CENTRAL EUROPE - 27 January 2011 - The Alps form a crescent stretching from the Mediterranean coasts of Italy and France to Vienna, Austria. On Januar

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CENTRAL EUROPE - 27 January 2011 - The Alps form a crescent stretching from the Mediterranean coasts of Italy and France to Vienna, Austria. On January 17, 2011, clear skies afforded the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAÕs Terra satellite an uninterrupted view of the mountain range. This natural-color image shows snow-capped mountains interspersed with vegetated valleys. Clouds snake through valleys in the north and west, and a nearly continuous cloud bank fills the Po Valley in the south, but skies over the mountains are clear. The Alps began forming tens of millions of years ago, when the African tectonic plate slowly collided with the European plate. The plate collision helped close the western part of the ancient Tethys Sea and lifted up the massive European mountain chain that persists today - Photo: Geopix/NASA

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Size: 3990px × 2742px
Location: The Alps Europe
Photo credit: © Geopix / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: adriatic, alpine, alps, austria, change, clear, climate, climbing, cloud, cloudless, ecology, environment, eu, europe, france, geography, germay, ice, italy, mediterranean, modis, mountain, mountainous, mountains, nasa, peaks, po, range, region, regions, river, satellite, sea, snow, space, switzerland, trekking, view, weather