Minami-Tori-shima (南鳥島)
- STS112-E-5361
- 13 October 2002
- 01:53 UTC
Minami-Tori-shima (still often referred to as Marcus Island) is a small, isolated island of the western Pacific Ocean. It lies 1,267 km east from the Ogasawara-shotō (Bonin Islands) and around 1,800 km south from Tokyo; the closest landfall to the island is the small Farallon de Pajaros in the northern reaches of the Mariana Islands, located 1,020 km to the southwest. The island has no permanent population.
Triangular in shape, the island is a low, reef-fringed coral formation covering an area of 1.2 km². Fringing reefs surround the entire island and extend from 50 m to around 300 m in width, enclosing the island within a shallow lagoon. Narrow passages on the southern and northeastern sides connect the lagoon waters with those of the open ocean. The island has an inverted-saucer like profile, consisting of an outer raised rim of between 5 to 8 m in height that descends towards a central depression of 1 m below sea level.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center