Manihi
- ISS005-E-13939
- 12 September 2002
- 21:04 UTC
Manihi lies in the northwestern part of the Tuamotu Archipelago, located around 15 km eastwards from the atoll of Ahe. It is part of the small grouping of 4 atolls and one small coral island known as the Îles du Roi Georges that sit to the north and northeast of the northwestern regions of the archipelago. The remaining members of the Îles du Roi Georges group (King George Islands), Takapoto, Takaroa and Tikei are located 70 km to the southeast, 84 km to the east and 150 km to the southeast, respectively.
Like the other atolls of the Îles du Roi Georges group, Manihi forms an elongated structure that is orientated southwest to northeast. The atoll measures around 27 km in length and up to 8 km across, enclosing a long deep lagoon — shallower towards the northeast — covering an area of 165 km². The main passage in to the lagoon is the Passe de Tairapa, located on the southwest side of the atoll, measuring 1.3 km in length, 200 m in width and up to 60 m in depth. There are 114 islets around the reef rim, most of which are heavily vegetated with coconut palm, with a combined land area of 13 km².
Like all the atolls of the region, Manihi is a reef-topped seamount (part of the Tuamotu Seamount Trail) that rises sharply from the seabed. Manihi is located at the southwestern summit of the Ahe seamount; the northeastern end of the seamount is also emergent and is home to the slightly larger atoll of Ahe. The entire formation is known as the Ahe Seamount and sometimes as the Manihi Seamount. Like several other seamounts that are located north of the main northwest-southeast trending line of the Tuamotu atolls, the Ahe-Manihi seamount is elongated in an atypical southwest to northeast orientation. Other seamounts sharing this orientation include the Takapoto-Takaroa Seamount, the Raroia-Takume Seamount and the Amanu Seamount.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center