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Ash and Steam, Soufriere Hills Volcano, Monserrat
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Published April 7, 2002
International Space Station crew members are regularly alerted to dynamic events on the Earth’s surface. On request from scientists on the ground, the ISS crew observed and recorded volcanic activity from the summit of Soufriere Hills on March 20, 2002.
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Image Transformations-Montserrat
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Published March 27, 2002
An Earth Observatory reader used widely available software to correct the oblique perspective of an earlier photograph of Montserrat and to adjust the color. The story of how he modified the image includes step-by-step instructions that can be applied to other photographs.
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Kiritimati, Kiribati (Christmas Island)
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Published March 24, 2002
Pronounced “Ki-ris-mas,” Kiritimati Island has a large in-filled lagoon that gives it the largest land area (125 square miles, 321 square kilometers) of any atoll in the world. Captain Cook named the atoll Christmas Island when he arrived on Christmas Eve in 1777. Used for nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s, the island is now valued for its marine and wildlife resources. It is particularly important as a seabird nesting site—with an estimated 6 million birds using or breeding on the island, including several million Sooty Terns. Rainfall on Kiritimati is linked to El Ni&ntidle;o patterns, with long droughts experienced between the wetter El Ni&ntidle;o years.
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Tsunami Vulnerability in Camana, Peru
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Published March 17, 2002
A tsunami washed over the low-lying coastal resort region near Camaná,southern Peru, following a strong earthquake on June 23, 2001. The earthquake was one of the most powerful of the last 35 years and had a magnitude of 8.4. After the initial quake, coastal residents witnessed a sudden draw-down of the ocean and knew a tsunami was imminent. They had less than 20 minutes to reach higher ground before the tsunami hit. Waves as high as 8 meters came in four destructive surges reaching as far as 1.2 kilometers inland. Thousands of buildings were destroyed, and the combined earthquake and tsunami killed as many as 139 people.
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Shiveluch—Kamchatkan volcanoes
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Published March 10, 2002
Shiveluch volcano anchors the northern end of a volcanic chain of more than 100 volcanoes covering the Kamchatkan Peninsula. It is one of the most active volcanoes along the Pacific Rim. In 2001, astronauts aboard the International Space Station Alpha looked north toward Shiveluch’s scarred southern slope to get a unique perspective of the impressive cluster of volcanoes in the Klyuchevskaya group and Shiveluch.
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Santa Maria Volcano, Guatemala
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Published February 24, 2002
The eruption of Santa Maria volcano in 1902 was one of the largest eruptions of the 20th century, forming a large crater on the mountain’s southwest flank. Since 1922, a lava-dome complex, Santiaguito, has been forming in the 1902 crater. Growth of the dome has produced pyroclastic flows as recently as the 2001—they can be identified in this image. The volcano is considered dangerous because of the possibility of a dome collapse such as one that occurred in 1929, which killed about 5000 people. A second hazard results from the flow of volcanic debris into rivers south of Santiaguito, which can lead tocatastrophic flooding and mud flows.
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ISS Astronauts View the Moon
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Published January 13, 2002
Inspired by the nearly-full moon, space station astronauts used an 800 mm lens to study the craters and mare. This view, taken October 5, 2001, is centered on Crater Copernicus, surrounded by the Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Serenity and Sea of Tranquility), Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains), Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms) and Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds). The bright crater and ejecta trails of Tycho dominate this near-side view. For scale, the crater of Tycho is 85 km in diameter.
Lake Sarez, Tajikistan
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Published January 6, 2002
Lake Sarez, deep in the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan, was created 90 years ago when a strong earthquake triggered a massive landslide that, in turn, became a huge dam along the Murghob River, now called the Usoi Dam. The resulting lake is perched above surrounding drainages at an elevation greater than 3000 meters. The lake is 61 kilometers long and as deep as 500 meters, and holds an estimated 17 cubic kilometers of water. The area experiences considerable seismic activity, and scientists fear that part of the right bank may slump into the lake, creating a huge wave that will top over and possibly breach the natural dam. Such a wave would create a catastrophic flood downstream along the Bartang, Panj and Amu Darya Rivers, perhaps reaching all the way to the Aral Sea.
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Dust Storm, Aral Sea
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Published December 30, 2001
The Aral Sea has shrunk to less than half its size since 1985. It receives little water (sometimes none) from the two major rivers that empty into it—the Syr Darya and Amu Darya. Instead, the river water is diverted to support irrigation for the region’s extensive cotton fields. Recently, water scarcity has increased due to a prolonged drought in Central Asia. As the Aral Sea recedes, its former seabed is exposed. The Aral’s sea bed is composed of fine sediments—including fertilizers and other agricultural chemicals—that are easily picked up by the region’s strong winds, creating thick dust storms. The International Space Station crew observed and recorded a large dust storm blowing eastward from the Aral Sea in late June 2001. This image illustrates the strong coupling between human activities (water diversions and irrigation), and rapidly changing land, sea and atmospheric processes—the winds blow across the Sea and pick up dust (former sea bottom sediments) as soon as the blowing air masses hit land.
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Soufriere Hills, Montserrat, West Indies
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Published December 23, 2001
Volcanic activity on the West Indian island of Montserrat has remained high for several years—the current activity started in 1995. However, remote sensing of the island has been difficult because of frequent cloud cover. The International Space Station crew flew north of the island on a clear day in early July (July 9, 2001) and recorded a vigorous steam plume emanating from the summit of Soufriere Hills. The image also reveals the extensive volcanic mud flows (lahars) and new deltas built out from the coast from the large amounts of volcanic debris delivered downstream by the rivers draining the mountain. As a small island (only 13 x 8 km), all of Montserrat has been impacted by the eruptions.
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Tibetan Braid
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Published December 16, 2001
On October 13, 2000, the Expedition 3 crew of the International Space Station, high over Tibet, took this interesting photo of the Brahmaputra River. This mighty Asian river carves a narrow west-east valley betweenthe Tibetan Plateau to the north and the Himalaya Mountains to the south, as it rushes eastward for more than 1500 kilometers in southwestern China. This 15-kilometer stretch is situated about 35 kilometers south of the ancient Tibetan capital of Lhasa where the river flow becomes intricately braided as it works and reworks its way through extensive deposits of erosional material. This pattern is indicative of a combination heavy sediment discharge from tributaries and reduction of the river’s flow from either a change in gradient or perhaps even climate conditions over the watershed.