Chile’s Salar de Atacama has the world’s largest reserve of lithium, which is a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries.
Published Feb 9, 2019
Brightly colored solar evaporation (salt) ponds in the Atacama Desert give this astronaut photo an unreal quality.
Published Jun 1, 2009
In perhaps the driest place on Earth, water still shapes the landscape.
Published Nov 29, 2011
Despite frigid temperatures, Antarctica’s Don Juan Pond rarely freezes.
Published Dec 28, 2014
Makgadikgadi Pan is one of the largest salt flats in the world.
Published Jul 1, 2019
High altitudes in the Andes beget salt flats and rain shadows along the border of Chile and Bolivia.
Published Apr 14, 2019
A new study shows that winds are responsible for the widespread growth of ponds in three watersheds along the Mississippi River.
Published Jul 6, 2017
Marsh Island, located along the southwestern coastline of Louisiana, is a remnant of an abandoned lobe of the Mississippi River Delta formed approximately 5,000–7,500 years ago. It is composed primarily of organic-rich muds and brackish marsh vegetation, but some peat (layers of vegetation that have partially decomposed while submerged in water) is also present.
Published Dec 3, 2007
About one third of Earth’s large groundwater basins are being rapidly depleted by human consumption even though we have little accurate data about how much water remains in them.
Published Jul 24, 2015
An astronaut’s lens captures the diversity of textures in a central Iranian landscape.
Published Jan 19, 2016
Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery used the sunglint off the surface of the Mediterranean Sea to reveal biogenic films on the ocean surface (“Biogenic film” refers to a thin layer of biologically-produced film resting on the surface.). The films dampen surface capillary waves, creating brighter and darker reflections, which, in turn, trace the complex surface water movements along the coast. The sunglint also highlights coastal features (jetties, submerged costal areas) near the Port of Suez.
Published Sep 23, 2001
These images show how terrestrial water storage in the four major sub-basins of the United States’ Mississippi River basin differed from average in January and July 2005.
Published Jan 26, 2007
This detailed astronaut photograph shows the salt ponds of one of Africa’s major producers of soda ash (sodium carbonate) and salt. Soda ash is used for making glass, in metallurgy, in the detergent industry, and in chemical manufacture. The image shows a small part of the great salt flats of central Botswana known as the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans.
Published May 13, 2007
A fertilizer extraction operation adds distinct color to the landscape.
Published Aug 7, 2017
This pair of images shows the similarities between the surface of Mars and permafrost near Spitsbergen, Svalbard.
Published May 28, 2008
