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This westward expansion continued beyond the coastline in the 1970s, when a portion of the sea was cordoned off and drained to create the facilities visible in this astronaut photograph. Large petroleum storage tank fields and docks for supertankers occupy the center of the image. In 2004, more than 350 million tons of cargo passed through the port.
The image illustrates the close proximity of the Europoort to the surrounding cities of Hoek van Holland, Oostvoorne, Brielle. Between Oostvoorne and Brielle, a mixture of fertile and fallow agricultural fields create a green and tan checkboard. The presence of the port and its seawalls interrupts southward-flowing coastal currents, leading to accumulation of sediment to the south (lower left of image). Numerous ship wakes are visible within the port complex itself and in the North Sea, in the upper part of the image.
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The small city of Sept-îles (~30,000 people) appears in the center of the view; Pointe Noir is opposite the city in the lower left corner. The industrial park is at top left, and the angled runways of the airport appear east of the city. Five of the bay’s seven islands appear at the bottom of the view. Wind and swells produce patterns on the water. Ships can be seen in the bay, and a ship wake appears between the two left islands at the bottom of the view.
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Rifting—pulling apart—usually heralds the breakup of continental landmasses, such as the separation of South America and Africa to form the southern Atlantic Ocean during the Mesozoic Era. While separation of the continental crust is no longer occurring in the Rio Grande Rift, it is still considered active as evidenced by frequent low-intensity earthquakes and hot springs to the north of Las Cruces.
The human history of Las Cruces is no less interesting than its geologic setting. Evidence of human habitation of the area extends back more than 10,000 years. The 16th through 19th centuries saw numerous clashes between native peoples (Pueblo and Apache), Spanish settlers, and later Mexican revolutionaries. One such clash resulted in the original name of the city, La Placita de Las Cruces (Place of the Crosses), where survivors of the encounter erected crosses in honor of their fallen comrades. The location of the crosses became the frontier town site in 1849.
The modern city of Las Cruces— the seat of Dońa Ana County and home to New Mexico State University— is undergoing rapid urban expansion due to influx of new residents attracted to the climate and landscape. The current urban area (gray to white region at image center) contrasts sharply with agricultural lands (dark green and grey brown) located along the Rio Grande River and the surrounding desert valley floor to the northeast and southwest (brown, blue gray, and tan areas).
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This astronaut photograph depicts the Searles Lake playa (characterized by white surface mineral deposits) bounded by the Argus and Slate Mountains. The width of the playa is approximately 10 kilometers. The center of the image is dominated by mining operations that extract sodium- and potassium-rich minerals (primarily borax and salt) for industrial use. Minerals are primarily found in naturally occurring, subsurface brines, which are pumped to the surface and evaporated to crystallize the minerals.
A large evaporation pond (black) is visible in the center of the image. Further processing concentrates the minerals and removes excess water.
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Since the 1960s, sea levels have dropped drastically as rivers that maintained the level of the Aral Sea were diverted—completely in later years—for agricultural purposes, especially for growing cotton. A thriving fishing industry in the world’s then fourth-largest lake was largely eliminated as the area of the sea shrank by more than 60 percent. Salts and pesticides that accumulated from agricultural runoff were subsequently exposed on the dry parts of the sea floor. Winds now transport these pollutants into surrounding fields and towns. Although the Kazakhstan government made a concerted effort to increase river inflow into the sea starting in 2003, it will take years before sea levels begin to rise.
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In addition to the blueness inherent in all images taken at great distance (the atmosphere scatters blue light more than it does other colors), this image also shows unusually dense atmospheric haze at lower altitudes: all the valleys in the foreground appear murky. The explanation is dramatically portrayed in a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image taken on the same day, Sunday, August 14, from the Terra satellite. On that day, an enormous smoke pall hung over central Alaska; all the major mountain ranges protruded above the smoke layer, which was held close to the surface by high atmospheric pressure.
