Uvea (Îles Wallis)
- ISS004-E-5920
- 13 January 2002
- 00:38 UTC
The Wallis Islands (usually referred to as Uvea) are located 220 km northwest from the islands of Alofi and Futuna and 357 km westwards from the Samoan island of Savai'i. Some 80 km to the north, and stretching out both east and west, are the large submerged banks of the Samoan Hot Spot Trail.
Uvea is the highly eroded remnant of a once active stratovolcano that is today surrounded by a well-developed barrier reef system. The entire formation measures 25 km in length (north to south) and is up to 17 km across; its main island has dimensions of 14 km by 7 km. In addition to the main island of Uvea there are 19 minor islands, located on the windward side of the lagoon or located along the reef, giving the islands a combined land area of 77 km². The largest of the minor island include Nukuatea and Faioa in the south, Fungalei and Luanive on the east and Nukuloa on the north. The barrier reef is continuous, enclosing an extensive lagoon, and is broken by three passes on the western side — Avatolu, Fatumanini and Fugauvea — and one in the south — Honikulu.
Terrain on the main island undulating to hilly, rising to a height of 131 m at Mount Loka. Signs of past volcanism are evident in the numerous tuff cones and explosion craters found on the island. Many of these craters are now flooded, creating circular-shaped, steep-walled lakes such as those of Kikila (17.9 ha), Lalolalo (15.2 ha), Lanutavake (4.6 ha), Lanutuli (2.2 ha), Alofival (1.3 ha), Lano (1.1 ha) and Lanumaha (0.8 ha).
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
