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Tyndall Glacier, Chile
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Published December 24, 2007
Tyndall Glacier is located in the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. This glacier, which has a total area of 331 square kilometers and a length of 32 kilometers (based on 1996 measurements), begins in the Patagonian Andes Mountains to the west and terminates in Lago Geikie.
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Dust plumes, Baja California, Mexico
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Published December 17, 2007
In October 2007, strong, dry Santa Ana winds raised a major dust plume and several minor plumes on the Baja California peninsula. The light brown dust spread west to the Pacific Ocean (image top right). Because they are warm, dry, and strong, Santa Ana winds reduce soil moisture and famously promote dust storms such as this.
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Wellington, New Zealand
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Published December 9, 2007
New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, sits at the southwestern tip of North Island near the Cook Strait. The city in the second largest in New Zealand (after Auckland), and at 41 south latitude, it is the southernmost capital city in the world. The North and South Islands of New Zealand are located along the active Australian-Pacific tectonic plate boundary. The glancing collision of these two tectonic plates results in uplift of the land surface, expressed as low hills on North Island and the Southern Alps on South Island.
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Marsh Island, Louisiana
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Published December 3, 2007
Marsh Island, located along the southwestern coastline of Louisiana, is a remnant of an abandoned lobe of the Mississippi River Delta formed approximately 5,000–7,500 years ago. It is composed primarily of organic-rich muds and brackish marsh vegetation, but some peat (layers of vegetation that have partially decomposed while submerged in water) is also present.
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Isla Blanquilla, Venezuela
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Published November 26, 2007
The small island of Blanquilla is named for its white sand beaches, visible in this astronaut photograph as a bright border along the northeastern–eastern shoreline. Surface currents extending from the western coastline of the island are caused by easterly trade winds. This dominant wind has also caused movement of beach sand to form white “fingers” extending inland along the east coast.
Mazatlan, Mexico
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Published November 19, 2007
Mazatlán is Mexico’s largest port, situated on one of the best estuaries (bottom center of image) on Mexico’s Pacific coast. The city appears as a series of light-toned geometric blocks covering the center of this astronaut photograph. The image also shows the docks and naval yards that line the north side of the estuary. Mazatlán (population 352,000 in 2005) is growing northward from the downtown peninsula, with tourist beaches backed by hotels, and a marina and golf courses just beyond. No city growth yet appears on the south side of the estuary, where narrow rectangles of farm land can be seen.
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Isla San Lorenzo and Isla Las Animas, Gulf of California
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Published November 12, 2007
Located in the northern Gulf of California, Isla (island) San Lorenzo and Isla Las Animas—part of the Midriff Islands—record geologic processes involved in the creation of the Baja California peninsula over several hundred million years. This astronaut photograph illustrates the largely pristine nature of these islands. The islands are located in the rain shadow of mountains on the Baja Peninsula to the west, and arid conditions prevail through much of the year. The scarcity of water has limited human presence on the islands, and allowed flora and fauna unique to each island to flourish, particularly reptiles.
Dust Storm, Aral Sea, Kazakhstan
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Published November 5, 2007
stronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took this image of a major dust storm (image center and right) along the east side of the Aral Sea while passing over central Asia in the spring of 2007. The white, irregular lines along the bottom of the image are salt and clay deposits on the present coastline. The day that the ISS crew shot the image, winds were blowing from the west (lower left).
Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah
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Published October 22, 2007
The Bingham Canyon Mine is one of the largest open-pit mines in the world, measuring over 4 kilometers wide and 1,200 meters deep. Mining first began in Bingham Canyon in the late nineteenth century, when shafts were sunk to remove gold, silver, and lead deposits that played out by the early 1900s. It would take the advent of open-pit mining in 1899 to turn the Bingham copper deposit into an economically favorable resource.
Fires, East Falkland Island, South Atlantic
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Published October 15, 2007
The Falkland Islands are an overseas territory of the United Kingdom, referred to by Argentina (which also claims the islands) as the Islas Malvinas. Falkland Sound, which is 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) wide at the narrow point, separates the main islands of East Falkland (image center) and West Falkland (along image left). Together they total about the same area as Connecticut or Northern Ireland. The islands lie almost 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the Argentine coast and less than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Antarctica. The first flights to these remote islands were only implemented in 1971.