20 posts tagged “earth”
The 6,194-meter-tall (20,320-foot) Mt. McKinley is a towering double-peaked mountain in the middle of the Alaska Range, made all the more impressive for rising thousands of feet above its neighbors. As the tallest mountain in North America, it is one of the world’s Seven Summits (the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents). The plains immediately to its north, at an elevation of 600 m (2,000 feet), give Mt. McKinley more vertical relief than any of the other Seven Summits. Named after the United States senator and president, William McKinley, the area around the mountain was designated the McKinley Wilderness Area in 1917. However, the peak is known as Denali, or “the high one,” in the local Athabascan language. When the area was expanded and converted to a national park in 1980, the area was renamed the Denali National Park and Preserve. There remains discussion of renaming the peak itself as most mountaineers refer to it as Denali.
This is a false-color image made using infrared, near-infrared, and green wavelengths (TM bands 5, 4, and 2). In this scheme, bare land without vegetation is pink, green areas show healthy vegetation, clouds are white, snow and ice is light blue while water is dark blue.
Credit: earthobservatory.nasa.gov
As the tallest mountain in South America, Cerro Aconcagua (or Aconcagua Mountain) is one of the Seven Summits: the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. Its name is believed by many to come from an ancient native name of “Ackon Cahuak” meaning “Stone Sentry.” It is 6,962 meters (22,840 feet) to the top of the North Peak, making it the second highest of the Seven Summits. Aconcagua is located in the midst of the Central Andes in Argentina, one range east of the ridgeline that defines the border with Chile.
The image shows a wider area around the mountain, including Santiago, the Chilean capital city, to the south and east of the mountain.
Credit: earthobservatory.nasa.gov
On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary, from New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, from Nepal, became the first humans to successfully climb to the peak of Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.
Credit: earthobservatory.nasa.gov
The 2,228-meter-tall (7,310-foot) Mt. Kosciuszko lies at the southern end of Australia’s Snowy Mountains, which define the Kosciuszko National Park.
The mountain’s name (known as “Kozzy” to Australians) comes from the fertile imagination of the first European explorer to reach the Snowy Mountains, Paul Strzelecki. On arriving in the Snowy Mountains in 1840, he thought the mountain’s gentle slopes were suggestive of the tomb of the Polish general, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who assisted the Americans in the 1770s in their war against the British, and in the 1790s with the Polish again Russia. However, for many decades the mountain’s name was mispelled “Kosciusko” by Australians and was only corrected in the 1990s during trade negotiations with Poland. Aboriginal Australians had been visiting the Snowy Mountains and neighboring Bogong High Plains during the summer months for thousands of years prior to Strzlecki’s visit in hunt of the nutritious Bogong moths.
Credit: earthobservatory.nasa.gov
Credit: WikiMapia
The Guelb er Richat is the largest guelb in Mauritania with a diameter of about 50 km. What has caused this circular depression in nature is uncertain. Some speculations say it is the remains of a grand meteorite impact, other speculations say it is caused by magmatic rise.
The dimensions of the guelb are so big that it is easily visible from space, and is sometimes called "The Eye of Africa".Standing
on ground, it is often quite possible lose the perspective of the
dimensions. Its circular shape is slightly difficult to see, even if
the sides of the guelb at many points stand as tall as 200 metres above
the lowest points.Today
there are only few people living in the guelb, the exception is at the
copper mine. But travelling around even the uninhabited areas, it is
quite easy to spot traces of human activity going thousands of years
back in time. Needles, fasteners and points of lances can be tracked
down by visitors with time on their hands.
Eat and Sleep
Surprisingly, there is a hotel in the centre of the guelb. Modest, but as close to a lunar hotel as you could ever hope for.
Transportation
No form of public transportation. Arrange for round trips from Ouadane.
Credit: lexicorient.com
This photo shows a U. S. Airways airliner, with attending twin contrails, appearing to pass in front of the first quarter Moon. In my experience this type of occultation occurs more often than people might think. In Albany, Missouri, from where this picture was snapped, commercial jets tend to follow "preferred" routes across the sky, and when the Moon happens to be in the vicinity of such a fly-over route, then a composition like the one above is possible. As an observer and photographer, you just have to be mindful, patient and prepared.
Credit: epod.usra.edu
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