STS108-720-32
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Spanish Peaks, Sangre de Cristo Range, Colorado:The Spanish
Peaks, on the eastern flank of the Sangre de Cristo range, abruptly
rise 7,000 feet above the western Great Plains. Settlers, treasure
hunters, trappers, gold and silver miners have long sighted on these
prominent landmarks along the Taos branch of the Santa Fe trail. Well
before the westward migration, the mountains figured in the legends
and history of the Ute, Apache, Comanche, and earlier tribes. "Las
Cumbres Españolas" are also mentioned in chronicles of exploration by
Spaniards including Ulibarri in 1706 and later by de Anza, who
eventually founded San Francisco (California). This exceptional
view (STS108-720-32), captured by the crew of Space Shuttle mission
STS108, portrays the Spanish Peaks in the context of the southern
Rocky Mountains. Uplift of the Sangre de Cristo began about 75
million years ago and produced the long north-trending ridges of
faulted and folded rock to the west of the paired peaks. After uplift
had ceased (~26 to 22 million years ago), the large masses of igneous
rock (granite, granodiorite, syenodiorite) that form the Peaks were
emplaced (Penn, 1995-2001). East and West Spanish Peaks are "stocks"
bodies of molten rock that intruded sedimentary layers, cooled and
solidified, and were later exposed by erosion. East Peak (E), at
12,708 ft is almost circular and is about 5 1/2 miles long by 3 miles
wide, while West Peak (W), at 13,623 ft is roughly 2 3/4 miles long
by 1 3/4 miles wide. Great dikes-long stone walls-radiate outward
from the mountains like spokes of a wheel, a prominent one forms a
broad arc northeast of East Spanish Peak. As the molten rock rose, it
forced its way into vertical cracks and joints in the sedimentary
strata; the less resistant material was then eroded away, leaving
walls of hard rock from 1 foot to 100 feet wide, up to 100 feet high,
and as long as 14 miles. Dikes trending almost east-west are also
common in the region.
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STS108-722-60
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Northern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile: The Northern Patagonian
Ice Field (NPIF), centered near 47°S, 73.5°W, is the smaller of two
remnant ice masses crowning the Andes Mountains of lower South
America. The NPIF is a vestige of an extensive ice sheet that covered
much of Patagonia just over a million years ago. Today, with its
glaciers largely in retreat and only an area of 4,200 sq km, it is
still the largest continuous mass of ice outside of the polar
regions. Survival is based on its elevation (1, 100 to 1,500 m),
favorable terrain, and a cool, moist, marine climate. The ice field
has 28 exit glaciers, the largest two—San Quintin and San
Rafael—nearly reach sea level to the west at the Pacific Ocean.
Smaller exit glaciers, like San Valentin and Nef, feed numerous
rivers and glacially carved lakes to the east. This photo taken by
the crew of STS-108 in December, 2001, offers a remarkably clear view
of the northern two-thirds of this bright, icy feature, its glaciers,
and its northern and eastern flanks. Arms of Lake General Carrera are
visible on the right of the image. Such photos offer unsurpassed
visual context information about the state of this remote locale and
details of its features and processes.
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STS108-717-85
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Shrimp Farms and Mangroves, Gulf of Fonseca: For decades,
astronauts on space missions have documented land use changes around
the world. In this pair of images, astronauts track the development
of shrimp farming along the Honduran coastline of the Gulf of Fonseca
between 1989 and 2001. Mariculture, primarily shrimp farming, has
become a leading agricultural effort in Honduras. The regional
transformation of large tracts of coastal swamps into shrimp farms
blossomed throughout the 1990s. The top image was taken with color
infrared film in 1989. Dense vegetation, like the coastal mangrove
swamps and the forested slopes of Volcán Cosigüina show up as dark
red. The bottom image, taken with color visible film by the crew of
the most recent Space Shuttle mission in December 2001 shows that
hundreds of square kilometers of coastal swamp, primarily in
Honduras, have been converted to shrimp ponds. These appear as the
light-colored, rectilinear land use pattern. The Honduras shrimp
farms were hit hard by flooding after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and a
devastating virus in 1999-2000. It is not known how many of the ponds
in this view are still functional. A vigorous debate continues about
the sustainability of the shrimp farms and the impacts to the
environment and coastal ecosystem due to mangrove clearing and
mariculture waste production. Apart from the shrimp farms, the
other prominent feature on these images is the impressive volcano
Cosigüina, which erupted explosively in 1859 (the largest recorded
eruption in the Western Hemisphere).
