Images
January 1, 2025 - The Bahamas
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Brilliant hues of peacock blue and gemstone green greeted the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on December 22, 2024, when it acquired this true-color image of The Bahamas, a group of islands located in the Atlantic Ocean not far from the U.S. state of Florida.
The iridescent colors are due to shallow depths of the Great Bahama Bank, a massive underwater limestone-rich platform underlying Andros Island in the west, Eleuthera Island in the east, and multiple islands between the two. The waters over the Grand Bahama Bank are extremely shallow, sometimes only about knee-deep. Limestone is a rock that has its basis in fragments of sea creatures, such as corals and foraminifera (single-celled organisms with a calcium rich shell), and this platform has been accumulating since at least the Cretaceous Period. Bright colors in the far north (top) of the image mark another shallow bank surrounding several islands, including Grand Bahama Island.
In contrast to the glowing colors of the shallow banks, a stretch of water between Andros Island and Eleuthera Island appears very dark blue. Here the water drops dramatically in a deep submarine trench, with the ocean floor dropping to about 14,060 feet (4,285 miles). From space, this deep-water location has been likened to the shape of a long tongue, so it’s no surprise that the unique feature is sometimes called the “Tongue of the Ocean.” At the curved tip of the tongue are large underwater sand dunes that have been shaped by wave action over time.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 12/22/2024
Resolutions:
1km (173.2 KB), 500m (452.3 KB), 250m (552.4 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
Brilliant hues of peacock blue and gemstone green greeted the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite on December 22, 2024, when it acquired this true-color image of The Bahamas, a group of islands located in the Atlantic Ocean not far from the U.S. state of Florida.
The iridescent colors are due to shallow depths of the Great Bahama Bank, a massive underwater limestone-rich platform underlying Andros Island in the west, Eleuthera Island in the east, and multiple islands between the two. The waters over the Grand Bahama Bank are extremely shallow, sometimes only about knee-deep. Limestone is a rock that has its basis in fragments of sea creatures, such as corals and foraminifera (single-celled organisms with a calcium rich shell), and this platform has been accumulating since at least the Cretaceous Period. Bright colors in the far north (top) of the image mark another shallow bank surrounding several islands, including Grand Bahama Island.
In contrast to the glowing colors of the shallow banks, a stretch of water between Andros Island and Eleuthera Island appears very dark blue. Here the water drops dramatically in a deep submarine trench, with the ocean floor dropping to about 14,060 feet (4,285 miles). From space, this deep-water location has been likened to the shape of a long tongue, so it’s no surprise that the unique feature is sometimes called the “Tongue of the Ocean.” At the curved tip of the tongue are large underwater sand dunes that have been shaped by wave action over time.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Aqua
Date Acquired: 12/22/2024
Resolutions:
1km (173.2 KB), 500m (452.3 KB), 250m (552.4 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
