Friday, March 23, 2012

Image of the week : Astronaut photo captures intricate brazilian patchwork

The multicolored floodplain in this astronaut photo is generated by sediments
delivered by the Paraná and Verde rivers.


Try to locate this picture on the Marine GeoGarage

From NASA

The Paraná River appears as a wide, blue strip with the muddy brown water of the smaller Verde River entering from the northwest (top left).
An extensive wetland (dark green) occupies most of the left half of this astronaut photograph, and the floodplain reaches a width of 11 kilometers (about 7 miles).
The thin line of a road crossing the floodplain also gives a sense of scale.
Above the Paraná-Verde confluence (image center), the floodplain is much narrower.
The floodplain is generated by sediments delivered by both rivers.

The evidence for this is that the entire surface is crisscrossed by the wider traces of former Paraná River channels, as well as numerous narrower traces of the Verde.
The floodplains along both rivers are bordered by numerous rectangular agricultural fields.
The dominant crops along this part of the Paraná River are coffee, corn, and cotton.
Turbid water, such as that in the Verde River, is common in most rivers that drain plowed agricultural land, as some topsoil is washed into local rivers after rains.
A long tendril of brown water extends from the Verde into the main channel of the Paraná, where it hugs the west bank and remains unmixed for many kilometers.
This effectively shows the direction of river flow from orbit: right to left for the Paraná, and upper left to image center for the Verde.



Note : two days ago, Google has released amazing Street View imagery of the Amazon River in Brazil.
The new Street View imagery includes the the Rio Negro and some Amazon forests.
A good place to start exploring the new imagery is in this Amazon Street View Gallery.

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