BelarusGeography
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Location:
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Eastern Europe, east of Poland | |
Geographic coordinates:
| 53 00 N, 28 00 E | |
Map references:
| Europe | |
Area:
| total: 207,600 sq km
land: 207,600 sq km
water: 0 sq km | |
Area - comparative:
| slightly smaller than Kansas | |
Land boundaries:
| total: 2,900 km
border countries: Latvia 141 km, Lithuania 502 km, Poland 407 km, Russia 959 km, Ukraine 891 km | |
Coastline:
| 0 km (landlocked) | |
Maritime claims:
| none (landlocked) | |
Climate:
| cold winters, cool and moist summers; transitional between continental and maritime | |
Terrain:
| generally flat and contains much marshland | |
Elevation extremes:
| lowest point: Nyoman River 90 m
highest point: Dzyarzhynskaya Hara 346 m | |
Natural resources:
| forests, peat deposits, small quantities of oil and natural gas, granite, dolomitic limestone, marl, chalk, sand, gravel, clay | |
Land use:
| arable land: 29.55%
permanent crops: 0.6%
other: 69.85% (2001) | |
Irrigated land:
| 1,150 sq km (1998 est.) | |
Natural hazards:
| NA | |
Environment - current issues:
| soil pollution from pesticide use; southern part of the country contaminated with fallout from 1986 nuclear reactor accident at Chornobyl' in northern Ukraine | |
Environment - international agreements:
| party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulfur 85, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Law of the Sea | |
Geography - note:
| landlocked; glacial scouring accounts for the flatness of Belarusian terrain and for its 11,000 lakes; the country is geologically well endowed with extensive deposits of granite, dolomitic limestone, marl, chalk, sand, gravel, and clay |
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