Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
Berkeley Pit: Butte, Montana
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Published November 13, 2006
Mined for gold, silver, and copper, the region of Butte, Montana, had already earned the nickname of “The Richest Hill on Earth” by the end of the 19th century.
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Haze in the Po River Valley, Italy
Published November 6, 2006
Taken from an oblique angle and looking toward the southwest, this astronaut photograph shows parts of northern Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, the Adriatic Sea, and the Mediterranean. Over part of the Alps, skies are clear, but elsewhere, the view of the land and sea is largely obscured. Bright white clouds cover much of the region, but over northern Italy, the “clouds” are different. There, dingy, gray-blue haze hangs over the Po River Valley.
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Aquaculture in the Nile Delta
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Published October 30, 2006
In the last three decades, Egypt has greatly modified a series of lagoons and lakes along the northeast coast of the Nile Delta for the production of fish. Partial sunglint in this astronaut photograph reveals numerous details in one such fishery. Sunglint is light reflected directly back from a surface—usually water—to the viewer (or to a camera or satellite sensor). Waves generated by northwesterly winds (lower left to upper right in this view) have created the frond-like sand spit along the coast (image top). Faint sea swells are visible at image upper left as a pattern of dark and light lines. Dark patches in the center of the image are shadows cast by small clouds, which appear pewter-gray compared to the golden sunglint on the watery surfaces below.
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Volga River Delta
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Published October 23, 2006
The Volga River drains much of western Russia’s industrial region as it travels southward to empty into the Caspian Sea. Over thousands of years, the river has built a tremendous delta that forms the northwestern shoreline of the Caspian Sea. The delta channels provide transportation between the heartland of Russia and the oil-rich Caspian Sea. The Volga’s extensive distributaries (branches to the sea) harbor habitat and rich fishing grounds for Russia’s famous beluga sturgeon, the source of beluga caviar. The delta’s wetlands, parts of which are designated as the Astrakhanskiy Biosphere Reserve, are important stopping points and breeding grounds for migrating water birds. This detailed astronaut photograph zooms in on a shipping channel in the western part of the delta.
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Sand Dunes in Har Nuur (Black Lake), Western Mongolia
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Published October 16, 2006
Har Nuur (“Black Lake”) is located in western Mongolia’s Valley of Lakes, part of a system of closed basins stretching across central Asia. These basins are the remnants of larger paleolakes (paleo- means “ancient”) that began to shrink approximately five thousand years ago as regional climate became drier. This oblique (looking at an angle) astronaut photograph captures the dynamic nature of the landscape of Har Nuur. The lake is encircled by sand dune fields that encroach on the lower slopes of the Tobhata Mountains to the west and south. Gaps in the mountains have been exploited by sand dunes moving eastward, indicating westerly winds. The most striking example is a series of dunes entering Har Nuur along its southwestern shoreline.
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Munich International Airport, Germany
Published October 9, 2006
The Franz Josef Strauss, or Munich, International Airport served 29 million passengers in 2005, making it Germany’s second-busiest airport, after Frankfurt. This astronaut photograph, taken from the International Space Station, shows enough detail to distinguish individual airplanes on the terminal apron, and the dark gray-blue rooftop of Terminal 2.
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Wave Patterns Near Bajo Nuevo Reef, Caribbean Sea
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Published October 2, 2006
In these images captured by International Space Station astronauts on August 27, 2006, bright sunlight glinting off the western Caribbean Sea reveals intersecting wave patterns and oily surfactants on the surface waters around Bajo Nuevo Reef. Bajo Nuevo is a collection of small islets arranged into two U-shaped cays, low islands made of coral or sand. This pair of images shows the easternmost of the two cays (also known as “keys”) and surrounding waters.
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Day Fire, Southern California
Published September 25, 2006
The Day Fire started in Los Padres National Forest north of Los Angeles on September 4, 2006. Easterly winds on September 17 blew the smoke westward, out to sea, and International Space Station astronauts observed this wind shift. In this astronaut photograph, the forested mountains north of Los Angeles appear dark green, and the smoke appears gray. Dense farmland appears at the south end of California’s Central Valley, in the upper left corner. Near top center, the western corner of the Mojave Desert is framed by a “V” of mountains. In the Mojave just beyond the top edge of the image (visible in the large version) are dry lakes that appear as white patches; one of these lakes acts as a landing site for the Space Shuttle.
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Crater Lake, Oregon
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Published September 18, 2006
Crater Lake is formed from the caldera of Mount Mazama. Part of the Cascades volcanic chain, Mount Mazama sits between the Three Sisters volcanoes to the north and Mount Shasta to the south. The catastrophic eruption of Mount Mazama that occurred approximately 7,700 years ago destroyed the volcano while simultaneously forming the basin for Crater Lake. Eruptive activity continued in the region for perhaps a few hundred years after the major eruption. Evidence of this activity lingers in volcanic rocks, lava flows, and domes beneath the lake surface; the small cone of Wizard Island is the only visible portion of these younger rocks. Although considered a dormant volcano, Crater Lake is part of the United States Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory seismic monitoring network.
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