Baker Island
- STS092-715-36
- 21 October 2001
- 00:26 UTC
Baker Island, located only 20 km north of the equator in the central Pacific, lies to the northeast of the Rawaki Islands (of which Baker Island can be considered as a distant outlier) and 66 km south of Howland Island (its nearest neighbour). Both Baker and Howland are unincorporated territories of the US under the jurisdiction of the US Fish & Wildlife Service. The USFWS manage the island as the Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge.
The island is a low and flat, oval-shaped coralline island of 1.6 km² in area, with a circumference of nearly 5 km. Baker Island displays many of the features that are common among the remote islands of the central Pacific: the island is surrounded by a narrow fringing reef, has no central lagoon, and rises from the shoreline in a steep beach-crest before descending to an interior depression. Beaches on the island are composed of coral rubble, shingle and coarse sands.
The climate is dry and windy — a fact that is reflected by the islands sparse vegetation cover. Vegetation consists of low grasses (such as Digitaria pacifica), vines such as the Puncture vine (Tribulus cistoides) and low shrubs such as the Purslane (Portulaca lutea).
The Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge protects mainly the marine environment around the island. In all some 123 km² of shallow water habitats are protected, providing refuge for a wide range of corals, invertebrates and fish species as well as for both the Green and Hawksbill Turtles. On land the NWR protects nesting habitat for around 20 species of bird, including Lesser Frigate birds (Fregatta ariel), Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata), Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra), Red-footed Booby (S. sula) and Brown Booby (S. leucogaster).
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
