STS112-E-6013
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Mining and Agriculture in Kazakhstan: Agricultural activities
and mining occur side-by-side in the Republic of Kazakhstan. This
scene is located in the Turgayskaya Oblast of central Kazakhstan,
near the provincial capital of Arkalyk, where Russian spacecraft
landings occur. The large, mostly square fields are probably spring
wheat, one of the cereal grains that grows well in the cold, dry
climate. The colorful, irregular patterns on the left side of the
image appear to be surface-mining operations where water has
accumulated to form small lakes. Bauxite and asbestos are the
principal minerals extracted in this region.
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STS112-E-6329
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Constanta, Romania: The modern city of Constanta, with a
population of more than 348,000, is located on the western coast of
the Black Sea and is the principal seaport for Romania. It is the
site of the ancient Greek city of Tomis, colonized in the 6th century
B.C. In the 1st century A.D. Tomis became a flourishing provincial
capital of the Roman Empire when it acquired its current name from
the emperor Constantine I. Today, Constanta is a thriving
port-of-entry for Romania, offering both tourist attractions and an
expanding, modern port facility that is among the largest on the
Black Sea. The crew of STS-112 acquired this detailed digital image
of the city on October 17, 2002, using a 400-mm lens. The older part
of the city is situated near the large coastal lagoon to the north,
while to the south the port facilities are connected to the Danube
River’s import shipping commerce via the 64-km Danube – Black Sea
Canal. Agricultural fields of mostly wheat and barley extend almost
to the shorelines.
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STS112-E-6002
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Space Shuttle view after Kolka Glacier Collapse: While docked
to the Space Station the international crew of Space Shuttle Mission
STS-112 paused as the spacecraft sped over the Caucasus Range. They
had planned before launch that a crewmember would look out the
windows of the spacecraft for remnants of the disastrous collapse of
Kolka Glacier. The close collaboration between the USA and Russia on
all aspects of Space Station construction, and the presence on the
Shuttle crew of Russian mission specialist Fyodor Yurchikhin, made
the crew particularly interested in photographing the area to help
scientists on the ground in their studies of the collapse. There
is a dramatic difference between this digital photograph taken by the
Shuttle crew and one
taken just a week before the collapse by the International Space
Station crew. The debris from Kolka glacier obscures and covers the
terminus of Maili glacier. The far northern path of the Genaldon
River is filled with debris, compared to the clear river course that
could be seen before. The disaster claimed an estimated 140 lives
when it sent 20 million tons of ice, rock and mud down Karmadon Gorge
on September 20, 2002. The debris field stretches over 11 miles long
(see
ASTER images) of the full extent of the debris field) and 820
feet wide, and according to the New York Times, will take as long as
10 years to thaw.
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STS112-E-5628
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Sangeang Api, Indonesia: In 1985, the small Indonesian island
of Sangeang Api (for scale, the island is 13 km wide) off the
northeast coast of Sumbawa began to erupt. Within a month, the 1250
inhabitants had evacuated to Sumbawa. The eruption lasted until 1988.
The lava and pyroclastic flows—the wide channel running west from the
summit—are still easily traced on this image taken last week by Space
Shuttle astronauts (STS-112) . Today, the island's summit crater
(1949 m) produces intermittent steam clouds. Compare this
photograph to an earlier Space
Shuttle photograph taken in November 1985.
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STS112-702-2
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Sinai peninsula: Egypt's triangular Sinai Peninsula lies in
the center of the view, with the dark greens of the Nile delta lower
right. In this SSW-looking view the Red Sea, with its characteristic
parallel coastlines, stretches toward the top. At the bottom of the
view the Suez Canal appears as an irregular line joining the Red Sea
to the Mediterranean Sea (lower left). The Dead Sea in central
Israel, with its light blue salt ponds at the south end, appears on
the left margin.
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STS112-704-142
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Volcanoes of the Northwest: Green colors of the forests of the
Cascade Mts dominate the view. Browner colors top right are the
semiarid plains of the Columbia Basin, in the rainshadow of the
Cascades (north is towards the top left corner). The highest peaks in
this part of the Cascades are four volcanoes. The amount of snow is
a good indication of their altitude. The highest is Mt Rainier
(14,710 feet) with the greatest amount of white snow (top left).
Seattle lies immediately downslope (top left margin). Mt Adams
(12,276) lies due south in the middle of the view. Mt Hood (11,235
feet) in the lower right corner, lies south of the great gorge of the
Columbia River (which crosses the lower right and then the lower left
corners of the view). The river flows broadly west (left) to the
Pacific Ocean (out of the picture left). Mt St Helens (8364
feet), the snowfree brown patch lower left, was too low to retain
snow after the recent fall. Even from the altitude of the Space
Shuttle, the intact south half of the cone can be discerned: the
famous blast of 1980 not only destroyed the north side of the cone
but blew down the green forest for many square miles on the north
side (brown signature).
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STS112-705-11
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Bahamas: The light-blue region in the middle of the view is
the shallow flat platform (covered by less than 100 feet of water)
known as the Great Bahama Bank. Andros Island, the biggest island in
the Bahamas chain, is the highest part of this platform and appears
partly under cloud in the center of the view. The edges of the
platform are steep, dropping off thousands of feet into the ocean
depths, the deepest water indicated by deep blues. The 50-mile-wide
Strait of Florida is the deep water along the left and lower sides of
the view. The Key Largo part of the Florida Peninsula appears in the
extreme lower left.
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STS112-707-35
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Western USA beneath vertical stabilizer: The Colorado River
snakes across this view from top left (near the Space Shuttle
stabiliser), to the lower right, where the Grand canyon gorge can be
detetced. The wider blue parts of the Colorado in the center of the
view are Lake Powell, an artificial lake more than 120 miles long.
The dark green areas are wooded slopes generally above ~6000 feet-the
Kaibab Plateau (lower left) and the range with Abajo Peak (11,360
feet, Utah-Colorado border region) cross the top of the view. The red
areas are lower and semiarid, dominated by desert scrub vegetation.
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STS112-708-2
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Rocky Mts Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho: The Front Range
of the Rockies is the dark range crossing the bottom of the view,
with Denver and neighboring cities (grays) situated in the gentle
embayment of the mountains (bottom center of the view). Great Salt
Lake in Utah appears as two colors of blue top left, with the
snow-covered Uinta Mts just below, in this NW-looking view. Most of
the view encompasses the brown plains of western Wyoming (center) and
the cluster of mountains around Yellowstone (top center, top right,
with snow). Beyond the brown Snake River Plain, black rocks of the
Sawtooth Mts and neighboring ranges of central Idaho appear top
center.
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