repaired on September 9–11, 2006, and became operational shortly after. In 2007, the Brazilian Navy started to build a new scientific station on the archipelago. Construction began on July 24, 2007, and was completed on June 25, 2008. The new station was built with seismic isolation, and is considerably larger and better equipped than the previous one. The station is composed of a main building – equipped with reverse osmosis salt water desalination system, photovoltaics system and satellite communications system; deposits and a mooring dock. The Brazilian Navy also maintains a lighthouse on the archipelago (ARLHS: SPP-001), built in 1995 to replace a previous one from 1930. Air France Flight 447 On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330-200 jetliner en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris with 228 persons on board, crashed in the Atlantic Ocean relatively close to the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, killing all its occupants. Bodies and fragments from the aircraft were found just to the northwest of the archipelago. Geography The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Rocks are situated in the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Equator, and are the only group of Brazilian oceanic islets in the Northern Hemisphere. The nearest point in the Brazilian coast, is Cabo do Calcanhar, Rio Grande do Norte, approximately from the archipelago. The total emerged area is about and the maximum land elevation is , on Nordeste Island. The archipelago is composed of several rocks, five small rocky islets and four larger islets: Belmonte Islet: Challenger Islet (also known as São Paulo): Nordeste Islet (also known as São Pedro): Cabral Islet: South Islet: . Their base is over below sea level. None of the islets have a permanent fresh water supply available. Biology Only the largest of the islets, Belmonte, is vegetated with mosses and grasses. The other rocks are mostly barren, except for some sea algae and fungi that can tolerate the salt spray. The rocks are inhabited by seabirds, including the brown booby (Sula leucogaster), brown noddy (Anous stolidus), and black noddy (Anous minutus), as well as crabs (Grapsus grapsus), insects, and spiders. The islands are home to over 100 reef fishes, about 10% of which are found nowhere else in the world, including the extremely colorful Tosanoides aphrodite. References Further reading Andrade, F.G.G., Simões, L.S.A., Campos, T.F.C., Silva, A.J.C.A. 2007. Padrão estrutural da foliação milonígica do Arquipélago de São