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  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS048-E-73257 Date: Sep. 2016
Geographic Region: USA-UTAH
Feature: BEAR LAKE, SEDIMENT PLUMES

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  View Low-Resolution Image  
  Bear Lake, Utah

Taken by an astronaut from the International Space Station, Bear Lake on the Idaho-Utah border is one of the bigger lakes in the Rocky Mountains. The bright blue lake (30.5 km, 19 mi long) with its tight swirl of a light-toned sediment plume (at image center) probably caught the astronaut's eye because the photo was taken from a point 525 km (325 mi) to the east over the Black Hills on the Wyoming-South Dakota border.



The two swirls near the center of the lake are rotating in the deepest water--perhaps from floods that came down Swan Creek or Fish Haven Creek. North Eden Creek has laid down the little delta at its mouth, with the two "eyes" of center-pivot irrigation fields--situated on one of the few flat places in this mountainous landscape. The more diffuse swirls at the north end of the lake (at image lower right) have formed from sediment entering from North Eden Creek. This sediment is then carried north along the shoreline by lake currents, joining with sediment eroded from the white beaches on the north shore of the lake (at image lower right).



When the north-end beach of Bear Lake formed it cut off the Mud Lake lagoon; muddy sediments subsequently collected to form a dark-toned, vegetated wetland--now protected as the Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge. A much larger protected area, part of the Wasatch Mountains, is the Cache National Forest visible across the entire top part of the image. Dramatic canyons like Fish Haven Canyon cut deeply into the mountains.



The high-resolution image shows a network of roads laid out across hillsides above Garden City for a development overlooking the lake.


 
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Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 111k
Mission: ISS048  
Roll - Frame: E - 73257
Geographical Name: USA-UTAH  
Features: BEAR LAKE, SEDIMENT PLUMES  
Center Lat x Lon: 42.0N x 111.3W
Film Exposure:   N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus
Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: 10
 
Camera: N6
 
Camera Tilt: HO   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 800  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: W   The direction from the nadir to the center point, N=North, S=South, E=East, W=West
Stereo?:   Y=Yes there is an adjacent picture of the same area, N=No there isn't
Orbit Number:  
 
Date: 20160906   YYYYMMDD
Time: 172714   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 43.6N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 105.3W  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 145   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 216   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 48   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views: FOREST  
Water Views: DELTA, LAGOON, LAKE, SEDIMENT  
Atmosphere Views: PLUME  
Man Made Views: PIVOT IRRIGATION  
City Views: GARDEN CITY  
Photo is not associated with any sequences


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