EarthWatch: A Dormant Volcano’s Gullies
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A network of deep gullies flow off a volcano in central Mexico.
Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/
- NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147194/la-malinches-barrancas
- Image of the Day story by Adam Voiland
- Adaptation to ViewSpace by Claire Blome, Margaret W. Carruthers, and Dani Player
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Text, Earth Watch, Exploring the Blue Planet by Satellite
An aerial view of a dormant volcano's gullies on January 9, 2020
Text, A dormant volcano, La Malinche, soars 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) above the surrounding lowlands in central Mexico.
Grasslands and shrubs dominate its highest elevations.
A ring of pine, oak, and alder forests covers the mountain's middle slopes.
Near the volcano's base are farms, villages, and narrow stream valleys called barrancas.
Near the village of San Rafael Tepatlaxco, several barrancas cut across the sloped landscape.
Barrancas play an important role to the area's residents.
During the dry season, they serve as channels for vehicle and foot traffic, and places to dredge for sand that can be used for building materials.
Since the barrancas are dry much of the time, local maize farmers do not rely on them for water, but depend on rainfall instead.
To learn more, go to: earth observatory dot nasa dot gov