Earth from Space - Image Description

STS073-746-061 Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee, U.S.A. October 1995
Color infrared film helps to accentuate the forested land midway between Chattanooga and Knoxville in southeastern Tennessee. The broad, elevated plateau with its deep, shadowed, northwest-facing escarpment is part of the northeast-southwest-trending Cumberland Plateau, which is part of the more extensive Appalachian Mountains. The narrow valley immediately northwest of the escarpment is drained by the southwest-flowing Sequatchie River. Barely discernible are parts of the Tennessee River (obscured by low clouds in the valley) and the Hiwassee River (cloud pattern at right angle to the Tennessee River) as it enters the Tennessee River (near middle right edge).

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