Climate
- Tropical; hot, humid; distinct rainy and dry seasons
- Terrain
- Mountainous
- Elevation extremes
-
- Lowest point: Timor Sea, Savu Sea, and Banda Sea 0 m
- Highest point: Tatamailau (2,963 m/9,721 ft)
- Natural resources
- Gold, petroleum, natural gas, manganese, marble
- Land use
-
- Arable land: 8.2%
- Permanent crops: 4.57%
- Other: 87.23%%
- Irrigated land
- 1,405 km2 (542 sq mi) (est.)
- Natural hazards
- Floods and landslides are common; earthquakes; tsunamis; tropical cyclones
- Environment - current issues
- Widespread use of slash and burn agriculture has led to deforestation and soil erosion
- Environment - international agreements
- Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification
- Geography - note
- Timor is the Malay word for "Orient"; the island of Timor is part of the Malay Archipelago and is the largest and easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands.
- East Timor is the only Asian nation to lie entirely within the Southern Hemisphere.
Read more about this topic: Geography Of East Timor
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“When we consider how much climate contributes to the happiness of our condition, by the fine sensation it excites, and the productions it is the parent of, we have reason to value highly the accident of birth in such a one as that of Virginia.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“A tree is beautiful, but what’s more, it has a right to life; like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees. Forests create climate, climate influences peoples’ character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe.... What a terrible future!”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“The question of place and climate is most closely related to the question of nutrition. Nobody is free to live everywhere; and whoever has to solve great problems that challenge all his strength actually has a very restricted choice in this matter. The influence of climate on our metabolism, its retardation, its acceleration, goes so far that a mistaken choice of place and climate can not only estrange a man from his task but can actually keep it from him: he never gets to see it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)