Earth As Art 2

Located on the Italian island of Sicily, Mt. Etna is one of the world's most active volcanoes. In this image of the volcano in 2001, a plume of steam and smoke rising from the crater drifts over some of the many dark lava flows that cover its slopes.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: ASTER
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Turbid waters spill out into the Gulf of Mexico where their suspended sediment is deposited to form the Mississippi River Delta. Like the webbing on a duck's foot, marshes and mudflats prevail between the shipping channels that have been cut into the delta.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: ASTER
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Meandering wadis combine to form dense, branching networks across the stark, arid landscape of southeastern Jordan. The Arabic word "wadi" means a gulley or streambed that typically remains dry except after drenching, seasonal rains.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: ASTER
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Like swirls of paint on an enormous canvas, shallow lakes, mudflats, and salt marshes share the sinuous valleys on Iran's largely uninhabited Dasht-e Kavir, or Great Salt Desert.

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

Utah’s Green River flows south across the Tavaputs Plateau (top) before entering Desolation Canyon (center). The Canyon slices through the Roan and Book Cliff--two long, staircase-like escarpments. Nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon, Desolation Canyon is one of the largest unprotected wilderness areas in the American West.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2

Known for its beaches and resort hotels, Cancun lies at the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Inland from this tourist mecca, however, lies a sparsely populated tropical scrub forest that shelters the ruins of ancient Mayan cities.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: ASTER
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Fed by multiple waterways, Brazil's Negro River is the Amazon River's largest tributary. The mosaic of partially-submerged islands visible in the channel disappears when rainy season downpours raise the water level.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: Landsat 7
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The Turpan Depression, nestled at the foot of China's Bogda Mountains, is a strange mix of salt lakes and sand dunes, and is one of the few places in the world that lies below sea level.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: Landsat 7
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Valley glaciers appear as fingers of blue ice reaching out from the Vatnajokull Glacier in Iceland's Skaftafell National Park. The park lies on southern edge of Vatnajokull, Europe's largest ice cap.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: Landsat 7
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An intricate maze of small lakes and waterways define the Yukon Delta at the confluence of Alaska's Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers with the frigid Bering Sea. Wildlife abounds on the delta and offshore where sheets of sea ice form during the coldest months of the year.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: ASTER
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Eastern Asia is dominated geographically by China, which stretches from the Tian Shan Mountains in the west to the sheltered bays of the Yellow Sea in the east.

• Collection: Earth as Art 2
• Source: MODIS
• Download: JPG