Fangatau
- ISS002-E-6372
- 21 May 2001
- 21:09 UTC
Fangatau is a small atoll of the Centre East group, located within the northestern regions of the archipelago and lying 130 km to the west of the Takume-Raroia pair of atolls.
Fangatau consists of bean-shaped reef that encloses a narrow and deep lagoon that contains prolific coral growth; there are no open passages connecting the lagoon waters with those of the open sea (in the large size image an extremely narrow channel linking the main settlement to the open ocean waters is just visible). The atoll rim is nearly continuously topped by a broad vegetated motu that only breaks up into smaller units for about one-fifth of its total circumference.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
