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One regular dose of Earth from above
Majara Residence
27.071588°,56.427011° - Maxar
Majara Residence is a seaside resort on the Iranian island of Hormuz, located in the Persian Gulf. Constructed in 2019 and 2020, it consists of 200 colorful domes (some interconnected) that form 17 guest suites and public facilities like cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops. The domes are built of rammed earth and sand, and are painted to reflect the various natural colors of Hormuz’s landscape.
Derry Fall Foliage
42.893582°,-71.276123° - Nearmap
Colorful fall foliage appears in Derry, New Hampshire, USA. Around this time of year, with the arrival of colder temperatures, leaves begin to change their colors, creating a marvelous and fleeting view before winter. New Hampshire is a popular state for “leaf-peeping” tourists, with more than 4.3 million people visiting the state in autumn of 2021.
Stay Grounded
-12.455385°,130.838988° - Nearmap
“Stay Grounded” is a large-scale ground mural painted on an abandoned parking lot in Darwin City, Australia. The roughly 16,000-square-foot (1,500-sq-m) piece was painted by artist Kitt Bennett in stages, starting with a skeleton and adding layers of body systems until the final figure, seen here, emerged.
Midtown Manhattan Shadows
40.761103°,-73.980163° - Nearmap
Shadows of skyscrapers in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Midtown is home to some of the city’s most prominent buildings and tourist attractions, including the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and Rockefeller Center, among others. It accommodates upwards of 60 million tourists every year.
Lake Nasser
22.750000°,32.510000° - NASA
This Overview shows a portion of Lake Nasser, a vast reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Covering 2,027 square miles (5,250 sq km), it is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Much of Lake Nasser’s west bank (bottom) is covered with sand, while its east bank (top) has little to no sand coverage, as wind is not strong enough to transport sand across the Nile Valley.
Ceilândia
-15.819444°,-48.110278° - Maxar
Ceilândia is the most populous administrative region in the Federal District of Brazil, with nearly 500,000 inhabitants. Located just west of Brasília, it was created in the 1970s to prevent overcrowded shanty towns from developing in the capital city. With nearly half of Ceilândia's residents hailing from the Northeast — or "Nordeste" — Region, the city has a vibrant culture with unique styles of dance, music and cuisine.
Temple of the Heart
40.788644°,-119.203017° - Nearmap
“Temple of the Heart” served as The Temple at this year’s Burning Man Festival in Black Rock City, Nevada. Designed by artists Ela Madej and Reed Finlay, it depicts an upside-down flower with its stem reaching skyward, serving as both a beacon and a sundial. The Temple, which changes design every year and offers a place of reflection, is usually burned on the eighth and final night of the event. However, this year’s burn was delayed due to multiple days of rain.
Whiting Oil Refinery
41.667547°,-87.480156° - Nearmap
The Whiting Refinery is an oil refinery located in Whiting, Indiana. It is the sixth largest refinery in the USA, spanning 1,400 acres (5.7 sq km) with a daily capacity of more than 400,000 barrels of crude oil. A 2023 study by the Environmental Integrity Project listed the Whiting facility as one of the worst-polluting refineries in the country, reporting it dumped 31 million pounds of total dissolved solids, 9 million pounds of chloride, more than 40,000 pounds of oil and grease, and many other pollutants into Lake Michigan in 2021.
Monterrey
25.666667°,-100.300000° - Google Timelapse
Monterrey is one of the largest metropolises in Mexico, but it has not always been that way. Its population has more than doubled since 1985, from 2.3 to 5.3 million, driven by pro-economic development policies, modern infrastructure and its strategic location near the United States border. The city is adjacent to Cumbres de Monterrey National Park, with 680 square miles (1,770 sq km) of rugged, folding mountain ranges.
Yarlung Tsangpo River
29.265970°,91.300070° - NASA
The Yarlung Tsangpo River changes course over the years as it flows across the Tibetan Plateau. Stretching 1,760 miles (2,840 kilometers) across China, India, and Bangladesh, the river is the 11th longest in Asia. The section of river seen here is located south of the city of Lhasa, Tibet.
