STS098-E-5323
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Cayo Largo, Cuba: Off the southwest coast of Cuba, Cayo Largo
is one of a chain of 672 cays of the Archipelago de los Canarreos.
It is a barrier island with a beach of very fine white sand. The
lighter colored water on the bottom half of the picture is the
shallow Golfo de Cazones and the darker water on the top half of the
picture is the Caribbean Sea, with north toward the bottom of the
photo. Between some of the smaller cays and the Caribbean is a
shallow area bordered by a barrier reef (right side of the photo).
Wetland areas on the gulf side of the islands are important habitats
for waterbirds and aquatic life. The exceptional beach and coral
reef diving opportunities make this an active tourist destination
that is likely to experience further development.
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STS098-E-5325
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Cayo Romano, Cuba: Off the northern coast of Cuba and not far
from the Bahamas, Cayo Romano is the largest of the island chain
known as the Sabana-Camagüey Archipelago (or more romantically as the
Jardines del Rey, Gardens of the King). Some of the efforts to
increase its desirability as a tourist destination are visible in
this photograph, including a causeway to the mainland in the upper
right corner, and a causeway connecting it to Cayo Coco. The
airstrip built on Cayo Coco in 1995 is visible as the long
rectangular white patch at the bottom right. The land of the island
is low-lying with much of it covered by mangroves and wetlands, and
is home to an estimated 30,000 flamingoes. A barrier reef can be
seen on the left side of the photo. There are plans for a number of
new hotels on both Cayo Coco and Cayo Romano, expanding the number of
hotel rooms from about around a thousand to over 22,000.
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STS098-715B-84
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Estevan Coalfield and Power Plants, Saskatchewan: Snow and ice
serve to accent human activities in this photograph taken by the
Space Shuttle mission STS-98 crewmembers on February 17, 2001 (STS098-715B-84).
The Souris River stretches across the photograph from left to right,
with the upstream Rafferty
Dam Reservoir frozen over on the far left. Two power
plants, the Boundary Dam Power Station and the Shand Power
Station, can be identified by the smoke plumes and shadows of those
plumes. The river is frozen over upstream of the Boundary Dam Power
Station, but thermal loading from the plants has warmed the water in
the Boundary Dam Reservoir so that it remains nearly ice free.
Downstream of the reservoirs, thermal loading is sufficient to
maintain open flow in the Souris River. The Estevan
Coalfield is a formation of about 1500 square km that accounts
for most of Saskatchewan’s coal production. The coal is mined from a
trench at the surface, processed, and then used to fire the two power
plants. These plants provide almost half of Saskatchewan’s
electricity. Areas of active surface mining and processing appear
black in the photograph; roads used for transporting the coal are
also dusted black. Around the areas of the mines, a rough texture
reveals other spoil piles and areas where underground mining used to
take place. The city of Estevan
(population about 12,000) is the medium-gray gridded area in the
upper left of the photo.
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STS098-333-28
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Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, Nevada: The western end of Lake Mead
can be seen at the bottom center of the image. The small stream-like
Las Vegas Wash is visible along the right edge of the image.
Covering a good portion of the upper right quadrant of the image is
Henderson, with a population of 184,500 and one of the fastest
growing cities in the United States. Extending to the left of Lake
Mead in the lower left quadrant of the image is the Colorado River.
The highly reflective white-colored dot just to the left of the lake
on the Colorado River is Hoover Dam, the highest concrete dam (726
feet, 221 meters) in the western hemisphere and the 18th highest dam
in the world. Hoover Dam is part of a system that provides water to
over 18 million people in the southwestern United States. Near the
center of the image is the small community of Boulder City with a
population of 13,000.
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