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STS108-711-25
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Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco: The Anti-Atlas Mountains of
northern Africa and the nearby Atlas mountains were created by the
prolonged collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates,
beginning about 80 million years ago. Massive sandstone and limestone
layers have been crumpled and uplifted more than 4,000 meters in the
High Atlas and to lower elevations in the Anti-Atlas. Between more
continuous major fold structures, such as the Jbel Ouarkziz in the
southwestern Anti-Atlas, tighter secondary folds (arrow) have
developed. Earlier, the supercontinent of Pangea rifted apart to
form precursors to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean
(Beauchamp and others, 1996). In those seas sands, clays, limey
sediments, and evaporite layers (gypsum, rock salt) were deposited.
Later, during the mountain-building plate collision, the gypsum
layers flowed under the pressure and provided a slippery surface on
which overlying rigid rocks could glide ( Burkhard, 2001). The broad,
open style of folds seen in this view is common where evaporites are
involved in the deformation. Other examples can be found in the
Southern Zagros of Iran and the Sierra Madre Oriental of Mexico.
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STS108-301-13
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ISS and the Caribbean Sea: This "fisheye" view shows the ISS
immediately below the island of Cuba which stretches across the
middle of the view from left to right, partly obscured under light
cloud. The light blue area near the ISS is shallow sea bottom along
the southwest coast of Cuba (between the island known as Isla de la
Juventud and the main island of Cuba). Other light blue patches
along the top of the view are the shallow seas around the Bahama
islands. The Florida peninsula is obscured under cloud in the top
left corner.
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STS108-701-8
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Tibesti Mts: Vertical stabilizer over Emi Koussi Volcano,
Tibesti Mts., Chad, Saharan Africa. Emi Koussi is one of the
prominent volcanoes within the Tibesti massif of north- central
Africa. The dark, shield-shaped volcanic edifice has developed over a
mantle hot spot that rises beneath this region of the African
continent. STS108-301-013 ISS and the Caribbean Sea.
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STS108-701-21
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Galapagos Islands: Lava flows appear as dark stringy patches
leading down the flanks of volcanoes which comprise the large,
seahorse-shaped island of Isabela. Other flows appear on the flanks
of Fernandina Island, the smaller round island to the left, which is
made up of a single large volcanic cone. The Galapagos Islands lie
above a hot spot underneath the oceanic plate that has been active at
least for tens of millions of years.
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STS108-703-38
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Lago Argentino, Argentina: This beautiful glacier-fed lake is
located in Southern Argentina and is part of the Chilean/Argentine
national park, Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. The lake level is
approximately 700 feet and two large, Southern Patagonian Ice Field
glaciers reach the lake in its northern and southern arms. On the
left the Perrito Moreno Glacier almost blocks the southern arm while
the Upsala Glacier is calving small pieces of ice into the northern
arm from the right. Note the changes in water color. It is
summertime in this scene and melt water from the glaciers tints the
water with a fine powdery blend of rock material known as glacial
flour.
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STS108-718-41
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Sinai Peninsula and the Red Sea: The triangular Sinai Penisula
of Egypt appears behind the Canada Arm in the foreground (lower
right), with the Gulf of Suez to its west (far right) and the Gulf of
Aqaba (center bottom). These gulfs join to become the Red Sea which
stretches away south to the horizon down the left side of this
south-looking view. Saudi Arabia lies to the left and Egypt and Sudan
to the right. The Red Sea is widening as Saudi Arabia pulls
northeast (left). The margins of the sea are appropriately parallel.
The Red Sea is one of the youngest seas on the planet.
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STS108-721-81
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Western Sahara: Atlantic coast. Red lines are sand dunes
aligned parallel to the dominant offshore, northeasterly winds.
Large ray-brwon areas left are vast coastal salt flats known as
sebkhas. Visible salt efflorescences are the small lightest gray
patches. Offshore currents in sunglint with internal waves
(straighter lines) and eddies (spirals). North is to the left.
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