Earth as Art 2010

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:03:16

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USGS and NASA

Algerian Abstract

The "Earth as Art" collections, presented by the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA, feature images from Landsat satellites that show off our planet's geographic attributes - and are beautiful in their own right. This image highlights features that look like pale yellow paint streaks. The streaks are actually ridges of windblown sand that make up Erg Iguidi, an area of ever-shifting sand dunes extending from Algeria into Mauritania in northwestern Africa. Continue through the slideshow for more highlights from "Earth as Art 3."

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:06:17

USGS and NASA Anyuyskiy Volcano ss-101111-earth-as-art-02.ss_full.jpg 保存到相册

The prominent crimson streak in the center of this image represents the remains of an extensive lava and mud flow. Its source is the currently dormant Anyuyskiy Volcano in northeastern Russia, seen here as an orange circular shape at the right end of the streak. Remote and largely inaccessible, the region is a rugged collection of towering volcanic peaks, steep valleys and wild, snow-fed rivers and streams.

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:11:07

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USGS and NASA

Belcher Islands

Like sweeping brushstrokes of pink and green, the Belcher Islands meander across the deep blue of Canada’s Hudson Bay. The islands’ only inhabitants live in the small town of Sanikiluaq, near the upper end of the middle island. Despite the green hues in this color-coded image, these rocky islands are too cold to sustain more than a smattering of low-growing vegetation.

See more images from the USGS

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:14:18

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USGS and NASA

Byrd Glacier

Truly a river of ice, Antarctica’s relatively fast-moving Byrd Glacier courses through the Transantarctic Mountains at a rate of half a mile (0.8 kilometers) per year. More than 180 kilometers (112 miles) long, the glacier flows down from the polar plateau (left) to the Ross Ice Shelf (right). Long, sweeping flow lines are crossed in places by much shorter lines, which are deep cracks in the ice called crevasses. In this color-coded multispectral image, the conspicuous red patches indicate areas of exposed rock.

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:15:21

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USGS and NASA

Caribbean Luxury

The Caicos Islands in the northern Caribbean are a popular tourist attraction, renowned for their beautiful beaches, clear waters, scuba diving and luxury resorts. The islands lie primarily along the northern perimeter of the submerged Caicos Bank, a shallow limestone platform formed of sand, algae, and coral reefs covering 2,370 square miles (6,140 square kilometers). In this color-coded image, the Caicos Bank shows up in turquoise, and vegetation shows up in red.

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:16:18

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USGS and NASA

Empty Quarter

White pinpricks of cloud cast ebony shadows on the Rub’ al Khali, or Empty Quarter, near the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The lines of wind-sculpted sand are characteristic of immense sand deserts, or sand seas, and the Rub’ al Khali is the largest desert of this type in the world. A highland ridge is just high enough to disturb the flow of the lines. In the center of that interruption lies the Saudi town of Sharurah.

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:17:12

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USGS and NASA

Ice Stars

Like distant galaxies amid clouds of interstellar dust, chunks of sea ice drift through graceful swirls of grease ice in the frigid waters of Foxe Basin near Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Sea ice often begins as grease ice, a soupy slick of tiny ice crystals on the ocean’s surface. As the temperature drops, grease ice thickens and coalesces into slabs of more solid ice.

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:18:28

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USGS and NASA

Icelandic Tiger

This stretch of Iceland’s northern coast resembles a tiger’s head, complete with stripes of orange, black and white. The tiger’s mouth is the great Eyjafjordur, a deep fjord that juts into the mainland between steep mountains. The name means “island fjord,” derived from the tiny, tear-shaped Hrísey Island near its mouth. The ice-free port city of Akureyri lies near the fjord’s narrow tip, and is Iceland’s second-largest population center after the capital, Reykjavik.

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:19:14

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USGS and NASA

Island Rebound

During the last ice age, Akimiski Island in Canada’s James Bay lay beneath vast glaciers that pressed down with immense force. As the climate changed and the ice retreated, Akimiski began a gradual rebound. The island’s slow but steady increase in elevation is recorded along its naturally terraced edges where the coastline seems etched with bathtub rings, the result of the rising landmass and wave action at previous sea levels.

雪儿 · 发表于: 2011-4-2 13:19:51

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USGS and NASA

Meandering Mississippi

Small, blocky shapes of towns, fields and pastures surround the graceful swirls and whorls of the Mississippi River. Countless oxbow lakes and cutoffs accompany the meandering river south of Memphis, Tenn., on the border between Arkansas and Mississippi. The “mighty Mississippi” is the largest river system in North America.

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