ISS016-E-5526 Click the photo number to access all resolutions available and the database record.
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.
