Photo #: STS41B-46-2955 Date: Feb. 1984 Geographic Region: TANZANIA Feature: LAKE NATRON |
STS41B-46-2955 Lake Natron, Tanzania February 1984 The Great Eastern Rift Valley, a major fissure in the Earth's crust, extends from the Middle East to Mozambique in east Africa. Lake Natron, one of a series of East Africa Rift Valley lakes resulting from the rifting process, formed as a large block of the lithosphere dropped to create a graben, a trench-like depression. The lake has an exceptionally high concentration of salts and is known as a soda (sodium carbonate) lake. Natron, with its pink color that results from the pigmented microorganisms on top of the salt crust, is home to enormous flocks of flamingos that congregate to breed on the alkaline mud flats. Because the shallow lake sits at the terminus of an isolated drainage basin, evaporation determines the water level and the extent of the superficial salt crust. Visible in the photograph are a small volcano at the north end of the lake and a much larger volcano at the southeast end of the lake. The north-south trending features on either side of the lake are fault scarps that result from the east-west stretching of east Africa. (Refer to photograph STS-029-092-038, taken 5 years later, to see differences in Lake Natron.) |
Images: | All Available Images Low-Resolution 122k |
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Mission: | STS41B |
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Roll - Frame: | 46 - 2955 |
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Geographical Name: | TANZANIA |
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Features: | LAKE NATRON |
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Center Lat x Lon: | 2.5S x 36.0E |
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Film Exposure: | N | N=Normal exposure, U=Under exposed, O=Over exposed, F=out of Focus |
Percentage of Cloud Cover-CLDP: | 1 |
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Camera:: | HB |
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Camera Tilt: | NV | LO=Low Oblique, HO=High Oblique, NV=Near Vertical |
Camera Focal Length: | 250 |
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Nadir to Photo Center Direction: | The direction from the nadir to the center point, N=North, S=South, E=East, W=West |
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Stereo?: | Y | Y=Yes there is an adjacent picture of the same area, N=No there isn't |
Orbit Number: | 109 |
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Date: | 198402__ | YYYYMMDD |
Time: | GMT HHMMSS |
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Nadir Lat: | N |
Latitude of suborbital point of spacecraft |
Nadir Lon: | E |
Longitude of suborbital point of spacecraft |
Sun Azimuth: | Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point |
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Space Craft Altitude: | nautical miles |
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Sun Elevation: | Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point |
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Land Views: | MOUNTAIN, VOLCANO, VALLEY, FAULT, ESCARPMENT |
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Water Views: | LAKE |
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Atmosphere Views: | |
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Man Made Views: | |
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City Views: | |
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Photo is not associated with any sequences |
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