NASA MODIS Image of the Day: April 23, 2007 – New Caledonia
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This image of New Caledonia was acquired by the MODIS on the Terra satellite on April 12, 2007. New Caledonia is a French territory in the southwest Pacific, about 750 miles east of Australia. It’s made up of a main island (called Grande Terre) and several smaller ones, including the Belep archipelago.
New Caledonia is surrounded by a coral barrier reef, which is actually the second longest in the world, after Australia’s “Great Barrier Reef”. The reef is about 930 miles long and lies about 20 miles from the shore. The New Caledonia Barrier reef extends about 150 miles to the Entrecasteaux reefs in the northwest. This northwestern extension encloses the Belep Islands and other sand cays.
