Belize’s glowing Lighthouse Reef Atoll

Belize’s glowing Lighthouse Reef Atoll. Today’s Image of the Day comes from the NASA Earth Observatory and features a look at Belize’s beautiful Lighthouse Reef atoll. The photo was taken by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on board NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite.

Here, the shallow, turquoise waters of Lighthouse Reef glow against the backdrop of the surrounding deep, dark ocean water. The atoll sits roughly 50 miles southeast of Belize City and marks the easternmost portion of the expansive Belize Barrier Reef.

Lighthouse Reef is shaped almost like a whale, measuring 22 miles in length and roughly 5 miles wide. Unlike many dying and threatened reefs across the globe, this one remains in healthy condition and continues to thrive. Belize’s glowing Lighthouse Reef Atoll shown in picture has beautiful coloring.

Belize (/bəˈliːz/ is a Caribbean country located on the northeastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the northwest by Mexico, on the east by the Caribbean Sea, and on the south and west by Guatemala. It has an area of 22,970 square kilometres (8,867 sq mi) and a population of 408,487 (2019).Its mainland is about 290 km (180 mi) long and 110 km (68 mi) wide. It has the lowest population and population density in Central America.  The country’s population growth rate of 1.87% per year (2018 estimate) is the second highest in the region and one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere.

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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: NASA Earth Observatory