Italia
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 »
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 »
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 »
Slice of the Baltic
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 »
Cordillera
Southern Rockies
Newzie
Lompoc
Brandberg
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 »
Transitions
Oaxaca
Above Yunyang
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 »
Kordofan
Purnululu
Washingtonland
Rendille Country
Bosporus
Gaspe Peninsula
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 »
Amhara
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 »