Traces of an Ancient Watery World in Capitol Reef

In the Utah desert, the red rocks, cliffs, and canyons of this nautically named national park—and many of its famous fossils—owe their existence to water.

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NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Astronaut photograph ISS020-E-9861 was acquired on June 14, 2009, with a Nikon D3 digital camera fitted with an 800 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 20 crew . The image in this article has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast. Lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Story by Sara E. Pratt.

Published May 20, 2022
Data acquired May 2, 2022

Sources:

ISS > Digital Camera

Landsat 9 > OLI-2

Collection:

U.S. National Parks