Cook Islands Geography

The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific Ocean, north-east of New Zealand, between French Polynesia and Fiji. There are fifteen major islands, spread over 2.2 million square kilometers of ocean, divided into two distinct groups: the Southern Cook Islands, and the Northern Cook Islands of coral atolls. The northern Cook Islands are seven low-lying, sparsely populated, coral atolls. The southern Cook Islands consist of eight elevated, fertile, volcanic isles where most of the populace lives. The climate on the islands range from moderate to tropical.

The islands were formed by volcanic activity; the northern group is older and consists of six atolls (sunken volcanoes topped by coral growth). Each island is the top of one or more volcanoes, but only on the largest islands have craters of now-extinct volcanoes still dominate the skyline; the highest of these rises to 2,139 feet (652 meters) at Te Manga, on Rarotonga. In the northern group, all the islands except Nassau are atolls.

Because the land areas are so small, only the largest islands have small streams. There are only small freshwater lakes on the high islands. The islanders rely on wells and storage tanks for their fresh water.

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