Marutea Sud
- ISS005-E-16918
- 08 October 2002
- 20:15 UTC
Located in the far southeastern reaches of the Tuamotu Archipelago, Marutea Sud lies 73 km east from Matureivavao and 72 km northeast from the atoll of Maria.
The atoll is approximately rectangular in shape, with maximum dimenisons of 20 km (east to west) and 11 km (north to south), enclosing a central lagoon of 112 km² in area. Islands are located on all sides of the rim — the entire eastern rim comprises a narrow motu of 9 km in length and a few hundred meters in width. Several other large islands occur, such as at the northwestern corner and on the southern rim. An additional 70 small vegetated islets are also found (bringing the total land area to 2.8 km²), as well as numerous drying or barren patches of reef.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
