Earth from Space - Image Description

STS068-208-096 Snake River Valley, Idaho, U.S.A October 1994
The intensively cultivated Snake River Valley is bounded by mountains to the southeast and numerous lava flows along the northwest side of this section of the valley. This southwest-looking, low oblique view is a color infrared image that is centered on Idaho Falls. Water from the river provides irrigation for many of the agricultural areas in the Snake River Valley, a vast lava plateau built up by repeated outpourings of volcanic rock approximately 20 million years ago. Subsequent erosion and glaciation have produced a varied landscape of high plains, immense fields of volcanic rubble, deep gorges, and fertile volcanic soil in the Snake River Plain that produces abundant potato crops.

This service is provided by the International Space Station program and the JSC Earth Science & Remote Sensing Unit, ARES Division, Exploration Integration Science Directorate.