Earth from Space - Image Description

STS056-077-037 Tularosa Valley, New Mexico, U.S.A. April 1993
A large section of the Tularosa Valley, sandwiched between the north-south-trending San Andres Mountains to the west and the heavily forested Sacramento and Sierra Blanca Mountains to the east, is featured in this northwest-looking, low-oblique photograph of south-central New Mexico. Visible in the valley are White Sands National Monument, the highly reflective gypsum desert; a black, ribbonlike youthful lava flow, which originated from a small volcanic center (Little Black Peak) at the north end of the flow that erupted fewer than 1000 years ago; and snowcapped Sierra Blanca Peak [12 003 feet (3659 meters)]. Visible is a drainage basin created by the Hondo River as it erodes the eastern slopes of the Sacramento Mountains and the southern slopes of the east-west-oriented Capitan Mountains (lower right edge of the photograph). A small section of the Rio Grande is apparent (upper left corner), and an older lava flow is barely discernible to its east.

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