Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
Ship Traffic on the Suez Canal, Egypt
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Published July 31, 2006
This astronaut photograph captures a northbound convoy of cargo ships entering the Mediterranean Sea from the Suez Canal in Egypt.
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Yates Oilfield, West Texas
Published July 24, 2006
The Permian Basin of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico is one of the most productive petroleum provinces of North America. The area holds one of the thickest deposits of rock from the Permian Period, which lasted from approximately 290 to 251 million years ago. The Basin is a large depression in the bedrock surface along the southern edge of the North American craton, an ancient core of continental crust. The Basin filled with thick layers of sediment during the Paleozoic Era (about 545 to 251 million years ago) as the region was alternately covered by shallow oceans, or exposed as coastal salt flats. The sediments hardened into primarily organic-rich carbonate and minerals such as common table salt. Later activity in the Earth’s crust caused folding of the sedimentary layers, creating ideal conditions for the formation, trapping, and storage of petroleum. In this astronaut photograph, numerous white well locations and petroleum drilling structures mark the Yates Oil Field in the layered sedimentary rocks of the Permian Basin.
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Tenerife Island, Spain
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Published July 17, 2006
Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands, a Spanish possession located off the northwestern coast of Africa. The central feature of this astronaut photograph is the elliptical depression of the Las Cañadas Caldera that measures 170 square kilometers (about 65 square miles).
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Nukuoro Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia
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Published July 10, 2006
Located just north of the equator, this classically shaped atoll is part of the Caroline Islands, which stretch northeast of Papua New Guinea in the western Pacific. Nukuoro Atoll is one of 607 islands that make up the Federated States of Micronesia.
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Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, TX
Published July 3, 2006
The largest airport in Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth International (DFW) is also the fourth largest in the world, and it occupies more surface area than the entire island of Manhattan in New York. This astronaut photograph captures the entire airport and portions of the surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.
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Site of Carthage, Tunisia
Published June 26, 2006
The city-state of Carthage in North Africa was founded by Phoenician settlers in 814 BC, and it subsequently became the seat of a trade empire that controlled much of the western Mediterranean region (including most of the former Phoenician lands). Carthage was completely destroyed by the Roman Republic during the Third (and final) Punic War (149-146 BC). The end of Carthage has been made notorious by the story that the Romans allegedly sowed the city with salt to ensure that no further rivals to their power would arise there. However, given the great value of salt at the time and the strategic importance of the city’s location, scholars dispute whether the event actually occurred. Following the destruction of Carthage, Roman dominance of the Mediterranean continued until the fall of the Western Empire in 476 AD.
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Aves Island
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Published June 19, 2006
Named Isla de Aves in Spanish, (meaning “Island of the Birds”) Aves Island lies west of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. It provides a nesting site to green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and, of course, birds. Because the abundant bird droppings, known as guano, could be used in fertilizer and gunpowder, guano miners worked on the island until they depleted the supply. Since its discovery by Europeans, likely in the late 16th century, Aves Island was subsequently claimed by several European nations. The island is currently claimed by Venezuela, although disputes about ownership of the island, and the surrounding exclusive economic zone in the Caribbean, continue today.
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Sunglint Features, Lake Erie, United States
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Published June 12, 2006
Sunglint results when the Sun’s light bounces off the water’s surface and into the satellite sensor or camera. In this astronaut photograph, taken near noon on May 28th, 2006, sunglint highlights features on the surface of Lake Erie, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Cleveland, Ohio. The angular water bodies along the river are likely marinas. The main part of the image shows numerous ship wakes in the zone of partial glint around the disk of the Sun’s reflection point. The wakes radiate from the mouth of the Vermilion River, with many of them heading northwest (towards the lower-right corner) in the direction of Detroit, Michigan.
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Central Phoenix Metro Area, Arizona
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Published June 5, 2006
The Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area is the largest in the southwestern United States. This astronaut photograph of the central metro region includes the boundary area between three of the municipalities included in the conurbation of Phoenix: the cities of Phoenix (left), Tempe (center and lower right), and Scottsdale (upper right).
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