Title Image: Jau Park
Image taken 8/31/2000 by Landsat 7
Fed by multiple waterways, Brazil’s Negro River is the Amazon River’s largest tributary. The mosaic of partially-submerged islands visible in the channel disappears when rainy season downpours raise the water level.
Earth as Art is a project of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) (Facebook group) that takes images from the Landsat-7 satellite, the current “bird” of an ongoing project since 1972. Our planet is gorgeous, true, but I would personally like to see some images from the parts of the world that are now completely disgusting- China’s environment is being destroyed by the People’s Republic’s rapid economic expansion without regard to the consequences, and in RVA’s backyard, West Virginia’s beautiful Appalachian Mountains are being, literally, destroyed. There are some such images- below there is an example of Bolivian Deforestation- but most are just simply beautiful. Enjoy the pretty:
Icefall, Lambert Glacier, Antarctica
Image taken 12/2/2000
The Lambert Glacier in Antarctica, is the world’s largest glacier. The focal point of this image is an icefall that feeds into the Lambert glacier from the vast ice sheet covering the polar plateau. Ice flows like water, albeit much more slowly. Cracks can be seen in this icefall as it bends and twists on its slow-motion descent 1300 feet (400 meters) to the glacier below.
full size image
Title Image: Jau Park
Image taken 8/31/2000 by Landsat 7
Fed by multiple waterways, Brazil’s Negro River is the Amazon River’s largest tributary. The mosaic of partially-submerged islands visible in the channel disappears when rainy season downpours raise the water level.
Earth as Art is a project of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) (Facebook group) that takes images from the Landsat-7 satellite, the current “bird” of an ongoing project since 1972. Our planet is gorgeous, true, but I would personally like to see some images from the parts of the world that are now completely disgusting- China’s environment is being destroyed by the People’s Republic’s rapid economic expansion without regard to the consequences, and in RVA’s backyard, West Virginia’s beautiful Appalachian Mountains are being, literally, destroyed. There are some such images- below there is an example of Bolivian Deforestation- but most are just simply beautiful. Enjoy the pretty:
Icefall, Lambert Glacier, Antarctica
Image taken 12/2/2000
The Lambert Glacier in Antarctica, is the world’s largest glacier. The focal point of this image is an icefall that feeds into the Lambert glacier from the vast ice sheet covering the polar plateau. Ice flows like water, albeit much more slowly. Cracks can be seen in this icefall as it bends and twists on its slow-motion descent 1300 feet (400 meters) to the glacier below.
full size image
Guinea-Bissau
Image taken 12/1/2000
Guinea-Bissau is a small country in West Africa. Complex patterns can be seen in the shallow waters along its coastline, where silt carried by the Geba and other rivers washes out into the Atlantic Ocean.
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Gosses Bluff
Image taken 8/14/2002 by Landsat 7
142 million years ago, an asteroid or comet slammed into what is now the Missionary Plains in Australia’s Northern Territory, forming a crater 24 kilometers in diameter and 5 kilometers deep. Today, like a bull’s eye, the circular ring of hills that defines Gosses Bluff stands as a stark reminder of the event.
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Bolivian Deforestation
Image taken 8/1/2000
Once a vast carpet of healthy vegetation and virgin forest, the Amazon rain forest is changing rapidly. This image of Bolivia shows dramatic deforestation in the Amazon Basin. Loggers have cut long paths into the forest, while ranchers have cleared large blocks for their herds. Fanning out from these clear-cut areas are settlements built in radial arrangements of fields and farms. Healthy vegetation appears bright red in this image.
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Alluvial Fan, China
Image taken 5/2/2002 by ASTER
A vast alluvial fan blossoms across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun and Altun mountain ranges that form the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert in China’s XinJiang Province.
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Desolation Canyon
Image taken 12/31/2000 by Landsat 7
Utah’s Green River flows south across the Tavaputs Plateau (top) before entering Desolation Canyon (center). The Canyon slices through the Roan and book Cliffs – two long, staircase-like escarpments. Nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon, Desolation Canyon is one of the largest unprotected wilderness areas in the American West.
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Ghadamis River
Image taken 11/6/2000
This scar on an arid landscape is the dry riverbed of the Ghadamis River in the Tinrhert Hamada Mountains near Ghadamis, Libya.
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Whirlpool in the Air
Image taken 5/14/2001
This image shows a spinning formation of ice, clouds, and low-lying fog off the eastern coast of Greenland.
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