Earth As Art 2

Africa, the second largest continent, is a mix of steamy rainforests, vast grasslands, and arid deserts. It has no long mountain ranges, but is home to the world's largest hot desert, the Sahara, and its longest river, the Nile. The featured area is the central South Atlantic coastal region of Namibia, including the cities of Walvis Bay and Windhoek.

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Australia is the smallest, and flattest, of all the continents. Its surface details are largely the result of erosion. Many rivers drain into the continent's harsh, arid interior, where they terminate in salt lakes that are dry for most of the year. Australia's coastal regions, however, are famous for astounding biodiversity, from the Great Barrier Reef in the northeast to

Snow-capped Colima Volcano, the most active volcano in Mexico, rises abruptly from the surrounding landscape in the state of Jalisco. Colima is actually a melding of two volcanoes, the older Nevado de Colima to the north and the younger, historically active Volcan de Colima to the south. Legend has it that gods sit atop the volcano on thrones of fire and ice.

France's famed Provence region meets the Mediterranean as a gentle curve intricately sculpted into sheltered bays and fringing peninsulas. The ancient port of Marseilles, the country’s second largest city, nestles in the large bay at the lower left corner of the image.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: Landsat 7
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Dark-colored volcanic cones sprout from an ancient lava field known as Harrat Al Birk along Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coastline. Many such lava fields dot the Arabian Peninsula and range in age from 2 million to 30 million years old.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: Landsat 7
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Coursing through parched, landlocked Mali in Western Africa, the Niger River flows north through an ancient sand sea before turning sharply east to skirt the edge of the dune-striped Sahara. At the confluence of the Bani and Niger Rivers is an island delta complete with narrows, twisting waterways, lagoons, and tiny islands.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2

Like frantic brushstrokes, fire scars cover the arid landscape near Lake Amadeus (upper right) in Australia's Northern Territory. Lake Amadeus is rich in salts that have been leached out of underlying sediments. When dry, its lake bed is transformed into a glistening sheet of white salt crystals.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: ASTER

The pockmarked terrain of Pinacate National Park in Mexico's Sonora Province is evidence of a violent past. Among hundreds of volcanic vents and cinder cones are rare maar craters, formed when rising magma met underground water to create pockets of steam that blew nearly circular holes in the overlying crust.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: Landsat

Several hundred kilometers southeast of Buenos Aires, Cabo San Antonio juts out into the Atlantic Ocean along the Argentinean coast.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: Landsat 7
• Download: JPG 

Along the southern coast of the Netherlands, sediment-laden rivers have created a massive delta of islands and waterways in the gaps between coastal dunes. After unusually severe spring tides devastated this region in 1953, the Dutch built an elaborate system of dikes, canals, dams, bridges, and locks to hold back the North Sea.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2

Elusive, but ecologically vital, Namibia's Ugab River only flows above ground for a few days each year. The subterranean waters underlying this ephemeral river, however, are shallow enough in places to fill hollows and sustain a wildlife population that includes the rare desert elephant.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: Landsat 7
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