Christmas Island location

[Luca Carlon]

Hi! I noticed that Christmas Island is reported to be in Asia. For instance from geoname ID 2078127:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <geoname> <toponymName>Flying Fish Cove</toponymName> <name>Flying Fish Cove</name> <lat>-10.42172</lat> <lng>105.67912</lng> <geonameId>2078127</geonameId> <countryCode>CX</countryCode> <countryName>Christmas Island</countryName> <fcl>P</fcl> <fcode>PPLC</fcode> <fclName>city, village,...</fclName> <fcodeName>capital of a political entity</fcodeName> <population>500</population> <alternateNames>Flying Fish Cove,The Settlement</alternateNames> <elevation/> <srtm3>135</srtm3> <continentCode>AS</continentCode> <adminCode1>00</adminCode1> <adminName1/> <adminCode2/> <adminName2/> <alternateName lang="de">Flying Fish Cove</alternateName> <alternateName lang="en">Flying Fish Cove</alternateName> <alternateName lang="es">Flying Fish Cove</alternateName> <alternateName lang="fi">Flying Fish Cove</alternateName> <alternateName lang="fr">Flying Fish Cove</alternateName> <alternateName lang="pl">Flying Fish Cove</alternateName> <alternateName lang="link">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Fish_Cove</alternateName> <alternateName lang="da">The Settlement</alternateName> <alternateName lang="de">The Settlement</alternateName> <alternateName lang="el">The Settlement</alternateName> <alternateName lang="en">The Settlement</alternateName> <alternateName lang="fi">The Settlement</alternateName> <alternateName lang="fr">The Settlement</alternateName> <alternateName lang="it">The Settlement</alternateName> <alternateName lang="pt">The Settlement</alternateName> <alternateName lang="sv">The Settlement</alternateName> <alternateName>The Settlement</alternateName> <timezone dstOffset="7.0" gmtOffset="7.0">Indian/Christmas</timezone> <bbox> <west>105.67821</west> <north>-10.42082</north> <east>105.68004</east> <south>-10.42262</south> </bbox> </geoname>

I read that some sources report that to be in Asia (like wikipedia and google) and some others report that to be in Oceania. Do you have, by any chance, official or trusted sources that confirms it is to be located in Asia?
Thanks!

Luca

[Urs Klaeger]

Hi Luca

 

There are some Christmas Islands; your island is the Australian one in the Indian Ocean.

It is 1600km from Australia, but 350km from Java/Indonesia – Asia probably, Oceania never!

 

The Christmas Island in Oceania/Pacific belongs to Kiribati

http://www.geonames.org/4030944/kiritimati-island.html

As their alphabet has no “S” they transformed Christmas to Kiritimati.

 

Regards

Urs