Earth from Space - Image Description

STS61A-201-0082 Lakes Region, West-Central Minnesota, U.S.A. October 1985
The Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota (lower portion of photograph) and the lakes region of west-central Minnesota (upper portion of photograph) appear in this east-looking, low-oblique photograph. The Red River Valley, once the floor of glacial Lake Agassiz, is covered with numerous small agricultural field patterns. The lakes were formed as glaciers from the last ice age retreated northward 10 000 years ago. Fargo, North Dakota, and Moorhead, Minnesota, appear as a gray smudge (near bottom center). The forested White Earth Indian Reservation (top center) lies north of Detroit Lakes (not discernible).

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