STS096-705-9
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Cape Sinop, Black Sea Coast of Turkey: Cape Sinop is the
prominent cape. Spring meltwater entering the Black Sea during the
STS-96 mission probably explains the rich sediment load (light blue)
visible offshore. Sediment from the Kizil Irmak River (just outside
the view to the east) makes an eddy in the coastal current visible.
The ancient and modern city of Sinope lies at the narrow point of the
prominent peninsula. Tourist hotels abound along the scenic north
coast of Turkey. The cynic phoilosopher Diogenes was born in Sinope
about 320 BC.
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STS096-705-31
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Strait of Dover: Dover in southeast England lies on the right
under thicker cloud. Calais, France, a larger city, is more visible
on the left. Individual seacraft and their wakes (linear white
flecks) occupy the line between the cities. The line of wakes also
marks the location of the undersea Channel Tunnel, known as the
"Chunnel." The treacherous Goodwin Sands appear as lighter blue
signatures just north of Dover.
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STS096-705-66
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Low Sun Angle on a Line of Thunderstorms: The "anvil" cloud of
a large storm hundreds of miles off track (far right) is apparent in
this very oblique, low- sun view. Three dimensional views such as
this are difficult to acquire from low earth orbit.
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STS096-714-53
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Lakes of the Italian Alps: The slopes of the Alps are forested
and appear green, whereas the valley floor appears generally gray due
to its dense urban landscapes (lower left). The valley and all the
lakes in the view have been carved by a succession of glacier
advances during the ice ages of the past 2 million years. The largest
lake (center) is Lake Maggiore, ringed by the snowcapped Alps in
Switzerland (right side and top of the view). Some of the highest
peaks reach almost 3000m (midway down the right side of the view).
The major transalpine St. Gotthard railway, joining Milan and Zurich,
enters the view along the largest valley (Valle Levantina,
right-which becomes Lake Maggiore). The next lake east is smaller
Lake Lugano. "A great stone dam ... built ... to carry the railway"
can be seen crossing L. Lugano. Lake Como appears at the bottom of
the view. The railroad passes through the town of Como at the
downstream end of Lake Como before heading southeast across the
valley floor to Milan (just outside the bottom-left corner of the
view). The large regional Malpensa Airport appears lower left.
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STS096-714-75
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Chalcidice Peninsula, Northern Greece (Macedonia): Chalcidice
peninsula itself has three promontories known as (left to right),
Kassandra, Sithonia and Aktí, which appear prominently from low earth
orbit. The 30-mile long eastern promontory of Aktí (right) is
renowned in Greece as a center of twenty Orthodox Christian
monasteries, classed under the constitution as semiautonomous
communities. The monasteries lie along the coast at the foot of
famous Mt. Athos (also known as the Holy Mountain) which appears as
the devegetated high point near the tip of the promontory. In his
"massive invasion" of Greece in 480 BC, Persian King Xerxes I
excavated a canal at the narrow (1.5 mi. wide) base of the Aktí
"finger" to avoid leading his fleet around the dangerous seas on the
tip of the finger. The now-filled remains of the canal can be seen
in this view.
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STS096-719-39
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Onekotan Island, Kuril chain, Sakhalin Oblast, Russian Far
East: The Kuril island chain is a line of volcanoes connecting
northern Japan (Hokkaido) with the Kamchatkan peninsula, and
separating the Pacific plate from the Eurasian plate. Onekotan (35
mi. long) is one of the northernmost of the Kurils, seen here under a
dusting of snow, with the large southern caldera at the big end of
the island clearly visible. The caldera contains a lake, seen here
largely ice-free, with a new central volcanic dome projecting through
the lake. The small island immediately south is Kharimkotan I.
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STS096-715-14
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Lake Baykal, and Baykal rift, Russia: Lake Baykal, the largest
freshwater lake in the world (30,500 sq km in area; 1741 m deep),
stretches beneath the International Space Station in this westward
view. At the southwest end of the lake, the university city of
Irkutsk occupies the end of a narrow bay on the northern coast.
Academician Ridge extends northeastward into the lake. The lake
fills most of the Baykal rift which, like the Rio Grande rift of
southwestern North America, began opening about 28 million years ago;
some segments are still active. Hot springs rise and enter the lake
along the faults that bound Academician Ridge, and million-year-old
volcanic vents (Tunka, Khamar Daban) have constructed the highlands
at the southwest end of the rift.
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STS096-724-53
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Sinai Peninsula, Dead Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Sea: The
Sinai Peninsula of Egypt is centered in this southwestward view; the
Red Sea, Gulf of Suez, Suez Canal, and Nile River delta lie beyond.
Bahrat Hims, Syria, is the pale blue lake near the center on one end.
The Gulf of Aqaba, Dead Sea, and the Sea of Galilee define the
eastern margin of the Peninsula. The city of Haifa is on the
peninsula directly west of the Sea of Galilee; Beirut, Lebanon
occupies the next prominent peninsula to the north. The Dead Sea
fault zone marks the boundary between the African and Arabian
tectonic plates; Sinai Peninsula is the northeastern tip of the
African plate, which is being pulled apart by the Red Sea rift. This
is one of the best photos to date of the region where the Dead Sea
fault zone splays to the northeast in Syria. Those northeasterly
faults and the East Anatolian fault zone define the margin between
the Arabian and Eurasian plates.
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STS096-723-U
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Southern Tip of Sinai Peninsula, Egypt: Madiq Gubal, the
strait between the Egyptian mainland and Ras Muhammad on the southern
tip of the Sinai Peninsula, is just above center of this
southwestward view. The islands of Tiran and Sinafir are at left
center. The islands and fringing coral reefs mark the edges of fault
blocks, which have the same orientations as the faults onshore - for
example, the straight, sharp contact between the darker bedrock of
the Sinai Peninsula and the paler coastal sands. Gebel Musa or
Mt. Sinai (2285 m), with the monastery of St. Catherine on the
northern flank, is within the dark oblong area in the midst of the
bedrock shield. Tan and rust-colored sedimentary rocks contrast with
the brown Precambrian igneous basement rocks; lighter oval bodies
within the shield are granite masses.
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STS096-701-25
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Lake Ontario: Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes,
as it appeared to the STS-96 crew in low light and partial sunglint.
Lake Ontario discharges into the Saint Lawrence river which flows
northeast towards the Atlantic. Lake Champlain also shows partial
sunglint east-northeast of Lake Ontario. The thin white lines in the
photograph are contrails from some of the heavy air traffic in this
eastern corridor.
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