The Yellow River Delta coastline along the Gulf of Bohai has always experienced dramatic changes, and those changes continue today. This mosaic of images taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station shows several things. First, the image shows today’s configuration of the delta of China’s Yellow River, which is one of the most dynamic coastlines on Earth. Second, the scene allows mapping of land use along the coastal plain, including the boundaries of the Shengli Oil Field, China’s second largest oil field. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of this image is the large patch of green water off the northern coast of the delta—a presumed plankton bloom.
Published Aug 23, 2004
Spain's Ebro Delta has recently experienced tremendous shape-shifting.
Published Mar 13, 2018
In the past few centuries, a river in northwestern Canada stopped wandering and assumed a more direct route to the sea.
Published Sep 4, 2012
China’s Yellow River, or Huang He, travels through soft plateaus of silt, picking up a massive sediment load on its journey. The sediment carried by the river has reshaped China’s coast, adding several hundred square kilometers of land.
Published Jan 4, 2009
The Ebro River Delta, located along the eastern coast of Spain, is one of the largest wetland areas in the western Mediterranean region.
Published Jul 26, 2004
In September 2010, water again flowed through this riverbed after several dry years.
Published Oct 8, 2010
The Selenga River Delta, which stretches out into Russia’s Lake Baikal, is carved by an intricate network of channels and levees and surrounded by marshlands.
Published Nov 28, 2011
Time, weather, and human intervention have all shaped the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana, a giant bird’s foot shape protruding into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River deposits sediment into the ocean, and over 25 years, NASA Landsat satellites observed changes in the delta’s shape.
Published Oct 7, 2007
Canada’s Mackenzie River, the country’s longest, spills out of Great Slave Lake, just north of the border between Alberta and Northwest Territories.
Published Dec 20, 2007
With so much of its water diverted, the Colorado River Delta has dried out and lost much of its vegetation and wildlife.
Published Jun 18, 2020
The Ural River is one of the two major rivers (the other is the Volga) that empty into the northern coast of the Caspian Sea, creating extensive wetlands. This image shows details of the Ural’s tree-like (or “digitate”) delta. This type of delta forms naturally when wave action is low, and sediment content in the river is high. New distributary channels form in the delta when the river breaches natural levees created by sediment deposition. The long main channel of the river in this image and several of the distibutary channels are too regular to be entirely natural, however. Like the famous Mississippi River delta in the United States, the Ural River delta has been significantly modified to reduce flooding and divert water.
Published Jun 6, 2005
