Chatham Island
- ISS005-E-15265
- 21 September 2002
- 22:06 UTC
The irregularly-shaped Chatham Island consists of a rolling, hilly, tableland in the undeveloped southern section of the island that is lined on the seaward side by a series of high sea-cliffs (reaching up to 260 m). The highest elevations on the island are also found in the south, such as at Maungatere Hill (294 m) and at an unnamed location near the cliffs of the southern coast at 299 m. Found here are numerous streams, ravines, freshwater lakes and large areas of forest.
The centre and north the island is much flatter, with long sweeping coastlines on the east and west — the west being cut deeply by the broad Petre Bay. The flat central region is composed of limestones much of which is overlain with peat formations. This area of Chatham Island is dominated by the extensive and convoluted Te Whanga Lagoon. The lagoon is shallow and covers nearly one-fifth of the island (180 km²). In the northwest the landscape is dotted with the eroded remains of volcanic cones.
This panoramic overview captures all the islands of the Chatham group. Several groups of minor outlying islets are not readily visible in this image. These include: The Sisters (Rangitatahi) located around 11 km north of Cape Pattison, northwest Chatham Island; the Forty Fours (Motuhara) located some 50 km east of Chatham Island; and the Star Keys (Motuhope) — a group of five islets with Round Islet being the largest — located 12 km east of Pitt Island.
These remote islets provide breeding habitat to numerous species of seabird, including 3 species of albatross: the Chatham Island Mollyhawk (Thalassarche eremita) which breed almost exclusively on the 173 m high rock known as The Pyramid; most of the worlds population of Northern Royal Albatross (Diomedea sanfordi) breed on the Forty Fours and the Sisters.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center
