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 »
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 »
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 »
Above Yunyang
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 »
Albert Rift
The lake-filled trough is the western arm of East Africa’s Rift Valley system, and this segment is named for the lake in the upper right corner. These terrain systems are abrupt in their escarpments but subtle in their outer risings and in the long profiles of their highly various floors. There are also wonderfully unique… Read more »
Amhara
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 »
Cape Bathurst
This peninsula is among the farthest north of Canada’s mainland, and in another era seemed to be scoured and smoothed on its right side by active sea ice. This had prevented the mid-sized Horton River from entering the ocean until near the tip of the peninsula. In more recent conditions the river has broken through… 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 »