About Comoros > Geography

The archipelagos of Comoro consist of four islands (La Grande Comore, Mohelie, Anjouan and Mayotte ) which are situated in the Canal of Mozambique in the North West of Madagascar and facing the Mozambique . The total surface of Comoro Union is about 2170 kilometers square. The capital, Moroni , is situated on the largest island (La Grande Comore).

The latest has an active volcano named Karthala (2361 meters high), which is of Strombolian type and from which the last lava flow was in 2005. A lake occupying one of the craters which constitute a caldera of 3 kms in diameter, the biggest caldera in activity in the world at the time, was vaporized in the beginning of 2005. The porosity of La Grande Comore's ground explains the non-existence of water course, on the contrary of the other islands. The agricultural lands are about 45% of the whole one, the forest is about 9% and 7% of the country is unworked. The islands are closed to each other (about 75kms) and the sea bottoms comprised many corals, which have unfortunately been affected by El Nino some years ago and also by dynamite fishing.

The huge variety of the sub-marine fauna is also suffering because of the combined misdeed of human and nature: less and less sharks, turtles- easy prey whom flesh is tasting sweet and is.free, less and less holothurians or 'sea cucumber'..