Tristan da Cunha
- Terra ASTER
- 25 October 2006
- 10:50 UTC
Located 1,900 km southwest from Saint Helena lie the remote islands of the Tristan da Cunha Group, consisting of the five islands of Tristan da Cunha, Inaccessible Island, Nightingale Island, Middle Island, and the Stoltenhoff Islands. Only the island of Tristan da Cunha is inhabited, making it the most isolated of all the world's remote island communities. Inaccessible Island lies 35 km southwest from Tristan da Cunha, with Nightingale Island, Middle Island and the Stoltenhoff Islands being around 34 km to the south-southwest. They are the highly eroded remnants of former volcanoes that at one time looked similar to their larger neighbour of Tristan da Cunha.
The island of Tristan da Cunha forms a circular-shaped volcanic cone with a circumference of 34 km, measuring 10 km in diameter, with an area of 98 km². The central peak of the island, rising to 2,060 m, is the summit (Queens Mary's Peak) of an active volcano (last active in 1961) that rises over 5,700 m above the ocean floor. Much of the island is lined by tall sheer cliffs of 300 to 600 m in height. On the northwest coast the cliffs give way to a narrow coastal strip upon which the island's only settlement of Edinburgh is located.
image: ASTER volcano archive jpl/nasa
