Abaiang
- ISS011-E-9109
- 18 June 2005
- 23:25 UTC
Abaiang is located in the North Gilbert islands, 7 km northeast from the atoll of Tarawa and 28 km southwest from Marakei. The rectangular-shaped atoll encloses a moderately-deep lagoon of 26 km in length and 8 km in width. The southeastern and eastern sides (bottom-side in the above image) consist of a continuous line of motu that only begins to break up into smaller islets in the far north (right). The western rim, by contrast, is composed mainly of submerged and awash reefs that are broken by several shallow channels and by one major channel in the southwest — the Bingham Channel. The total land area of Abaiang is 16 km².
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
