Astana
Baffin’s Eclipse Bay
Belle Fourche
Cerros Colorados
The eastern foothills of the Andes are important areas for Argentina’s agriculture, as rivers from the mountains are impounded to supply electricity and irrigation for crops. Many types of volcanic surfaces in this region shine in spite of their aridity. The peaks of the title are at low center, and have a unique gully pattern… Read more »
Going Inside
Subsequent to the decades of massive deforestation in central Rondonia, this example to the west is recent, and shows the beginnings of a new area of incursion along a new road from Puerto Velho northeast to Manaus. This is a major jump into the fringe of the largest remaining core of untouched forest. The mist… Read more »
Arabia
Marzuk
The constant wind of the central Sahara has clustered its moving sand in great oblate dunefields called Ergs. This one is in the southwestern corner of Libya, and is spilling downwind into a rift valley. This area was a populous node during pluvial times which were associated with the continental glacial advances. Several important archeological… Read more »
Brazos
From the Rio Grande to the Mississippi, the coast of Texas has a pleasing arch with plentiful barrier islands and lagoons, coastal marshes and swamps. Inland 100 miles, however, the flat plains and lazy river valleys climb into a rolling, dissected landscape. Local relief and choppiness are quite uniform over a wide area. High densities… Read more »
Lomsak
Heavy rural populations farm the extensive mid-levels of this landscape, but the hills and mountains are left fairly pristine. The striking heart-shaped hill in the upper middle is Phu Kradung, a favorite hiking mountain for young Thais – with restaurants and tented accommodations on the plateau (a 9 km walk). On the left is the… Read more »
Gardens on the Plain
As the Indus River emerges from its Himalayan journeys on the left, it is garnered into a vast and ancient irrigation system which supports millions of farmers in this area of the western Punjab. The folded mountains in the lower portion are part of the Tribal Zone which has been recently so much under siege…. Read more »
Balkan Parts
Centering on the lower Danube with its feathery tributaries, this palette was designed to isolate the tallest hills while staying fairly quiet and a bit on the sad side. Low seashores are made indistinct, and the gray tones are surprisingly readable in distinguishing the degree of local dissection. This is a topographically complex part of… Read more »
Land of Edges
More of the Colorado Plateau is found in Arizona than in any of the other four corner states. In this elevation graphic it forms a broad green platform for a variety of different mountain types: the massive volcanoes at lower right, the cone fields of the center, long mesas near the upper edge, and the… Read more »
Escarpments
The geometry of East Africa’s rift troughs seemed impossibly complex, until Shuttle-based elevation data allowed such views as this in 2005. From the north of Kenya to central Zimbabwe, rift trends cross and pass under each other like a roller coaster. Colors range from torrid down low to the moderate greens of the most temperate… Read more »
Far to the East
The spatial isolation of Japan and Korea is clear from this rendition of elevations stretching from Taiwan to Kamchatka. The mainland is marked by the courses of the Yangtze River on the left and the Amur River on the right. Major volcanoes are obvious in North Korea, Honshu and Hokkaido, and on the many island… Read more »
Around Tibet
Tibet is by far the planet’s largest mountain feature, and affects winds and seasons, deserts and rivers, people and metaphysics. The great rivers of Huang Ho, Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Irrawaddy, Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, and Amu Dar’ya all rise from its slopes, and support well over half of the world’s population. Shrinking glaciers render the critical… Read more »
Baluchi Ridges
In Baluchistan ridges curve continuously through the borderlands of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The lower Indus River floodplain fills the broad dune-flecked flats to the right, near a coast of scalloped promontories tipped with the vestiges of transverse ridges. Kandahar is at center top, while Quetta nestles in the high mountains to the right. These… Read more »
Edge of a Continent
This early Earthpattern treatment of the US’s Mid-Atlantic region used cool colors to offset graphically a beige highlighting – this in turn made contrasts within the Allegheny Plateau with its lightning bolt valley incisions, and the ridge and valley folded hills of the more southeasterly highlands. Dark grays near the seashore suppress the lines of… Read more »
Greater Somalia
It used to be that the long slopes of this region were traversed by pastoralists in rhythm with seasonal cycles, so herds could take advantage of lowland wet-season production, and save the highland areas as dry season reserves. The post-colonial imposition of national boundaries made little sense ecologically. Chronic warfare has resulted in Eritrea, in… Read more »
Havens of Ifoghas
In northeastern Mali are these low hills, called the Ifoghas, where enough elevation collects enough rain to make this one of the most favored parts of the Sahara Desert. A high proportion of the drainages are green as they sweep down through the boney dark outcrops. A sand street has invaded the hills on the… Read more »
Around the Alps
This view was framed to emphasize the graceful curve of the range, and its palette was designed to separate the elevation sequence of vegetative zones within the mountains. Lower areas were colored to balance the preponderance of greens higher up, and the coasts were given a subdued treatment so that the land features would stand… Read more »
Dambos and Bangweulu
Shaped like a Dutch shoe, Lake Bangweulu makes an exception to how earth’s great lakes are formed. It is a low point on a clay plateau, surrounded by swamp and by unusual upper stream courses in the shape of ET fingers – dambos. The bones of bedrock outcrop visibly on the right side, and beyond,… Read more »