|
|
Browse All
:
Space Shuttle Orbiter of Indonesia from February 2000
|
Printer Friendly |
Earthquake in Sulawesi
| Title |
Earthquake in Sulawesi |
| Description |
In the quiet of the earliest hours of the morning on January 24, 2005, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake rattled Palu, Sulawesi, killing one and injuring four others. The earthquake was centered approximately 35 kilometers (20 miles) south of Palu, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) beneath the surface. Located in the center of the arc of islands that forms Indonesia, Sulawesi is at the heart of one of the most geologically active regions in the world. The effect of millennia of shifting ground on the island is readily apparent in this elevation image, created using data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). SRTM was designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface using a radar instrument that flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000. In the above image, the highest elevations are white and pink, while low elevations are green. Two mountain ranges run north-south from the center of the island to the shore. Between the two ranges, a finger of green marks out a straight valley that was formed by the fault. As this image reveals, the January 24 earthquake was centered just a few kilometers west of this fault. Like the San Andreas fault, Sulawesi's fault is a transform fault formed when two tectonic plates slide past one another. Indonesia sits on top of three major tectonic platesgiant slabs of the Earth's crust that float on the planet's molten core. The majority of the islands in the nation sit on the Eurasian plate, caught between the north-moving Australian plate, and the west-moving Pacific plate. Around Sulawesi, three smaller plates clash, adding to the seismic activity. All of this jostling between plates leads to frequent earthquakes and active volcanoes, Indonesia has more historically active volcanoes (76) than any other region on Earth. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using SRTM data obtained from the Global Land Cover Facility. |
|
Bali, Shaded Relief and Colo
…
PIA04950
Sol (our sun)
C-Band Radar, X-Band Radar
| Title |
Bali, Shaded Relief and Colored Height |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
The volcanic nature of the island of Bali is evident in this shaded relief image generated with data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Bali, along with several smaller islands, make up one of the 27 Provinces of Indonesia. It lies over a major subduction zone where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate collides with the Sunda plate, creating one of the most volcanically active regions on the planet. The most significant feature on Bali is Gunung Agung, the symmetric, conical mountain at the right-center of the image. This "stratovolcano", 3,148 meters (10,308 feet) high, is held sacred in Balinese culture, and last erupted in 1963 after being dormant and thought inactive for 120 years. This violent event resulted in over 1,000 deaths, and coincided with a purification ceremony called Eka Dasa Rudra, meant to restore the balance between nature and man. This most important Balinese rite is held only once per century, and the almost exact correspondence between the beginning of the ceremony and the eruption is though to have great religious significance. Two visualization methods were combined to produce the image: shading and color coding of topographic height. The shade image was derived by computing topographic slope in the northwest-southeast direction, so that northwest slopes appear bright and southeast slopes appear dark. Color coding is directly related to topographic height, with green at the lower elevations, rising through yellow and tan, to white at the highest elevations. Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on Feb. 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. Location: 8.33 degrees South latitude, 115.17 degrees East longitude Orientation: North toward the top, Mercator projection Size: 153 by 112 kilometers (95 by 69 miles) Image Data: shaded and colored SRTM elevation model Date Acquired: February 2000 |
|
Mts. Agung and Batur, Bali,
…
PIA04951
Sol (our sun)
C-Band Radar, X-Band Radar
| Title |
Mts. Agung and Batur, Bali, Shaded Relief and Colored Height |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This perspective view shows the major volcanic group of Bali, one 13,000 islands comprising the nation of Indonesia. The conical mountain to the left is Gunung Agung, at 3,148 meters (10,308 feet) the highest point on Bali and an object of great significance in Balinese religion and culture. Agung underwent a major eruption in 1963 after more than 100 years of dormancy, resulting in the loss of over 1,000 lives. In the center is the complex structure of Batur volcano, showing a caldera (volcanic crater) left over from a massive catastrophic eruption about 30,000 years ago. Judging from the total volume of the outer crater and the volcano, that once lay above it, approximately 140 cubic kilometers(33.4 cubic miles) of material must have been produced by this eruption, making it one of the largest known volcanic events on Earth. Batur is still active and has erupted at least 22 times since the 1800's. Two visualization methods were combined to produce the image: shading and color coding of topographic height. The shade image was derived by computing topographic slope in the northwest-southeast direction, so that northwest slopes appear bright and southeast slopes appear dark. Color coding is directly related to topographic height, with green at the lower elevations, rising through yellow and tan, to white at the highest elevations. Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on Feb. 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. Location: 8.33 degrees South latitude, 115.17 degrees East longitude Orientation: Looking southwest Size: scale varies in this perspective image Image Data: shaded and colored SRTM elevation model Date Acquired: February 2000 |
|
|
