| The source for most of the earth views used in Mother Millennia is the Johnson Space Center website, Earth from Space.
Below begins a list of 12 thumbnails of the larger earth photos used in the design of Mother Millennia. Next to each thumbnail is the caption provided for that image by the Johnson Space Center's website. (The group of 12 thumbnails is divided into three sections of four photos each to reduce load time waiting. At the bottom of each list of four thumbnails, there are link buttons that go to the others.) Clicking on a thumbnail below will give you a larger version, but not as large as the photos available at the JSC site. |
JSC Photo "Earth from Space" website |
Alexandria, Egypt The seaport city of Alexandria, with a population of more than 3.5 million, is built primarily on a sandy strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and Lake Mareotis. An industrial and commercial city, Alexandria anchors the western extent of the large Nile River Delta. Although most of the city infrastructure is not visible, some of the large modern harbor facilities, including a breakwater structure, are discernible in the small bay. The unusual tan water body southwest of the port facilities is possibly a holding pond for industrial effluents. A narrow band of darker substance in the water current appears to be flowing toward the east, and farther offshore, an interesting light blue turbidity indicates water color boundaries along this part of the Mediterranean Sea. A series of canals and roadways appears within the darker green of the fertile, intensively cultivated and irrigated, agricultural Nile River Delta. Circular field patterns southwest of the city indicate that center-pivot irrigation is being used in addition to irrigation from ditches and canals. The smaller, highly reflective areas scattered among the irrigated farmland are villages and cities. |
JSC Photo "Earth from Space" website |
Amazon Fires Space Shuttle astronauts sometimes photograph major smoke palls (primarily in the equatorial belt) where"slash-and-burn" techniques are used to clear land for agricultural purposes-for raising crops or for developing pastureland for cattle. This photograph documents numerous smoke plumes, which represent destruction of part of the Amazon rain forest in the State of Rondnia in western Brazil. During the last several decades, worldwide slash-and-burn practices have been exacerbated by population pressures to expand into virgin tropical woodland. Peak burning periods occur during the dry season, which for this Southern Hemisphere region is June through September. Visible near the horizon are the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, which provide a natural barrier so that little dense smoke reaches the altiplano of southern Peru and Bolivia; only valleys and canyons along the eastern slopes of the Andes are impacted by this periodic, widespread burning. |
JSC Photo "Earth from Space" website |
Eastern Mediterranean Sea From the Dardanelles on the west to the Euphrates River on the east, from the Black Sea on the horizon to the Nile Delta in the foreground, this view of the eastern end of the Mediterranean was photographed at an unusually high vantage point. In this one photograph are five of the sites of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: (1) Pharos Island in the Bay of Alexandria, site of a lighthouse nearly 400 feet high. (2) The Pyramids, located in the lighter, barer patch of sand just west of Cairo, at the apex of the delta. (3) The small island of Rhodes, off southwestern Asia Minor, whose harbor was straddled by a colossal statue of Apollo. On into Asia Minor, now Turkey, are two more of the wonders listed by Antipater of Sidon in the 100s B.C.: (4) the Mausoleum, at Halicarnassus, which was built by Queen Artemisia in 353 B.C. to bury her husband, Mausolus, and (5) the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. Near Ephesus is a site not listed by Antipater, because it was already archeological by his time: Troy, found at the opening of the Hellespont into the Aegean Sea. [The 6th wonder, the statue of Zeus by Phidias, stood at Olympia, off this picture to the left. Off this picture to the right is the site of wonder (7) the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which was located on the Euphrates, 60 miles due south of Baghdad (which is on the Tigris). Natural and synthetic processes of the modern world are also evidenced by this photo. A duststorm partially obscures the island of Cyprus. This dust originated in Algeria, swirled northeast over Sicily, southern Italy, and Greece, and then partly swerved back towards the African continent. The Suez Canal completes the work of nature in connecting the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Suez on the western side of the Sinai. [abbreviated text - full text available at JSC site ] |
JSC Photo "Earth from Space" website |
Ganges River Delta South of the confluence of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers (not shown in this photograph) and north of the Bay of Bengal lies the vast Ganges Delta plain, approximately 220 miles (350 kilometers) wide. Parts of the delta, the world's largest, lie in both Bangladesh and the State of West Bengal, India. In this low-oblique, infrared photograph, the deep reds of healthy vegetation register the Sundarbans, an abundant mangrove swamp that is the largest remaining habitat of the Bengal tiger. The entire region is plagued almost yearly by severe storm surges and powerful low-pressure cyclones that arrive from the Bay of Bengal. Although death and destruction follow in the wake of these storms, the resilient survivors continue to cultivate crops of rice, sugar cane, and jute. |
