Saya de Malha Banks
- Terra MODIS
- 03 January 2005
- 0610 UTC
Stretching northwards from the islands of the Mascarene group are a series of shallow water carbonate bank formations that include the Saya de Malha Banks (North Bank and South Bank), Nazareth Bank, and the Cargados Carajos Shoals. Only the Cargados Carajos Shoals in the south break the surface.
The Saya de Malha banks (faintly imaged in the above image) lie some 300 km east from Agalega and represent one of the largest shallow tropical marine ecosystem on Earth, covering an area in excess of 40,000 km². Water depths over the banks are extremely shallow with depths varying from as little as 8 m to 150 m. They are dominated by seagrasses, important mid-ocean coral communities, and are important breeding grounds for whales.
image: MODIS rapid response project at nasa/goddard space flight center
