Aitutaki
- ISS002-E-9627
- 21 October 2001
- 21:46 UTC
Aitutaki, located 247 km north from Rarotonga and 87 km northwest from Manuae, is a large triangular-shaped atoll of the Southern Group of islands. It is the second most populated island within the Cook Islands. The atoll is an example of an island formation sometimes referred to as an 'almost-atoll' in that there is a large and hilly island of volcanic origins within the lagoon as well as ring of small coral islets enclosing the lagoon.
Aitutaki consists of a reef and associated reef flats (up to 1 km wide) encircling an extensive and very shallow lagoon. At the north and west of the lagoon is the large island of Araura covering 17 km², which rises to 124 m at Mt. Maungapu. In addition to Araura there are 21 smaller motu covering 2.4 km². All but two of the islets run along the eastern edge of the atoll as an extension of the hook-shaped peninsula that emerges from the northeast corner of Araura. Many of these islets retain much of their native vegetation.
The lagoon of Aitutaki is roughly triangular in shape with sides of 12 km to 15 km in length, covering an area of around 50 km². Average depths in the lagoon are of between 1 m and 3 m with a few areas of deeper water. Its sandy bottom contains numerous sand bars, coral heads and ridges.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
