Images

Deep purple and green hues enhance the Waziristan Hills, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan near the Afghanistan border. A formidable landscape, the Waziristan Hills are a hodgepodge of steep, rugged hills split by narrow passes and deep gorges. Rivers coursing down from the mountains provide water for agriculture in a region of scanty rainfall.

Hues of green and orange highlight the extreme ruggedness of the mountainous terrain in eastern Afghanistan, near its border with Pakistan. The dark green areas on the right side along rivers indicate agricultural areas. Snow-fed streams allow sufficient irrigation to transform relatively arid soils into productive fields.

Like swirls of paint on an enormous canvas, shallow lakes, mudflats, and salt marshes share the sinuous valleys on Iran's largely uninhabited Dasht-e Kavir, or Great Salt Desert.

The Sulaiman Mountains are a major geological feature of Pakistan and one of the bordering ranges of the Indian subcontinent.

National Aerial Photography Program (NAPP) - Little Rock, AR - Color Infrad - March 25, 2001

Looking like a monstrous ogre with something gooey in its mouth, the Dardzha Peninsula in western Turkmenistan lies among the shallow coastal terraces of the Caspian Sea. Strong winds create huge sand dunes near the water, some of which are partly submerged. Further inland, the dunes transition to low sand plains.

The western region of Australia's Great Sandy Desert is an area almost devoid of sand, but characterized by complex geology.

In an area north of the city of Al-Basrah, Iraq, which borders Iran, a former wetland has been drained and walled off. Now littered with minefields and gun emplacements, it is a staging area for military exercises.

The so-called Richat Structure is a geological formation in the Maur Adrar Desert in the African country of Mauritania. Although it resembles an impact crater, the Richat Structure formed when a volcanic dome hardened and gradually eroded, exposing the onion-like layers of rock.

Akpatok Island lies in Ungava Bay in northern Quebec, Canada. Accessible only by air, Akpatok Island rises out of the water as sheer cliffs that soar 500 to 800 feet (150 to 243m) above the sea surface. The island is an important sanctuary for cliff-nesting seabirds.

Landsat 7 captured this image of center-pivot irrigation (green circles) in the Saudi Arabian desert in 2000. Images taken of the same location over several decades show the explosive increase of irrigated land over time, as hidden reserves of water have been tapped beneath desert sands to grow grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Utah’s Green River flows south across the Tavaputs Plateau (top) before entering Desolation Canyon (center). The Canyon slices through the Roan and Book Cliff--two long, staircase-like escarpments. Nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon, Desolation Canyon is one of the largest unprotected wilderness areas in the American West.

Lines and shapes etched into the surface of Antarctica's Robinson Glacier hint at the slow but inevitable movements of this giant river of ice. Patterns of lines may be icefalls, where a glacier cascades over rock, or a series of crevasses, massive cracks that form as different parts of a glacier move at slightly different speeds.

Guinea-Bissau is a small country in West Africa. Complex patterns can be seen in the shallow waters along its coastline, where silt carried by the Geba and other rivers washes out into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Lambert Glacier in Antarctica is the world's largest glacier. The focal point of this image is an icefall that feeds into the glacier from the vast ice sheet covering the polar plateau. Ice flows like water, albeit much more slowly.

This scar on an arid landscape is the dry riverbed of the Ghadamis River in the Tinrhert Hamada Mountains near Ghadamis, Libya.

The Dasht-e Kevir, or Great Salt Desert, is the largest desert in Iran. It is a primarily uninhabited wasteland, composed of mud and salt marshes covered with crusts of salt that protect the meager moisture from completely evaporating.

The Mayn River, seen here with what is thought to be a portion of the Anadyr River, flows through the far northeastern corner of Siberia.

Known for its beaches and resort hotels, Cancun lies at the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Inland from this tourist mecca, however, lies a sparsely populated tropical scrub forest that shelters the ruins of ancient Mayan cities.

Along Greenland’s western coast, a small field of glaciers surrounds Baffin Bay.

Fed by multiple waterways, Brazil's Negro River is the Amazon River's largest tributary. The mosaic of partially-submerged islands visible in the channel disappears when rainy season downpours raise the water level.