Tarawa and Maiana Atolls

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The Republic of Kiribati is an island nation consisting of some 33 atolls near the equator in the central Pacific. Before Europeans found the islands, they had been inhabited for two millennia by indigenous Micronesians. In 1820, the British named the islands the Gilbert Islands, after Captain Thomas Gilbert, who discovered some of the atolls in 1788. The islands eventually gained their independence in the 1970s.

Two of Kiribati’s atolls, Tarawa and Maiana, appear in this image. Tarawa—remembered as the site of a brutal World War II battle—is the larger island. Each island consists of a ring of coral around a central lagoon. This photo shows calm conditions, with clear, still water in each central lagoon, and a light spray of clouds overhead.

Scientists have debated the formation process of coral atolls for many years. Today, coral atolls are appreciated for the insights they provide about climate change. As corals grow, the density of their skeletons varies with the seasons, forming datable layers. Depending on salinity, temperature, and water clarity conditions, the thickness of those growth layers can vary, providing a record of conditions in the tropics.

Astronaut photograph STS088-707-6 was acquired December 14, 1998, with a Kodak elite 100S camera using an 250 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and the Image Science & Analysis Group, Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

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