This astronaut photo from January 6, 2009, shows giant kelp beds in the waters surrounding Mac Murdo and Howe Islands—2 of the 300 islands that make up the Kerguélen Archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean.
This detailed astronaut photograph features surface currents illuminated by mirror-like reflections of sunlight off the waters around the Malée Atoll in the Maldive Islands.
In these images captured by International Space Station astronauts on August 27, 2006, bright sunlight glinting off the western Caribbean Sea reveals intersecting wave patterns and oily surfactants on the surface waters around Bajo Nuevo Reef. Bajo Nuevo is a collection of small islets arranged into two U-shaped cays, low islands made of coral or sand. This pair of images shows the easternmost of the two cays (also known as “keys”) and surrounding waters.
In one frame International Space Station astronauts were able to capture the evolution of fringing reefs to atolls. As with the Hawaiian Islands, these volcanic hot spot islands become progressively older to the northwest. As these islands move away from their magma sources they erode and subside.