Comments on: EO’s Satellite Puzzler: August 2012

By: Conan Witzel

Conan Witzel — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 01:00:43 +0000

Great Job Yiannis!

Great puzzle, not many places on the earth with sand desert to the south and water to the west! Had me trekking in GE to some great places.

By: Yiannis Raftopoulos

Yiannis Raftopoulos — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:15:25 +0000

well, the green area you mention in wikipedia is water and here it has evaporated, the small, shallow lake has dried up.

There is an older “Image of the day” of the wider Taklimakan desert from Dec 3 2001 that shows the area in a late October caption. As it seems quite similar (the flooded areas) it could be even in autumn like the older image.

By: Yiannis Raftopoulos

Yiannis Raftopoulos — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 18:12:33 +0000

Jim, I agree with you that it should be spring or early summer. In the picture there are also flooded areas, perhaps from the increased flow of melted snow of the mountains that surround the basin where the lake is situated.

By: Jim Armstrong

Jim Armstrong — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:39:07 +0000

Good job, Yiannis!
The Wikipedia photo (November) shows a much greener area where it is pretty white at lower right, suggesting this photo may have been taken in the spring.

By: James M

James M — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:50:02 +0000

Well the silted up river outlet (sandy/aqua) suggests its unlikely to be a river going into a sea or ocean, with major wetlands (dark green) centre to mid-left, suggests inland lake so freshwater …(shades of green/brown) looks like lots of small scale agriculture cropping (i.e. moderate to high population density) on maybe an alluvial plain from centre to upper left so likely to be other than Europe or North America, it’s nowhere in Australia I know; if lake is freshwater but no mountains or signs of jungle about prob not South America or SE Asia so leaves the highlands of central Asia; lots of sand dunes to the lower right; none of the big Russian or former USSR Reps seem to have lakes with a river feeding in with that level of agric development so prob China… then search the lakes of western China = Bositeng Hu

By: mark

mark — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:44:14 +0000

looks to be very similar.

By: mark

mark — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:26:58 +0000

The Dead Sea is part of a depression in the Earth’s crust between Africa and Asia, found on a rift where the two continents are pulling apart. It’s the lowest surface feature anywhere on Earth, located 1,300 feet below sea level?

By: Yiannis Raftopoulos

Yiannis Raftopoulos — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:23:41 +0000

This is western Bosten Lake of Xinjiang in China. Cultivations, buildings and marshlands are juxtaposed with a sandy desert. At an altitude of above 1000m above sea level -yet with the lowest point in China located not far away- the freshwater lake and the Kaudi river that flows into it sustain a wide area of cultivated land where many towns and villages are located.

By: Susan Myers

Susan Myers — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:15:50 +0000

Whoops. I said north and east but I meant north and west, for the farms.

By: Susan Myers

Susan Myers — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:15:17 +0000

Not sure where this is… but the little striped squares in the north and east look like farm fields. The non-stripy part between the square fields looks maybe like an old river basin. You can see where it emptied into the large body of water in that whitish region in the center, where there’s a gap in the dark green. South of the farms and along the northern shore of the water, the dark green might be salt marsh? South of the water looks like sand dunes to me. I don’t see any cities. I’m looking forward to learning where this is and what all the features of the map are.