File:Kamchatka amo 2013143 lrg.jpg

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Original file (5,000 × 3,000 pixels, file size: 3.64 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Summary

[edit]
Description
English: The Kamchatka Peninsula of far eastern Russian was surrounded by life in late May 2013—at least the oceanic sort. Massive blooms of microscopic, plant-like organisms called phytoplankton spread green over the nearby waters. Phytoplankton typically support an abundance of other fish and marine life.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite captured the natural-color imagery to make this composite view on May 23, 2013. Looking toward the North Pole from the southern end of the peninsula, blooms of chlorophyll-rich cells appear off both the west coast—in the Sea of Okhotsk—and to the east in the North Pacific Ocean.

Stretching nearly 1,250-kilometers (780 mile) from north to south, the peninsula is dotted with volcanoes, some of which are faintly visible in the image above. (Click on the large version for a better view.) Kamchatka lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an area of extremely active volcanism and plate tectonic earthquakes.

That volcanism probably played some part in these blooms. Several volcanoes—including Kizimen, Shiveluch, and Bezymianny—have been spewing iron-rich ash and lava, both of which fall in the ocean. Iron also runs off the land in rivers and gets churned up from the ocean floor by currents and storms. Iron is a key nutrient for phytoplankton growth, as it helps them process nitrate. The east side of the Peninsula is also bathed in the cool, nutrient-rich Oyashio Current, which originates in Arctic waters and flows south along the coast of Siberia and Kamchatka toward Japan.

Caption by Mike Carlowicz.
Date
Source http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=81258
Author Image by Norman Kuring, NASA Ocean Color Group. Photo taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite.

Licensing

[edit]
Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
Warnings:

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current02:19, 12 June 2013Thumbnail for version as of 02:19, 12 June 20135,000 × 3,000 (3.64 MB)Melikamp (talk | contribs)User created page with UploadWizard

You cannot overwrite this file.

File usage on other wikis

The following other wikis use this file:

Metadata

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.

Retrieved from "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Kamchatka_amo_2013143_lrg.jpg&oldid=910820235"