Produced by and for Hot Science - Cool Talks by the Environmental Science Institute. We request that
the use of these materials include an acknowledgement of the presenter and Hot Science - Cool Talks
by the Environmental Science Institute at UT Austin. We hope you find these materials educational
and enjoyable.
Dr. William Muehlberger
January 28, 2000
Studying the Earth
From Manned Spacecraft?
# 2
Outline
OutlineI Introduction
II Rivers, Deltas, Estuaries
III Capes
IV Reef-forming Environments
V Lakes and Rivers
VI Faults -San Andreas
VII Africa, Mediterranean
VIII Volcanoes
IX ‘Lake Clinton’
X Algeria
XI Human Influence I: Irrigation
XII Human Influence II: Deforestation
XIII Atmospheric-Oceanic Interactions
XIV More Faults
XV Plate Boundaries
XVI Spacecraft
XVII Moonset
XVIII Exercises
XIX Citations
I IntroductionI Introduction
This presentation will show you a sampling of the thousands of images
taken of Earth from manned spacecraft. You will see images of plate boundaries,
atmosphere-ocean interactions, rivers and mountains, as well as the results of anthropogenic
influences on Earth’s systems. We hope you will complete this program with a new-found
interest in how the Earth works.
The site listed below contains all hand-held photography taken from orbit. Enjoy.
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
51A-08-0008
II River, Deltas, Estuaries
II River, Deltas, Estuaries
34-79-014N
Austin
San Antonio
Canyon Lake
Balcones Escarpment
Colorado RiverPedernales River
Lake Travis
34-79-017
Corpus Christi Bay
61A-48-070
Corpus Christi ship channel
Wash-over fans
Corpus Christi BayIngleside shoreline
Modern shoreline
N
41C-51-2415
N
San Antonio
Red River
Austin
Corpus Christi Bay
D.F.W.
East Texas Forests
(dark area)
Brazos
Delta
Atchafalaya
mud plume
Houston
27-45-002
Dredged ship channelDrowned delta
Drowned delta
N
New Orleans
34-74-002 N
Venice Salt Dome
Chute
NM23-705-299 N
Washington, D.C.
Philadelphia Baltimore
120,000 year old shoreline
Chesapeake Bay
III Capes
III Capes
90-750-086
N
Coastal Current
Gulf Stream
58-111-015
N
Wash-over fans
43-84-031
Shuttle airstrip
Vertical Assembly Pad
Launch Pads
Port Canaveral120,000 year old
shoreline
Current shoreline
N
IV Reef-Forming
Environments
IV Reef-forming Environments
49-79-54N
The Keys
Miami Beach
Florida Bay
Atlantic Ocean
Gulf of Mexico
41G-33-062
The Keys
Small streams
Highway
N
Florida Bay
29-90-012
N
Prevailing wind
direction
NassauAndros Island
Tongue of the Ocean
Eleuthera Island
51A-45-003
68-204-062
Raiatea Atoll
Tahaa Atoll
N
26-46-OAN
51F-35-016
Great Barrier
ReefPatch reefs
Cooktown
V Lakes and Rivers
V Lakes and Rivers
90-746-056
Chicago
Detroit
N
90-734-069
Navaho Mountain
San Juan
River
Colorado
River
NGrand Canyon
Dam
90-755-055
Colorado
River
San Juan
River
Navaho Mountain
N
Abandoned
meander
27-45-018
Fault scarp
N
Zion National Park
Grand Canyon
Lake Powell
47-151-481
Bear Lake
Wassach Fault
N
Bonneville
Salt Flats
Lake Utah
Copper Mine
Great Salt Lake
