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Nicaragua GEOGRAPHY
Size: Largest country in Central America with
129,494
square kilometers. Land area 120,254 square kilometers.
Topography: Three major geographic regions.
Pacific
lowlands or western region characterized by flat terrain
broken
by line of active volcanoes between the Golfo de Fonseca
and Lago
de Nicaragua paralleling Pacific coast. East of volcanoes
lies
large structural rift forming long narrow depression from
Golfo
de Fonseca southeastward. Two largest freshwater lakes in
Central
America (Lago de Managua and Lago de Nicaragua) also
located in
rift. Caribbean lowlands (or eastern) region covers about
half of
national territory; this region consists of tropical rain
forest
and pine savannas crossed by numerous rivers flowing to
Caribbean. Between Pacific lowlands and Caribbean lowlands
are
central highlands, most extensive in north. Western
Nicaragua
situated at juncture between colliding tectonic plates,
resulting
in high incidence of earthquakes and volcanic activity.
Climate: Warm and relatively humid with some
regional
variation; temperature variation mainly function of
altitude.
Pacific lowlands generally more salubrious than Caribbean
lowlands. East receives high average annual rainfall; west
drier.
Rainfall seasonal; May through October wettest months.
Caribbean
coast subject to destructive tropical storms and
hurricanes from
July to October.
Data as of December 1993
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