The smoke came from more than 100 forest fires burning in the summer heat of Alaska. The MODIS image shows that the smoke on August 14 was far thicker to the north of the Alaska Range where Denali is. The Space Station image shows this denser smoke settled between the Alaska Range and the distant horizon of the Kuskokwim Mountains, 80 miles to the north.
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In addition to the moraines, the melting ice sheet produced extensive plains of outwash composed of mixed sediments and ice that bordered the bay to the northwest and west. Melting ice blocks in the outwash deposits formed distinctive circular features called kettle lakes (or holes). Numerous examples of kettle lakes are visible to the northwest of the Cape Cod Canal. Finally, waters released from the melting ice sheet raised sea level by 60-120 meters (198-396 feet) and drowned preexisting outwash channels (visible as linear embayments along the western shoreline). Buzzards Bay attained its broad current configuration approximately 15,000 years ago; the current sea level was present approximately 3,500 years ago.
The modern Buzzards Bay is approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) long by 12 kilometers (8 miles) wide and is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. The Cape Cod Canal allows for passage between Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay to the northeast (not visible); the wakes of numerous pleasure craft appear along the length of the Canal. The combination of shallow depth, tidal action and surface waves promotes mixing of the estuarine waters leading to a productive aquatic ecosystem. The dynamic nature of the Bay’s waters are visible in this astronaut photograph as surface wave reflectance patterns around Stoney Point Dike and in the kettle lakes. Like many estuaries, however, increasing development and land-use change by the surrounding communities are accompanied by nutrient runoff leading to eutrophication (an increase in nutrient levels leading to oxygen depletion) in the smaller embayments. Decreases in eelgrass, scallops, and herring have also been noted, but direct cause-and-effect relationships are not clear. Coordinated management efforts in Buzzards Bay have helped to decrease shellfish closures, conserve habitat for sea birds, and preserve open space.
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This astronaut photograph is centered on Yellowstone Lake, a popular camping and fishing location within the National Park. The lake basin includes part of the youngest caldera and has an area of 352 square kilometers (136 square miles). Due to the rise and fall of resurgent domes (the locations of volcanic vents) located nearby, the lake basin is now tilted southwards, causing beaches to grow along the northern shore and flooding to occur in the southern arms of the lake. The West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake was formed by an eruption that occurred approximately 150,000 years ago. The resulting relatively small caldera was subsequently filled with water and joined with the larger lake to the east. Numerous geothermal features such as geysers and hot springs are located in the West Thumb area— this is thought to be due to a relatively shallow, local magma source.
A more recent change to Yellowstone’s geography is the area covered by large fire scars— cleared areas burned during the vast 1988 forest fires. The scars are still highly visible 17 years later because the light-colored cleared regions contrast with the surrounding forest.
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This astronaut photograph shows the central downtown area of the city, as well as the Akademgorodok district around the State University (left of image along the southern bank of the Angara River). The oblique (non-vertical) perspective of this photograph imparts a three dimension perspective to the scene, with shadows accentuating the blockiness of Soviet-era building projects to the east of the downtown area. The Irkutsk Dam (image center), built for hydroelectric power, dramatically widened the river and drowned several stream outlet channels along the north and south banks. The Angara River is the only outlet from Lake Baikal to the southeast, and impoundment of water behind the dam has raised the Lake Baikal by 6 meters (20 feet).
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Katrina isn’t the first hurricane to strike Biloxi during its 280-year history. Several hurricanes have battered the town, but the most powerful prior to Katrina was Hurricane Camille in 1969. The astronaut photograph (top) illustrates damage and flooding in the Biloxi area caused by Hurricane Katrina. A Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus image (bottom), acquired in 2000, provides a base for comparison. Damage to the 2.5 kilometer (1.6 mile) long US-90 bridge is evident in the astronaut photograph—the bridge is almost completely destroyed with only two sections of roadbed still intact. Flooded areas are indicated by dark greenish-brown coloration along river courses to the northeast and northwest of downtown. Most of the flood water remains within the rivers’ floodplains, which are defined by reddish-brown sediment in the Landsat image.
