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  Image: Geographic Location Direction Photo #: ISS053-E-134166 Date: Oct. 2017
Geographic Region: USA-UTAH
Feature: BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS, WASATCH RANGE, SALT LAKE CITY, GREAT SALT LAKE

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  Bonneville Salt Flats

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) focused a camera lens on the Bonneville Salt Flats of northeast Utah - the light-toned, patchy feature in the middle of the image. The flats are famous for being one of the flattest places on Earth, and racing enthusiasts flock to the region each year to watch new attempts to set land-speed records.

East of the Bonneville Flats lies the growing urban area around Salt Lake City, which is barely visible to astronauts during the day due to the low contrast with the surrounding mountains. In contrast, the colorful waters of the Great Salt Lake stand out against the desert landscape.

The Bonneville Salt Flats are remnants of a large lake that inundated much of Utah between 14,000 and 32,000 years ago. The greatest extent of ancient Lake Bonneville was about 520 kilometers (320 miles) long and 220 kilometers (130 miles) wide. The lake was fed by glacial melt water during the spring and summer seasons of the most recent glacial period. Since Lake Bonneville had no outlet, that water eventually evaporated in place and left behind white salt minerals.

From the vantage point of the ISS, landscape patterns reveal the intermingling of older geologic formations and more recent landforms in this region. The relatively young (in geologic terms) Bonneville Salt Flats are located within the Basin and Range Province, a region that formed from the stretching of Earth's crust by massive tectonic forces over the past 17 million years. At the top left, we see a different style of geology: the Middle Rocky Mountain region, separated by the active Wasatch Fault zone. This fault zone has violently disrupted the region with at least 22 large-magnitude earthquakes in the past 6,000 years.

 
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Images: All Available Images Low-Resolution 456k
Mission: ISS053  
Roll - Frame: E - 134166
Geographical Name: USA-UTAH  
Features: BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS, WASATCH RANGE, SALT LAKE CITY, GREAT SALT LAKE  
Center Lat x Lon: 40.5N x 113W
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: 51   LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical
Camera Focal Length: 50  
 
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: SE   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: 20171024   YYYYMMDD
Time: 161609   GMT HHMMSS
Nadir Lat: 43.6N  
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Nadir Lon: 116W  
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft
Sun Azimuth: 130   Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point
Space Craft Altitude: 213   nautical miles
Sun Elevation: 19   Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point
Land Views:  
Water Views:  
Atmosphere Views:  
Man Made Views:  
City Views:  
Photo is not associated with any sequences


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