North Maalhosmadulu
- Landsat 7
- Path 146 Row 056
- 21 June 2001
An atoll of the northeastern regions of the archipelago, North Maalhosmadulu atoll is located 14 km off the eastern side of the massive Thiladhunmathee-Miladhunmadulu atoll complex (visible at top-right of the above image) and 5 km northwards from South Maalhosmadulu; its closest neighbour is the small atoll of Middle Maalhosmadulu that lies in the channel between North Maalhosmadulu and South Maalhosmadulu. North Maalhosmadulu forms the Raa Atoll administrative division.
The atoll measures 71 km in length, from north to south, with a maximum width of 28 km. Like many of the Maldivian atolls, North Maalhosmadulu's eastern and western rims are distinctly different in character. The outer rim of the atoll comprises 39 reefs: those on the west are generally quite large, with breaking reefs on the Arabian Sea face (westernmost side) protecting broad back-reef slopes and shallow lagoons on their eastern sides; most contain no islands — of those that do, a single small islet is often found at the innermost point of the reef. The eastern face of the atoll consists of a series of around 20 small, closely-spaced reefs that are topped by relatively large islands; reef structure and lagoon form are radically different from those in the west (see large size image to best illustrate this difference).
The main islands of North Maalhosmadulu include: Angolhitheemu (31.7 ha), Fainu (50.1 ha), Hulhudhuffaaru (48.6 ha), Inguraidhoo (35.8 ha), Kinolhas (44.9 ha), Maakurathu (43.4 ha) and Vaadhoo (31 ha). Located in the far north, outwith the main atoll formation, is the small island of Alifushi (45 ha).
image: millenium coral reefs landsat archive/usf millenium global coral reef mapping project/nasa seawifs/nasa jsc
