This in-depth photograph, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), shows dark surface areas in the hyper-arid eastern Sahara Desert in Sudan. These surface areas are flat-topped mesas that rise 230– 460 feet (70– 140 meters) above the surrounding lighter-toned landscape. The International Space Station Program supports the lab as part of the ISS National Lab to assist astronauts take images of Earth that will be of the greatest value to researchers and the public, and to make those images easily readily available on the Internet.
A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill that is surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs and stands noticeably above a surrounding plain.
Picture taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station on December 25, 2019, reveals dark surfaces in the hyper-arid eastern Sahara Desert in Sudan. (Click on the image to see a more comprehensive view.).
Dark, flat-topped mesas stand out amidst the surrounding lighter-toned landscape in northwest Sudan.
This in-depth photo, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), shows dark surfaces in the hyper-arid eastern Sahara Desert in Sudan. These surface areas are flat-topped mesas that increase 230– 460 feet (70– 140 meters) above the surrounding lighter-toned landscape.
The bed of a dry river winds across the middle of the image. A dotted pattern of trees and clumps of bushes follow the line of the riverbed, indicating that roots are reaching the subsurface water.
Analysis of the height of the mesas and the rock systems exposed in the cliff deals with allows geologists to translate the evolution of the areas landscape. It is possible to conclude that the rock layer forming the two mesas was more comprehensive in the past, which it has actually been removed away by river and wind disintegration to produce the younger, light-toned surface area seen today.
Worn down desert landscapes with strongly contrasting darker and lighter-toned surface areas arise from both chemical and physical weathering procedures and are a common landscape pattern in this part of the Sahara Desert. Geologic maps suggest that the entire area is a single rock type known as the Nubian Sandstone, which is one of the biggest fossil water aquifers in the world.
Astronaut photograph ISS061-E-98063 was obtained on December 25, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital electronic camera using a focal length of 800 millimeters. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 61 team. The International Space Station Program supports the lab as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to researchers and the public, and to make those images easily offered on the Internet.