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 »
Part of Down Under
Land of a Hundred Cities
End of the Mountains
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 »
Susquehanna
Most of Papua
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 »
Columbia
North Britain
South of France
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 »
Crossroads
Ireland
Kap Farvel 2001
Slice of the Baltic
Lompoc
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
Santander
Newzie
Wabash
Cordillera
Forgotten Land
Westerners have spoken of Darkest Africa as if there is no light there, which is only part true for the tiny portion (< 5%) with closed-canopy rain forest. The palette of this elevation-only view is gray to evoke the lack of familiarity, and the coasts use a bloody set of hues to remember their violent… Read more »