Ari Atoll
- Landsat 7
- Path 146, Row 057
- 12 January 2001
Ari Atoll (Alifu) lies near the center of the north-south running chain of atolls that form the Maldive Islands — the centre of the chain forms a double row of atolls stretching for 350 km, with Ari being located upon the western chain, facing the Arabian Sea. It lies 42 km east from North Male and 16 km north from North Nilandhoo. Administratively the atoll is divided into two units: North and South Ari Atoll (Alifu Alifu and Alifu Dhaalu) and includes the smaller atoll of Rasdhoo located 10 km to the northeast and the island of Thoddoo located 23 km to the northeast.
The atoll forms a large, elongated-oval structure measuring 90 km in length and averaging 30 km across. Its perimeter consists of several large reefs and numerous faros reefs each with their own reef rims and internal lagoons — some with a solitary island at their centre. The small circular-shaped reefs that form the eastern margin of the atoll (around 32 in number) are separated from one another by narrow channels averaging 1 km in width. The reefs of the southern and western sides (13 main units) tend to be larger than those of the east and are broken by wide passages of several kilometers in width. Ari's interior lagoon contains a profusion of small faros reefs, patch reefs and coral knolls (see lagoon image) — with those at the centre being wholly submerged, and those closest to the outer reefs generally being shallow enough to have emergent reefs and small islets.
There are 82 small islands in total, with a combined land area of 12.2 km². The largest islands include: Dhigurah (0.428 km²), Maamingili (0.749 km²), and Feridhoo (0.432 km²); Thoddoo (not part of the main Ari atoll) is the largest island with an area of 1.405 km².
image: millenium coral reefs landsat archive/usf millenium global coral reef mapping project/nasa seawifs/nasa jsc
