Madagascar's Moon-Like Rock Patch Spotted from ISS

From 250 miles up, a pale patch in the dry landscape of southern Madagascar stands out against the red earth. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed the Saririaky anorthosite massif on Aug. 28, 2026, using a 400-millimeter lens. The rock is anorthosite, an intrusive igneous rock that forms when magma cools slowly underground, producing large crystals.

Anorthosite is common on the Moon. The bright, reflective lunar highlands visible from Earth with the naked eye are made of it. On our planet, the same rock crops up in Canada, Scandinavia, India and here in Madagascar, where it covers about 100 square kilometers, or 40 square miles.

NASA reports that the massif likely formed at least 600 million years ago, during the late Precambrian. The surrounding rock shows signs of intense heat and pressure, with north-south trending lines etched by deformation. Geologists believe this happened when the landmasses that became Africa, India, Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica collided to build the supercontinent Gondwana. The deformation may have even pulled apart a nearby anorthosite massif about 40 miles to the north, creating a large-scale boudinage structure.

Terrestrial anorthosites help scientists study the Moon, where lunar samples are scarce. Apollo astronauts brought back pieces more than 4 billion years old, but researchers also look at Earth rocks that match their composition. The anorthosites in Montana's Beartooth Mountains are a particularly close match, NASA says.

The International Space Station program supports this kind of Earth observation through the ISS National Lab, making images freely available for science and the public. This photo was taken by a member of Expedition 75 and processed by the Crew Earth Observations Facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

• anorthosite
• geology
• ISS
• Madagascar
• moon
• NASA