Juan de Nova As Seen From Orbit

Sitting between Madagascar and Mozambique in the Indian Ocean, the low island of Juan de Nova was photographed from the International Space Station as it soared 260 miles above. At roughly 4 miles long (~6 km) and 1 mile (~1.6km) wide, the island is surrounded by reefs and nearly half of it is home to forests.

According to Wikipedia

Juan de Nova, about six kilometres (3.7 mi) long and 1.6 kilometres (1 mi) at its widest, is a nature reserve surrounded by reefs which enclose an area—not a true lagoon like in an atoll—of roughly 40 square kilometres (15 sq mi). Forests, mainly of Casuarinaceae, cover about half the island. Sea turtles nest on the beaches around the island.

Juan de Nova] is located in the Mozambique Canal, closer to the Madagascar side: 140 kilometres (87 mi) from Tambohorano, 207 kilometres (129 mi) west-southwest from Tanjona Vilanandro [fr] and 288 kilometres (179 mi) from the African coast.

The island was created when an underwater promontory of a coral reef emerged when the reef was dismantled by ocean currents, producing a sandy island. The prevailing south-southwest winds form dunes on the island, which, at 10 meters (33 ft) tall, form the island’s highest points.

Its southwest coast is bordered by a coral reef that prevents ships from landing, and the northeast coast consists of a lagoon that becomes sandy and impassable at low tide. There is a single pass that allows access to the island.

The difficult conditions for accessing the island has caused several shipwrecks, some of which remain on the Island, including that of the Tottenham (nicknamed the Charbonnier), which ran aground in 1911 on the island’s southwest coast.

The island is about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) long from east to west, and 1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi) wide, with an area of approximately 4.8 km² (1.9 sq mi). The entire quasi-atoll is 30 kilometres (19 mi) in circumference, with an exclusive economic zone of 61,050 km² (23,572 sq mi).

iss070e000950 (Sept. 30, 2023) — larger image