Brava
- ISS004-E-10729
- 27 April 2002
- 18:58 UTC
Situated in the south of the Cape Verde group, Brava (at left in the image) is the westernmost island of the Leeward chain of islands (Ilhas do Sotavento). It is located 18 km west of its larger neighbour of Fogo (at right in the image) and 265 km southwest from Sal. Lying 6 km northeast from Brava are the small islets of the Ilhéus do Rombo group. (The haze in the above image is composed of sand and dust blown from the Sahara — located over 1,000 km to the east.)
At 64 km² in area, Brava is the smallest of the main islands; the island is circular in shape, measuring up to 9 km across. The interior is mountainous, rising to a height of 976 m at Monte Fontainhas. The island is volcanically active, although there have been no historically recorded eruptions.
Climatically, Brava is the wettest of the Cape Verde islands, which in turn makes it the most lushly vegetated of these semi-arid islands.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
