STS081-711-073 Musters Lake, Chubut River, Argentina January 1997

With Saint George Gulf in the upper center of this view the east-central area of Patagonia is visible. Patagonia is a harsh windswept high semi-arid plateau with scanty vegetation, which slopes gently eastward from the high Andes Mountains in the west, and terminates in cliffs along the Atlantic Ocean coast. The Catarce Del Bajo and Montemayor Uplands are discernible along the coast midway from the center to the top center of the image. Just to the right (west) of the center of the image is blue Musters Lake. Look carefully just to the left (east) of Muster for the very shallow, highly sediment-laden Cohue Huapi Lake which nearly matches the color of the surrounding land. Just west of Muster Lake are the San Bernardo Hills. The mouth of the Chubut River can be seen near the far left center of the image. The Chubut River rises in the Andes Mountains of western Argentina and flows generally eastward to the Atlantic Ocean near the town of Rawson. Sheep herding and fruit growing are important along the Chubut River’s lower course.

Photo and caption thanks to:
Earth Sciences and Image Analysis, NASA-Johnson Space Center. 8 May 2003. "Earth from Space - Image Information." http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/EFS/photoinfo.pl?PHOTO=STS081-711-73.

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