World of Change: Mesopotamian Marshes

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with the NASA Earth Observatory.

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA except:

·       Celtic Monster illustration by John Dickson Batten

·       Phosphate mine photo courtesy of Pamlico-Tar River Foundation, Washington, North Carolina

·       Horicon Marsh photos and marsh wildlife photos courtesy of Andrea Gianopoulos

·       Sea creature illustration copyright The National Library of Israel, Shapell Family Digitization Project _and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Geography – Historic Cities Research Project

·       Assateague Island marsh photos courtesy of Lucy Albert

·       Muskrat photo courtesy of Dan Leveille

·       Peat fire photo courtesy of Guillermo Rein

·       Marsh algae photos courtesy of Andrea Gianopoulos

·       Close-up Lake Carnegie satellite image courtesy of the USGS EROS Data Center Satellite Systems Branch

·       Photos of Tigris River and drained Mesopotamian Marshes courtesy of Dr. Michelle Stevens, iraqmarshrestoration.blogspot.com

·       Photo of boatmen in an Iraqi marsh courtesy of Hassan Janali, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

 

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

Written by Andrea Gianopoulos

Designed by Marc Lussier

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An animated globe turns. Text, World of Change, Mesopotamian Marshes

 

A river valley. Text, Mesopotamian Marshes Iran and Iraq, World of Change., 2000-2010. Alongside the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the Mesopotamian marshes in southern Iraq and Iran were the largest wetlands in the Middle East.

 

Men, canoes and animals in and around a waterway. Text, In the 1990s, the marshes were drained significantly by dams and canals built by Saddam Hussein's regime.

 

Men paddle amid lush green grasses. Text, After Hussein's reign ended in 2003, Iraqis began destroying dikes and canals, and the marshes were reflooded.

 

The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers on a map. Text, 2000. NASA satellite images show the dramatic transformation in the mid-2000s as well as the effects of a drought in 2009.

 

Marshes appear as large dark areas, vegetation is green, and bare ground is brown.

 

Changes in marsh, vegetation and bare ground over the years. 2001, 2002, 2003,

 

2004

 

2005

 

2006

 

2007

 

2008

 

2009

 

2010