Earth from Space - Image Description

STS073-726-075 Owens River Valley and Central Mojave Desert, California U.S.A. October 1995
This low-oblique, north-looking photograph features the Owens River Valley, the north-central Mojave Desert, Mono Lake, and Walker Lake (Nevada). The fault valley is bordered on the west by the massive Sierra Nevada Mountains and on the east by a series of lower mountain ranges (part of the basin range region). The generally north-south-trending Kern River fault traverses the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Visible are several dry lakes (Owens Lake, the large, white feature in the upper center of the photograph; Searles Lake to the south; Rodgers Dry Lake to the southwest; and Harper Lake to the southeast), isolated low mountains, flat plains, and valleys. The arc of the intermittently flowing Mojave River is apparent near the bottom of the photograph.

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