Cayos de Albuquerque
- ISS014-E-18326
- 27 March 2007
- 15:32 UTC
The Cayos de Albuquerque (Albuquerque Cays) — sometimes known as the Southwest Cays — are two small vegetated cays lying on the eastern side of a mostly-submerged, heart-shaped reef. The reef is located 32 km southwest of the Isla de San Andrés and 175 km east of the Nicaraguan coast at Punta de Perlas. The reef forms an atoll-like complex of reefs and patches of around 8 km across that enclose a central lagoon area. The eastern side of the formation is marked by a shallow reef crest upon which the ocean swells break.
The two cays — Cayo del Norte and Cayo del Sur — sit on the margins of the central lagoon. They each measure a few hundered meters across and are thickly vegetated with coconut palm.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
