Earth from Space - Image Description

NM21-765-016 Amarillo, Texas, U.S.A Spring 1996
Visible in this photograph is some of the urban infrastructure--airport, highways, street patterns, central business district--of Amarillo, the largest city in the Texas panhandle. The only deviation from the flat and featureless Texas high plains is the southeast-flowing Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River, which has created picturesque Palo Duro Canyon. The majority of fluvial erosion occurred during a much wetter geological time; however, erosion still results from downpours in this semiarid climate. Most of the countryside surrounding Amarillo, except for the north and northwest, evidences widespread agriculture.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.