Maio
- ISS006-E-5221
- 07 December 2002
- 14:46 UTC
Maio is the easternmost island of the Leeward Islands group (Ilhas do Sotavento), being located 25 km east from São Tiago (Santiago) and 77 km southwest from the Windward island of Boa Vista. The island is oval in shape, measuring 24 km in length (north to south) and 16 km in width (north is to the right in the above image), covering an area of 268 km².
Maio has a generally low profile, consisting of a central hilly region (darker areas in the above image) composed of older rocks of volcanic origin that rise to a height of 436 m at Monte Penoso and 294 m at Monte Batalha. From the interior, shallow valleys descend to a flat coastal plain that usually grades smoothly to wide beaches of sand, dune or rock — coasts of the north and west tend to be sandier and more eroded than than those of the south and east. The coastal belt (lighter colored rocks in the above image) are comprised of younger sedimentary rock formations.
Inland from the wide bay of Praia de Soca (on the west coast) are situated important areas of forest — representing the most extensive protected forest habitat in the Cape Verde Islands — seen more clearly in the large size image. Despite this, the island is extremely arid; much of the island is of desert-like appearance with salt flats located on both the northwest and southwest coasts.
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