Sand spits and other wind- and wave-built patterns distinguish the south coast of Brazil.
Published May 2, 2016
Mexico’s largest coastal lagoon supports an array of vegetation and marine life.
Published Sep 4, 2017
In the southeastern corner of the Baltic Sea lies a skinny stretch of land. Known as the Curonian (or Courland) Spit, it separates the Curonian Lagoon (also known as the Courland Lagoon) from the Baltic Sea. Both the spit and the lagoon fall within the borders of Lithuania and Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast.
Published Nov 2, 2007
The waters around this Italian city provide a study in how humans affect the seas and how the seas affect human settlement.
Published Jun 2, 2014
The waters that once protected Venice now threaten it. A complex engineering project is being installed to beat back the tide.
Published Mar 25, 2014
Sunlight highlights details around Rio Paraná, Rio Tiete, and Rio Paranapanema.
Published Dec 22, 2019
In these images captured by International Space Station astronauts on August 27, 2006, bright sunlight glinting off the western Caribbean Sea reveals intersecting wave patterns and oily surfactants on the surface waters around Bajo Nuevo Reef. Bajo Nuevo is a collection of small islets arranged into two U-shaped cays, low islands made of coral or sand. This pair of images shows the easternmost of the two cays (also known as “keys”) and surrounding waters.
Published Oct 2, 2006
In this astronaut photo, the mirror-like reflection of sunlight off water makes the Trombetas River and Lake Erepecu in the Brazilian Amazon stand out from the deep green forest.
Published Sep 21, 2009
In the last three decades, Egypt has greatly modified a series of lagoons and lakes along the northeast coast of the Nile Delta for the production of fish. Partial sunglint in this astronaut photograph reveals numerous details in one such fishery. Sunglint is light reflected directly back from a surface—usually water—to the viewer (or to a camera or satellite sensor). Waves generated by northwesterly winds (lower left to upper right in this view) have created the frond-like sand spit along the coast (image top). Faint sea swells are visible at image upper left as a pattern of dark and light lines. Dark patches in the center of the image are shadows cast by small clouds, which appear pewter-gray compared to the golden sunglint on the watery surfaces below.
Published Oct 30, 2006
Acquired September 18, 2009, this true-color image of Laguna Ojo de Liebre on Baja California shows the margins of industrialized salt works in the east and a famed marine mammal wintering site in the west.
Published Sep 27, 2009
