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 »
Atitlan
Adrar Ahnet
Edge of North
The Caribou Mountains of northern Alberta dominate this late summer image, where deciduous foliage on the cusp of autumn’s turn gives the splashes of yellow-green. The large river is the Peace, and nearby wheat fields are the continent’s most northerly commercial scale agriculture. The image’s upper half is within the Wood Buffalo National Park, where… Read more »
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 »
Close to the New Lanes
Given the normally subdued appearance of bare, dry arctic terrain, it was exciting to discover these striated surfaces in the Bathurst Island area, similar to those found on the neighboring westward island of Melville. Still, the main emphasis of this piece was always the ice, its strong hue and glow. The path of new shipping… Read more »
End of the Lena
A huge and obscure river in eastern Siberia brings great volumes of warm water to the Arctic Ocean each summer. Ecologically this delta is very important for the continent’s migratory birds and sea life. As the Arctic warms this coast will carry new ship traffic, and the delta will be subjected to a broad series… 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 »
Caribees
The three dominant islands of the Caribbean are very different. Cuba’s eastern two-thirds is modest in its variety of terrain, but both Jamaica and Hispanola are rifted and surprisingly complex, with abrupt basins and limestone plateaus. The larger pair have shore terrace systems near their eastern ends, which hints at onslaughts from the sea, perhaps… 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 »
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 »
Lac a l’Eau Claire
This view is within or near to the spawning ground for North America’s cyclical continental glaciations. At the top is Hudson Bay (north is right), and the curvy Belcher Islands are actually sea bottom which has risen up due to the un-weighting of the ice mass. The circular shore is straddled by prominent moraines, from… Read more »
October Day
The coincidence of a cloudfree day, the height of autumn foliage, and a well-behaving satellite in local orbit made this construction possible. It stretches thirteen feet, through four images, from Quebec to Barnegat Bay NJ. The green pastures of New England can be individually identified, and the different species mixtures of trees are amusing to… Read more »