Join the new world

“It is impossible to give a clear account of the world, but art can teach us to reproduce it - just as the world reproduces itself in the course of its eternal gyrations.”
Albert Camus

Indeed, the world reproduces itself not only in the course of several gyrations, but at several different heights. At ground level, one can only imagine the sheer beauty of mountain ranges, deserts and deltas seen high up from NASA’s satellites.

One can imagine - yes - however, they wouldn’t be quite prepared for the fact that from 400 miles away, the earth transforms into abstract art. The global landscape is impressionist, cubist and pointillist. Mother Nature is an abstract artist. The images you see below were taken at the turn of the Millennium, when NASA’s scientists had a brilliant idea: to scan through 400,000 images taken by the Landsat 7 satellite and display only the most the most beautiful. A handful of the best were painstakingly chosen and then displayed at the Library of Congress in 2000


1. GUINEA-BISSAU

The rivers of this small country in West Africa, once known for its main economic activity – the slave trade – wash into the Atlantic Ocean, creating complex patterns of swirling silt below the surface of the shallow water.

2. Garden City, Kansas, USA

Home to the largest zoological facility in Kansas, Garden City is known for its depiction in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.The croplands surrounding the city are irrigated by a vast underground aquifer, creating bands of bright red healthy vegetation that dot the image.

3. Akpatok Island, Canada

One of Canada’s most amazing arctic islands, it is ringed with steep limestone cliffs that rise high above sea level and its central plateau. Unsurprisingly, it is only accessible only by air, which is pretty ideal for its cliff nesting seabirds called Akpatoks (or Thick-billed Murres as we know them).

4. Aleutian Clouds, North America

The Aleutian islands are an archipelago of over three hundred islands. They lie on the westernmost point of the united states on the pacific ring of fire. Once belonging to Russia, they were purchased along with Alaska by the Americans. The color differences you see in this photo are probably due to the different temperatures of the water droplets.

5. Mayn River, Siberia, Russia

The magnificent contours of the Mayn pass through the sparsely populated forest-tundra subzones of Chukotka, a region teeming with moss, lichen, dwarf shrubs, and sedge. Little else can survive in such harsh climes and the river itself is frozen for nine months of the year.

6. Bolivian Deforestation

This image of the once vast carpet of rainforest in the Amazon basin is reminiscent of the cubist masters. Fanning out from the large blocks of land cleared by ranchers and loggers radiate arrangements of fields and farms, the remaining healthy vegetation appearing in bright red.

7. Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco

The image above is of the Anti-Atlas mountains, a 500km mountain range that forms part of the Atlas mountains. Located in Southern Morocco, the contrasts are absolutely astonishing: high peaks and river basins cover the area. There are a few Berber tribesmen living in the area. However, settlements are rare in this mountain realm, ruled by nature.

8. Ocean Sands, Bahamas

From afar, this could look like an abstract painting, however this spectacular satellite image is of the dunes of sand and seaweed, sculpted by the ocean currents. The fluted, underwater dunes are formed in much the same way as sand dunes in deserts.

9. Lake Carnegie, Australia

During periods of sustained rainfall the lake fills with water, however for most of the year it exists as muddy marshland that, from the air, resembles the lyrical swirls of artists such as Jackson Pollock.

10. Chilean Volcanoes

This great swathe of now dormant volcanoes lies on the border between Chile and the Catamarca province of Argentina and has glazed the surrounding area in a thick crust of magma roughly 2 miles (3.5 km) deep. The incredible palette of shades indicates both the age and mineral content of past lava flows.

11. Coahuila, Mexico

The desolate plains of Coahuila are flanked by the Sierra Madre Mountains and make up part of the Chihuahuan Desert. Much of the province is arid and consists of basins broken by small mountain ranges and spectacular fissures in the earth.

12. The Everglades, Florida, USA

These subtropical wetlands located at the southern tip of Florida are home to a breathtaking range of plants and wildlife, from the mangrove and cypress, to the wood stork and spoonbill. The lush scenery – formed over centuries by water, rock and fire – is constantly changing and is the only place in the world where crocodiles and alligators live side by side.

13. Ganges River Delta, (Bangladesh & India)

After flowing past the ancient city of Kolkata the sacred Ganges empties into the Bay of Bengal amidst the labyrinth of swamps and waterways that make up its expansive delta. In the surrounding forest live an array of rare and wonderful animals including the Bengal tiger and Indian python.

14. Ghadamis River, Libya

The oasis town of Ghadamis lies on the ancient Saharan caravan routes and is overlooked by the Tinrhet Hamada mountains. Through the town flows the seasonal river or wadi after which it is named. Although known during Roman times as an important watering point, here it appears only as a dry scar on the arid landscape.

15. Baffin Bay, Greenland

A field of glaciers and enormous icebergs surround the freezing waters of Baffin Bay, bounded to the south and west by the Inuit islands of Baffin and Ellesmere. The bay lies 300 m (1000 ft) above the level of the massive Greenlandic ice cap, depressed by its own weight, and is home to a large number of Beluga whales that survive on the multitudes of small fish and crustaceans in its waters.


By Apress on May 27, 2012 ®


"ALL IMAGES ARE CREATED AND OWNED BY NASA"