Bertaut reef
| Bertaut Reef Sand Cay |
||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Waters | Indian Ocean | |
| archipelago | Amiranten | |
| Geographical location | 5 ° 39 ′ S , 53 ° 14 ′ E | |
|
||
| Number of islands | 1 | |
| Main island | Sand Cay | |
| Land area | 0.2 ha | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
The Bertaut Reef is an almost completely submerged coral reef in the western Indian Ocean . It is geographically part of the Amiranten island chain and politically to the Seychelles .
Bertaut is located 22.5 kilometers southwest of the Saint Joseph Atoll and 14.5 kilometers northwest of the Poivre Atoll . Desroche is 50 kilometers east. The reef is around 260 km away from Mahé , the main island of the Seychelles. The reef area extends for 8.4 km in a north-west-south-east direction. In the southeastern area it is up to 3.4 km wide, in the northwest about 2.7 km. The area is over 20 km². Only in the south or south-east is the reef area limited over a length of almost 2 km by a shallow reef edge on which the waves break. The reef drops steeply to the bottom of the Amirantenbank .
200 to 300 meters within this reef edge is the almost 2000 m², vegetation-free island of Sand Cay , the only island on the reef.