Îles Glorieuses
- ISS005-E-13097
- 07 September 2002
- 10:20 UTC
The French possession of the Îles Glorieuses (Glorioso Islands) consists of an elongated southwest to northeast orientated reef platform located at the northeast entrance to the Mozambique Channel, lying 180 km to the west of Cape Angadoka on the northwest coast of Madagascar (see panoramic image) and 160 km south of the Farquhar group of islands in the Seychelles.
There are two main islands located at either end of the reef (see panoramic image 2) with a combined land area of around 5 km². The larger of the two islands, Île Glorieuses located at the southwest end is low and flat, with scrub and forest cover and is completely surrounded by a white-sand shoreline. At the opposite end of the reef is the Île du Lys and a number of emergent rocks, including: Verte Rock, South Rock and Wreck Rock. Away from the islands and reefs of the eastern side a vast shallow-water coral ecosystem streches away to the northwest, gradually deepening before plunging to great depths — see the following false-colour image.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