Kalgoorlie-Boulder
-30.756582°,121.489551° - Maxar
Kalgoorlie-Boulder is a city in Western Australia, located adjacent to the Fimiston Open Pit gold mine. Founded in 1893 during the Western Australian gold rushes, it lies on the traditional lands of the Wangkatja people and has a population of about 29,000. Fimiston, also called “Super Pit,” is the sixth-deepest open-pit mine in the world, at 1,968 feet (600 m).
Derna Flooding Aftermath
32.763611°,22.636111° - Maxar
A low-angle view of the flooding in Derna, Libya shows the scale of destruction there as rescue and recovery efforts begin. Roads, bridges, dams and entire neighborhoods were washed away by floodwaters, leading to many thousand casualties. Other towns and cities along Libya’s Mediterranean coast were damaged by the deluge, though none as badly as Derna.
Estonian Oil Shale Mine
59.276660°,27.758794° - Google Timelapse
The Narva open-pit oil shale mine, in northeastern Estonia, is one of the world’s largest producers of shale oil. This Timelapse video illustrates the mine’s use of area stripping, a method that removes earth in long strips and uses overburden to fill the excavation produced by the previous strip. Estonia is second only to China in shale oil production and it is the only country in the world to use shale oil as its primary energy source.
Flooding in Libya
32.763611°,22.636111° - Planet
The city of Derna, Libya was destroyed by catastrophic flooding, following heavy rains from Storm Daniel that made landfall there on Sunday. Rushing water from higher elevations broke through two dams before descending on the city, where it washed out bridges, flooded streets, and even carried entire neighborhoods into the Mediterranean Sea. The flooding has resulted in more than 5,000 deaths so far.
Texas Drill Pipe Manufacturing
29.786829°,-94.897310° - Nearmap
Thousands of drill pipe sections are stored at a manufacturing plant in Baytown, Texas. These hollow pipes are primarily used on drilling rigs, where they are linked together and plunged several miles into the Earth’s crust to help extract oil. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, global demand for oil has plummeted (along with prices and available storage space), leading to a massive decrease in production.
World Trade Center Aftermath
40.711596°,-74.013218° - NOAA
This Overview was captured above Ground Zero in downtown Manhattan on September 23, 2001. Today, on the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we pay tribute to the victims, survivors, first responders and families affected. We hope this memory serves as a reminder of how essential it is to foster an appreciation and love for our fellow man.
Mexico City Texcoco Airport
19.500000°,-98.997500° - Maxar
Crowded blocks of Mexico City run adjacent to the abandoned site of Mexico City Texcoco Airport, a planned airport that was never finished. In 2018, after years of construction, a referendum passed in favor of moving the US$13.3 billion project to a new location. As a result, Felipe Ángeles International Airport was constructed further north of the city (and opened in 2022), and the site shown here is slated to become an ecological park and restoration area.
Salton Sea Agriculture
33.313056°,-115.834444° - NASA / Google Timelapse
The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly saline lake at the southern end of California. For thousands of years, the Colorado River has flowed into the lake’s valley, or has been diverted around it, depositing silt and creating fertile farmland. Roughly 1,700 square miles (4,400 square kilometers) of agricultural development stretches from the Salton Sea to the US-Mexico border, growing a variety of crops like asparagus, squash, tomatoes, watermelons, and dates.
Stuyvesant Town
40.732000°,-73.978000° - Nearmap
Stuyvesant Town is a residential community on the east side of Manhattan in New York City. In total, combined with neighboring Peter Cooper Village, its 110 red brick buildings contain 11,250 apartments, providing homes for slightly more than 21,000 people. The development, commonly known as StuyTown, opened in 1942 and primarily housed veterans returning to the United States from World War II.
Dead Sea
31.500000°,35.500000° - Google Timelapse
The Dead Sea, which straddles the border between Israel and Jordan, has changed shape over the years. Its surface area has dropped from 410 square miles in 1930 to 234 square miles today (1,050-605 square km), causing it to split into two basins in 1979. Since then, its southern basin has been partitioned into a series of saltwater evaporation pans.
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