Astove

Astove Island is 38 km SSE of Cosmoledo Atoll, located at . It is a raised atoll with just one island forming a nearly closed ring of land around a shallow lagoon with a maximum depth of 3 meters, leaving a passage only in the southwest. The atoll measures 4.5 km north to south and is 2 km wide. The land area is 4.96 km², and the total area including the lagoon 9,5 km². The only settlement, on the western coast, has been abandoned since the 1980s. There is a grass airstrip on the north east point of the island. There are remnants of a former plantation of coconuts and sisal. In places, it is difficult to penetrate to the lagoon through the mass of pemphis and bwa matlo scrub. Dunes of up to 18 metres line the windswept eastern rim of the atoll, also covered mainly in bwa matlo. Mangroves line much of the southern half of the lagoon rim. The lagoon is extremely shallow. The near-vertical drop-off from the outer reef edge is excellent for diving.
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