90-754-026
Yellowstone
Black Hills
N
Big Horn
Mountains
Owl Creek
Mountains
Uinta
Mountains
Boundary
Colorado Plateau
VI Fault - San Andreas
VI Faults - San Andreas
61A-46-039
Sacramento River
Delta
Evaporative
Pans
San Andreas
Fault
N
Hayward
Fault
81-711-048
Distance of
San Andreas
Fault Slip
N
VII Africa, Mediterranean
VII Africa, Mediterranean
26-43-098N
Calderas of the
Tibesti Uplift
Prevailing wind
direction
57-92-004
Aorounga Crater
Prevailing
Wind Direction
AS7-08-1932
N
Drowned
Dunes
Lake Chad
05-39-1022
N
Lake Chad
Wet portion of
Lake Chad
49-92-070N
NASA5-708-047
N
Spain
Africa
Wind Direction
43-96-004
N
Coast of Africa
Atlantic Ocean
Dust storm
40-78-084
Prevailing Wind
Direction
Qattara
Depression
Pyramids
Nile River
Gulf of Suez
(Main Rift Zone)
Suez Canal
N
Alexandria
43-94-078
N
Egypt
Israel
Gulf of Aqaba
Dead
Sea
Mt. Sinai
Gulf of Suez
Red Sea
Dead Sea
Fault ZoneIsrael-Egypt
Border
NASA6-712-0598
Istanbul
Athens
N
Bosporus
41G-34-080
Mediterranean
N
Atlantic
Ocean
Spain
Gibraltar
Africa
VIII Volcanoes
VIII Volcanoes
58-72-080
‘Toe’ of Italy
Mt. Etna
27-77-018
Fernandina
Island
Isabella
Island
N
61A-45-98
UnanaKronetskaya
Glacier-cut valleys
68-214-011
N
IX ‘Lake Clinton’
IX ‘Lake Clinton’
56-81-048 N
River Delta
Russia
China
X Algeria
X Algeria
70-705-094N
Tiffernine
Dune Field Salt Patches
Salt Patches
XI Human Influence I:
Irrigation
XI Human Influence I: Irrigation
34-78-083
37-82-001
Oasis
51F- 36-059
Prevailing Wind
Direction
N
2
13
Aral Sea
Salt
Flats
Syr Darya
River
Amu Darya
Delta
91-714-090N
Delta
1
2
3
Aral Sea
Delta
XII Human Influence II:
Deforestation
XII Human Influence II: Deforestation
51I-39-042
N
41D-40-022
NAndes Mountains
51G-34-061
Rondonia
070-701-055
Rondonia
41D-37-0067
N
Fires
Namibia Angola
Fires
Fence
XIII Atmospheric-Oceanic
Interactions
XIII Atmospheric-Oceanic Interactions
61B-41-54B
49-76-02
Prevailing Wind
Direction
Socorro Island just
off screen
51G-47-014Prevailing Wind
Direction
Oahu
N
Hawaii
Sulfur Dioxide Plume
61C-49-31
61A-50-020
New Zealand Coast
51I-42-041
Ship
Movement
Current Boundary Between
Water Masses
69-709-013
51I-37-078
Line of
Thunderstorms
XIV More Faults
XIV More Faults
81-720-052
Indian
Ocean
Atlantic
OceanN
Cape Town
Transform
Fault Boundary
Rift Boundary
South
Africa
XV Plate Boundaries
XV Plate Boundaries
27-152-006Straits of Hormuz
N
Folds decrease in age
in this direction
Island seen in
next picture
Lake seen in
next picture
Continent-continent
collision boundary
Zagros
Mountains
Tip of Oman
Arabian Plate
Eurasian Plate
Light-colored valley
Persian
Gulf
27-44-015
Lake seen in the
last picture.
Island seen in the
last picture.
Zagros Mountains
Salt Domes
N
Salt dome seen
in next image.
Eurasian Plate
Arabian Plate
80-733-027
Actual dome
‘Glacier’ of salt
surrounding the dome
84-701-047Kandahar Indian Plate
Motion
Volcano Belt
Eurasian Plate
Chaman
Fault
84-701-050
Indus River
Strike-slip
fault
Thrust faults
Indian Plate
Eurasian Plate
Piece of the shuttle!!
