The following images are probably the most beautifull images found using the satellite function of google maps.  All images are linked to their position on google maps. Please note that these are not normal arial photographs and that colors are different than they would appear on the ground. This is achieved by using special filters to only record certain light frequencies. No coloring or photoshopping has occured and this is what you would actually see if you had special “spectral eyes”.

Enjoy, and please feel free to leave me link to other images I should include!

1: Fakahatchee  Bay, Florida, USA

Although this looks like polution this is actually an image of the tributaries of the rivers running through the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Par, a part of the Florida Everglades. The park is home to several endangered species: the Florida Panther, Wood Stork, Black Bear, Fox Squirrel and the Everglades Mink.

2: Richat Structure, Mauritania

The Richat Structure, a 50 km wide circular feuature in the Sahara desert, was first discovered when satelites started imaging the earth. Originaly it was thought to be an meteorite impact crater, but is actually an eroded anticline or dome, off wich the different lithologies create the circular structures.

3: Kolguyev Island, Russia

This stunning boggy river system is located on the Kolguyev Island in the Barents Sea. It’s the results of tundra vegetation and moraines left by the ice ages. Bugringo is the only settlement on this 80 km wide island and it’s inhabitant live from fishing and reindeer farming.

4: Sossusvlei, Namibia

Amidst the Namib desert lies this Salt Pan, the Sossusvlei. The whole valley is about 40 km long and occasionally flash floods flood it from the East. Water quickle evaporates or soaks into the underlying soils and salt deposits remain. Dunes in this area are about 2 km apart.

5: Lake Chad, Africa

The Northern Shores of Lake Chad show the battle between the lake and the Sahara desert sands, slowly encroching on the lake. Lake Chad is the primary water source for Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria.

6: St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, USA

The small comunity of St. Bernard Parish, located here on one of the delta lobes of the Mississippi river, has been hit hard by the Huricane Katrina in 2006. Now only less than half of the original population remains.

7: Erongo Region, Namibia

The Erongo Region lies just north of the Sceleton coast, one of the driest region son earth. Here a range of geologic anticlinal structures forms a impressive landscape.

8: Uniab River, Namibia

Uniab River in northwest Damaraland cuts through som dramatic plataues and forms an impressive lanscpae, bu it is the nature and chemical composition of the soil here that gives the brown sand this green coloration on the satelite photograph.

9: Amazon Delta, Brazil

The delta mouth of the mighty Amazon river is built up of millions of years of sediment being deposited there where the river enters the ocean. The Amazon accounts for approximately one fifth of the world’s total river flow and has built up an estuary or delta mouth of about 300 km wide.

10: Florida Keys, USA

This is one of only several high resolution images shot over an area mainly covered by water. Offcourse, this is due to the relatively high population density for this area. Almost 6,000 people live on this 30 km long stretch.

This post is tagged Aerial Photography, Satellite Photography