Satawal
- Landsat 7
- Path 098 Row 055
- 28 September 2002
The solitary island of Satawal is located within the far eastern reaches of Yap State — only the small island of Pikelot, 104 km to the northeast, is farther eastwards. Satawal's closest neighbour is Lamotrek atoll, located 70 km to the west.
The island of Satawal (shown above in false-colour with vegetation cover in greyscale) is a low, flat coral formation measuring 2 km in length (northeast to southwest) and up to 800 m in width; the island has an area of 1.3 km². The island sits atop a small platform-like reef with a narrow fringing reef surrounding the entire island. From the eastern tip of the island a shallow reef extends for a distance of 1 km.
Built from coral sands, rubble and boulders the island is thickly wooded with coconut palm (Cocos nucifera), tall breadfruit trees (Artocarpus altilis) and small patches of atoll scrub.
image: millenium coral reefs landsat archive/usf millenium global coral reef mapping project/nasa seawifs/nasa jsc