79-789-075
N
Tarim Basin
Karakorum
strike-slip fault
Pamir Mountains
Valley of Kashmir
Tibetan Plateau
Himalaya
Mountains
17-31-052
‘Champagne’ Lake
and ‘Pear’ Lake
Karakorum Fault
(right-lateral)
Indus Suture
Zone
China
Indian Plate
Eurasian Plate
N
17-31-047N
Kali River Valley
Dhaulagiri
Annapurna
17-120-022N
Kali River Valley
Tarim Basin
Indus Suture
Zone
‘Pear’ and ‘Champagne’
Lakes
Tibetan Plateau
Karakoram Fault
55-95-004
N
Mount
Everest
‘Bowtie
Lake’
V-shaped valley
Light-colored
valley
26-34-006
N
Mount
Everest
90-719-020
Mount
Everest
N
58-101-022N
Large Alluvial
Fans
Mount
Everest
27-37-021Shillong
Plateau
Ganges
Delta
Himalaya
MountainsN
Ganges
River
Brahmaputra
River
87-707-092People and
Farms
(light-color)
Mangrove Swamp
(dark-color)
Toward Ocean
XVI Spacecraft
XVI Spacecraft
88-703-019
Zarya Unity
88-737-062
XVII Moonset
XVII Moonset
NASA6-708-068A
NASA6-708-068C
XVIII Exercises
XVIII ExercisesWater Cycle:
• Where do we find freshwater? (rivers; lakes; groundwater; glaciers)
• Where do we find saltwater? (oceans; lakes with closed basins, i.e., the Great Salt Lake)
• What are common sources of freshwater for drinking water and agriculture? (rivers; lakes; groundwater)
• What is the source of drinking water for Austin? (Colorado River water)
• What is the source of drinking water for San Antonio? (Edwards Aquifer)
• Discuss some advantages and disadvantages to the use of surface water versus groundwater as a drinking
water resource.
(River water availability will depend on recent precipitation history and thus may be undependable. This is
one reason for the dams on the Colorado River. River water is more likely to carry diseases and thus must
be carefully processed by a water treatment plant. Groundwater in some places is a finite resource, where
water is extracted, but it is not replenished [i.e., the Ogalalla Aquifer]. Thus the groundwater is mined, and
once pumped it is gone. Once polluted, and aquifer is extremely difficult to clean-up.)
Rock Cycle:
• Discuss one aspect of the rock cycle described in this presentation, weathering transportation and
deposition of sediment. (see http://www.science.ubc.ca/~geol202/rock_cycle/rockcycle.html)
• Where does weathering occur? (soils, bare rock, beneath glaciers)
• How is water involved with chemical weathering? (Some minerals partially dissolve in liquid water forming
dissolved ions and new minerals, clay minerals for example; this reaction is more rapid at warmer
temperatures.)
• How are glaciers involved with physical weathering? (Flowing ice incorporates rock pieces and scrapes
these pieces of rock against the bedrock and physically disaggregates a rock, forming fine particles.)
• What are the products of weathering? (dissolved chemicals, new minerals, and smaller pieces of pre-
existing minerals [sand for example]).
• Where do these products of weathering end up? (in lakes, oceans, beaches, etc., transported by the action
of wind and water)
For any given image in this presentation, determine what part(s) of the rock cycle or water cycle we are viewing.
XIX Citations
XIX Citations
Bates, R. L. and Jackson, J. A. (eds.), 1980. Glossary of Geology, 2nd Edition. American
Geological Institute, Virginia.
Monroe, J. S. and Wicander, R. (eds.), 1997. The Changing Earth: Exploring Geology and
Evolution, 2nd Edition. West / Wadsworth, California.
Montgomery, C. W., 2000. Environmental Geology, Updated 5th Edition. McGraw-Hill, Boston.
Prothero D. R. and Schwab, F. (eds.), 1996. Sedimentary Geology: An Introduction to
Sedimentary Rocks and Stratigraphy. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York.
Professor William R. Muehlberger
William R. Muehlberger is a structural geologist who received his
Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. degrees from the California Institute of
Technology. He has conducted field investigations all over the world, and
recently published the definitive Tectonic Map of North America, for which
he received the Best Paper Award from the Geological Society of America.
During his tenure as professor and chairman of UT's Department of
Geological Sciences, Muehlberger supervised more than 80 Master's and
Ph.D. students. Muehlberger has also served as principal investigator of the
Field Geology Team for the Apollo 16 and 17 Moon landings. His team was
involved in landing site selection and analysis, traverse design, astronaut
training, real-time mission support, and in post-mission data analysis and
debriefing. He continued this work with NASA on the Skylab and Apollo-
Soyuz Missions, and presently teaches geology to Space Shuttle astronauts.
For his work over the years, Muehlberger has received the Medal for
Exceptional Scientific Achievement and the Public Service Medal from
NASA, as well as the Houston Oil and Minerals Corporation Faculty
Excellence Award.
