Mauke
- ISS002-E-9924
- 18 July 2001
- 23:04 UTC
Located in the Southern Cook Islands, 76 km southeast from Atiu and 270 km northeast from Rarotonga, Mauke is a raised coral island of 20.3 km² in area, measuring 6.4 km north to south and 4 km east to west. The island is composed of a central plateau area of volcanic rocks, covering 5.4 km², that rises to a height of 30 m. Surrounding the central plateau is a raised coral reef (or makatea) separating the interior from the limestone perimeter (14.9 km²). This barrier (averaging around 5 m in height) to water draining off the plateau results in areas of swampland forming between the inner ramparts of the makatea and the interior. From the coastal fringe the island drops in low cliffs to a narrow reef flat (averaging 150 m in width) that surrounds the entire island.
Prominent in the image are the runway on the northwest coast (bottom-right) and the white-coloured, crushed-coral, road that leads from Kimiangatau village on the northeast coast to Oiretumu village in the centre of the island.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
