Dhaulagiri, Himalaya

Dhaulagiri, seventh-highest peak in the world (26,794 ft/8167 m), dominates the skyline in this image taken by the Expedition 1 crew from the International Space Station using a high-magnification lens. Although it looks like a view from a high-altitude airplane, the photograph was taken out of the window of the Space Station from an orbital altitude of 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers). The view is southeastward across the southern Tibetan Plateau of China, to the Dhaulagiri Range of the Himalayas in central Nepal. The upper reaches of the more than 1,500-mile-long Brahmaputra River, which enters the Indian Ocean near Calcutta, are within the broad, high (about 17,000 feet) valley in the foreground. Uplift of the Himalayas continues today, at a rate of several millimeters per year, in response to the continuing collision of India with Eurasia that began about 70 million years ago.

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Image ISS01-E-6765 was provided by the by the Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA-JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.

Published April 29, 2001
Data acquired March 11, 2001

Source:

ISS > Digital Camera