Flint
- ISS014-E-5382
- 07 October 2006
- 19:22 UTC
Flint is the most southerly of the Line Islands, being located approximately 200 km southwest from Millennium Atoll and 138 km southeast from the small island of Vostok. Like the other islands of the southern group, it is uninhabited and loosely protected as a nature reserve.
The 3.2 km² island is narrow and flat, measuring around 4 km in length and averaging 800 m across (from 100 m to 1,500 m); it is bordered by fringing reefs that completely encircle the island close to shore, extending beyond both its northern and southern tips. Along the centre of the island are found a series of 5 small freshwater lakes and areas of bog — there is no central lagoon.
Like the neighbouring Millennium Atoll, Flint is renowned for it large populations of the Coconut Crab (Birgus latro) — with up to 2 million individuals being found — the world's largest population. Much of the island is extensively vegetated with Coconut plantation, with a few remnant patches of native vegetation — Pisonia, Pandanus, Cordia, Callophyllum and Guettarda.
image: earth sciences and image analysis laboratory, nasa johnson space center.
