McMurdo Dry Valleys, satellite image. Bare ground is brown, snow is white, glaciers are light blue and water is darker blue. These snow- and ice-free

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McMurdo Dry Valleys, satellite image. Bare ground is brown, snow is white, glaciers are light blue and water is darker blue. These snow- and ice-free valleys lie in a region of the Transantarctic Mountains next to the Ross Ice Shelf. The surrounding mountains block the ice sheet from covering the valleys. Katabatic winds sucked downhill by gravity heat as they descend at great speeds and evaporate any moisture. Wright Valley is at right, Victoria Valley is at left. Image obtained by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite.

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Size: 3975px × 4414px
Photo credit: © NASA/GSFC/METI/Japan Space Systems/U.S.,Japan ASTER Science Team/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, 2002, 21st, 8, antarctic, antarctica, aster, century, december, dry, earth, geographical, geography, ice-free, image, katabatic, mcmurdo, mountain, mountains, observation, satellite, snow-free, space, terra, transantarctic, valley, valleys, winds