workers, earlier residents in the islands, were relocated primarily to Mauritius but also to the Seychelles, between 1967 and 1973. In 2000, a British High Court ruling invalidated the local immigration order which had excluded them from the archipelago, but upheld the special military status of Diego Garcia.
Climate	tropical cyclones (hurricanes) develop off the coast of Africa near Cape Verde and move westward into the Caribbean Sea; hurricanes can occur from May to December, but are most frequent from August to November	tropical marine; hot, humid, moderated by trade winds
Coastline	111,866 km	698 km
Country name	-	conventional long form: British Indian Ocean Territory conventional short form: none abbreviation: BIOT
Dependency status	-	overseas territory of the UK; administered by a commissioner, resident in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London
Diplomatic representation from the US	-	none (overseas territory of the UK)
Diplomatic representation in the US	-	none (overseas territory of the UK)
Disputes - international	some maritime disputes (see littoral states)	Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Archipelago and its former inhabitants, who reside chiefly in Mauritius, but in 2001 were granted UK citizenship and the right to repatriation since eviction in 1965; repatriation is complicated by the US military lease of Diego Garcia, the largest island in the chain
Economy - overview	The Atlantic Ocean provides some of the world's most heavily trafficked sea routes, between and within the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Other economic activity includes the exploitation of natural resources, e.g., fishing, dredging of aragonite sands (The Bahamas), and production of crude oil and natural gas (Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and North Sea).	All economic activity is concentrated on the largest island of Diego Garcia, where joint UK-US defense facilities are located. Construction projects and various services needed to support the military installations are done by military and contract employees from the UK, Mauritius, the Philippines, and the US. There are no industrial or agricultural activities on the islands. When the Ilois return, they plan to reestablish sugarcane production and fishing.
Electricity - consumption	-	NA kWh
Electricity - production	-	NA kWh; note - electricity supplied by the US military
Elevation extremes	lowest point: Milwaukee Deep in the Puerto Rico Trench -8,605 m highest point: sea level 0 m	lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m highest point: unnamed location on Diego Garcia 15 m
Environment - current issues	endangered marine species include the manatee, seals, sea lions, turtles, and whales; drift net fishing is hastening the decline of fish stocks and contributing to international disputes; municipal sludge pollution off eastern US, southern Brazil, and eastern Argentina; oil pollution in Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea; industrial waste and municipal sewage pollution in Baltic Sea, North Sea, and Mediterranean Sea	NA
Executive branch	-	chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (since 6 February 1952) head of government: Commissioner Alan HUCKLE (since 2001); Administrator Louise SAVILL (since NA); note - both reside in the UK cabinet: NA elections: none; the monarch is hereditary; commissioner and administrator appointed by the monarch
Flag description	-	white with six blue wavy horizontal stripes; the flag of the UK is in the upper hoist-side quadrant; the striped section bears a palm tree and yellow crown centered on the outer half of the flag
Geographic coordinates	0 00 N, 25 00 W	6 00 S, 71 30 E
Geography - note	major chokepoints include the Dardanelles, Strait of Gibraltar, access to the Panama and Suez Canals; strategic straits include the Strait of Dover, Straits of Florida, Mona Passage, The Sound (Oresund), and Windward Passage; the Equator divides the Atlantic Ocean into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean	archipelago of 2,300 islands; Diego Garcia, largest and southernmost island, occupies strategic location in central Indian Ocean; island is site of joint US-UK military facility
Highways	-	total: NA km paved: short stretch of paved road of NA km between port and airfield on Diego Garcia unpaved: NA km
Internet Service Providers (ISPs)	-	1 (2000)
Irrigated land	-	0 sq km (1998 est.)
Land boundaries	-	0 km
Land use	-	arable land: NEGL permanent crops: 0% other: 100% (1998 est.)
Legal system	-	the laws of the UK, where applicable, apply
Location	body of water between Africa, Europe, the Southern Ocean, and the Western Hemisphere	Southern Asia, archipelago in the Indian Ocean, about one-half the way from Africa to Indonesia
Map references	Political Map of the World	Political Map of the World
Maritime claims	-	exclusive fishing zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 3 NM
Military - note	-	defense is the responsibility of the UK; the US lease on Diego Garcia expires in 2016
Natural hazards	icebergs common in Davis Strait, Denmark Strait, and the northwestern Atlantic Ocean from February to August and have been spotted as far south as Bermuda and the Madeira Islands; ships subject to superstructure icing in extreme northern Atlantic from October to May; persistent fog can be a maritime hazard from May to September; hurricanes (May to December)	NA
Natural resources	oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals and whales), sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic nodules, precious stones	coconuts, fish, sugarcane
Population	-	no indigenous inhabitants note: approximately 1,200 former agricultural workers resident in the Chagos Archipelago, often referred to as Chagossians or Ilois, were relocated to Mauritius and the Seychelles around the time of the construction of UK-US military facilities; in 2001, there were approximately 1,500 UK and US military personnel and 2,000 civilian contractors living on the island of Diego Garcia (July 2002 est.)
Ports and harbors	Alexandria (Egypt), Algiers (Algeria), Antwerp (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Casablanca (Morocco), Colon (Panama), Copenhagen (Denmark), Dakar (Senegal), Gdansk (Poland), Hamburg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain), Le Havre (France), Lisbon (Portugal), London (UK), Marseille (France), Montevideo (Uruguay), Montreal (Canada), Naples (Italy), New Orleans (US), New York (US), Oran (Algeria), Oslo (Norway), Peiraiefs or Piraeus (Greece), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Stockholm (Sweden)	Diego Garcia
Radio broadcast stations	-	AM 1, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998)
Radios	-	NA
Telephone system	-	general assessment: separate facilities for military and public needs are available domestic: all commercial telephone services are available, including connection to the Internet international: international telephone service is carried by satellite (2000)
Telephones - main lines in use	-	NA
Television broadcast stations	-	1 (1997)
Terrain	surface usually covered with sea ice in Labrador Sea, Denmark Strait, and coastal portions of the Baltic Sea from October to June; clockwise warm-water gyre (broad, circular system of currents) in the northern Atlantic, counterclockwise warm-water gyre in the southern Atlantic; the ocean floor is dominated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rugged north-south centerline for the entire Atlantic basin	flat and low (most areas do not exceed four meters in elevation)
Transportation - note	Kiel Canal and Saint Lawrence Seaway are two important waterways; significant domestic commercial and recreational use of Intracoastal Waterway on central and south Atlantic seaboard and Gulf of Mexico coast of US	-
Waterways	-	none

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