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Local topography visible in this astronaut photograph is a result of these tectonic forces and weathering, and the topography has exerted a strong influence on the shape of the city. The tightly clustered white rooftops of the central business district are visible to the south of the Westpac Stadium between vegetated (green) northeast-southwest trending ridges. Lower density development (gray gridded areas with scattered white rooftops) has spread eastwards along the Miramar Peninsula.
Five major faults run through the Wellington metropolitan area; the largest magnitude earthquake recorded in New Zealand (about 8.2 magnitude) occurred in 1855 on one of these faults. Recognizing the potential seismic hazard, the city has adopted building codes that maximize structural resistance to earthquake damage.
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Dust plumes are known to start from relatively small, dust-prone areas. Here the plumes rise from the Real del Castillo agricultural valley, which is surrounded by rocky hills in northern Baja California. The valley is 25 miles long, and part of Mexico’s wine-producing region. Specifically, the dust is rising from spreads of loose sediment known as alluvial fans. Small streams from the local hills carry sediment with every rainstorm and deposit it at the foot of small canyons on the east side of the valley. It is notable that the vegetated farmland itself—the small rectangular pattern on the valley floor—protects the soil from the wind and is not producing dust plumes.
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A medial moraine is visible in the center of the glacier, extending along its length (top image, center left). Moraines—accumulations of soil and rock debris—form along the edges of a glacier as it flows downhill across the landscape (much like a snowplow builds ridges of snow along the roadside). Glaciers flowing downslope through adjacent valleys merge when they encounter each other, and debris entrained along their sides becomes concentrated in the central portion of the new combined ice mass, much as small streams join to form a river.
Crevasse fields are also visible in the image. The crevasses—small, but potentially quite deep fissures—form as a result of stress between slower- and faster-moving ice within the glacier. Crevasse fields on Tyndall Glacier are most evident near rock promontories extending into the glacier; these rock outcrops cause the ice to slow as it flows around the obstruction.
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The São Simão Reservoir sits at the border between the states of Goiás and Minas Gerais (near the geographic coordinates of 18.7 south, 50.4 west). Though the town of São Simão was founded around 1935, major growth occurred when the hydroelectric power plant and dam were built in 1975, forming the reservoir. The reservoir is part of a major navigation route that allows transport of goods between central Brazil, the Prata River, and the South Atlantic. With 600,000 square kilometers of surface area, the reservoir is also a tourist destination for fishing, swimming, and boating.
In addition to hydroelectric power production, the economy of the region is based in agribusiness. The image highlights agricultural fields of various kinds and in different stages of cultivation. The major commodities include corn, soybeans, sesame seeds, sugarcane, beans, manioc, coffee, and meat.
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The Beirut area has a long human history. It has been an urban center for the past 5,000 years. Throughout much of that time, the region has been the focus of both military and economic conflicts among neighboring city-states. Conflict between Lebanon and Israel in 2006 resulted in environmental damage from an oil spill that affected local beaches. Beach contamination from the oil spill is not visible in this astronaut photograph taken in 2007. Other distinctive features visible in this astronaut photograph include the Rafic Hariri Airport at image lower right, the city sports arena at image center, and several areas of green and open space, including a large golf course at image center. Also visible in the image are several plumes of sediment along the coastline; the most striking plumes are near the airport. The general lack of vegetation in the airport may allow more soil transport by surface water runoff or wind.
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Sand grains that make up the dunes are small enough to be moved along by the wind (a process known as saltation), although much of the dune field is now anchored by vegetation. Winds blow predominately to the east, so that sand in the San Luis Valley (part of which appears at image lower left) is driven towards and piled against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The sand of the dunes is mostly derived from ancient exposed lakebed sediments—now the floor of the San Luis Valley—that formed by erosion of rocks in the Sangre de Cristo and San Juan Mountains (located to the west). The action of streams and occasional storms today returns some of the impounded sand back to the valley, where the prevailing winds begin the sand’s migration to the dune field anew.
The dune field has settled in a low spot along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains; the location of snow cover shows the relative altitudes of the mountains. Areas to the north of the dune field (Cleveland Peak and northward), and to the south around Blanca Peak, are higher than the ridgeline next to the dune field, where almost no snow is visible. Since winds are preferentially channeled over the lower parts of any range (hundreds of meters lower here than ridgelines to north and south), sand grains are carried up to, but not over, the low point of the range.
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An extensive petroleum refinery complex forms the southern coastal boundary of the Port of Suez. At the time this astronaut photograph was acquired, a smoke plume extended southwards into the Gulf of Suez—probably from a facility burning off gaseous byproducts of petroleum processing. Greenish blue regions offshore in the Gulf are most likely sediments stirred up by passage of ships. Similarly colored regions along the coastline are bottom sediments visible through the clear, shallow water.
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The rapid transition between ecosystems based on elevation, along with land use history and exposure to frequent natural disturbances such as hurricanes, makes the Luquillo Mountains an ideal location for ecological study. The Luquillo Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site is contained within the Luquillo National Forest, covering much of the mountains to the southwest of the city of Luquillo (lower left). Past human activities, including logging, agriculture, charcoal production, and coffee plantations, have determined much of the current ecosystem structure. Results of research at Luquillo Forest indicate that the island’s forest ecosystems recover more rapidly from natural disturbances (like hurricanes) than they do from human disturbance.
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This astronaut photograph captures variations in urban land cover around Perth. The downtown center of the city (image left) is characterized by large buildings (such as skyscrapers) with white, reflective rooftops. Suburbs to the south (across the Swan River) are characterized by higher density of small buildings with predominantly reddish-purple roofs. Several areas of green vegetation are visible in the image. Parks and golf courses comprised mainly of grass present an even, green coloration, while the dense tree canopy of Kings Park appears dark green. Variations in the color of the Swan and Canning Rivers is due to sunglint, or light reflected off the water surface directly back to the observer (in this case, an astronaut about the International Space Station) like a mirror.
