Kiritimati, Kiribati (Christmas Island)

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

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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Mesopotamian Marshes

Published March 3, 2002

The Al Hawizah Marshes comprise the largest remaining tract of wetlands in the Mesopotamian Marshlands of Iran and Iraq. In the last 10 years, damming and diversion of waters from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, and draining of wetlands has led to a loss of 85% of wetlands that once covered about 20,000 square km (7,725 square miles).

Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Published February 10, 2002

The Anti-Atlas Mountains of northern Africa and the nearby Atlas mountains were created by the prolonged collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates, beginning about 80 million years ago.

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Northern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile

Published February 2, 2002

The Northern Patagonian Ice Field (NPIF), centered near 47°S, 73.5°W, is the smaller of two remnant ice masses crowning the Andes Mountains of lower South America. The NPIF is a vestige of an extensive ice sheet that covered much of Patagonia just over a million years ago. Today, with its glaciers largely in retreat and only an area of 4,200 sq km, it is still the largest continuous mass of ice outside of the polar regions.

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Spanish Peaks, Sangre de Cristo Range, Colorado

Published January 20, 2002

The Spanish Peaks, on the eastern flank of the Sangre de Cristo range in Colorado, abruptly rise 7,000 feet above the western Great Plains. Settlers, treasure hunters, trappers, gold and silver miners have long sighted on these prominent landmarks along the Taos branch of the Santa Fe trail. Well before the westward migration, the mountains figured in the legends and history of the Ute, Apache, Comanche, and earlier tribes. “Las Cumbres Espa&ntidle;olas” are also mentioned in chronicles of exploration by Spaniards including Ulibarri in 1706 and later by de Anza, who eventually founded San Francisco, California. This exceptional view, captured by the crew of Space Shuttle mission STS108, portrays the Spanish Peaks in the context of the southern Rocky Mountains.

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ISS Astronauts View the Moon

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.

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Dust Storm, Aral Sea

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

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

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.

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Brüggen Glacier, Chile

Published December 9, 2001

Brüggen Glacier in southern Chile is the largest western outflow from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and, unlike most glaciers worldwide, advanced significantly since 1945. From 1945 to 1976, Brüggen surged 5 km across the Eyre Fjord, reaching the western shore by 1962 and cutting off Lake Greve from the sea.

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Red Aurora as Seen from the Space Station

Published December 2, 2001

Red colors of the aurora are dominant in this image captured by a digital still camera in September 2001. Auroras are caused when high-energy electrons pour down from the Earth’s magnetosphere and collide with atoms. Red aurora occurs from 200 km to as high as 500 km altitude and is caused by the emission of 6300 Angstrom wavelength light from oxygen atoms.

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