Salt Lake Colors, Kazakhstan

An astronaut aboard the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) took this {photograph} of a series of small lakes within the treeless grassland, or steppe, of western Kazakhstan. The colourful lakes lie a couple of meters under sea degree. This a part of Kazakhstan is a lowland that slopes towards the Caspian Sea—300 kilometers to the south—which is itself about 27 meters (90 ft) under sea degree.

Small settlements (equivalent to Kumankol) dot these semi-arid landscapes, however they are often tough to discern in satellite tv for pc and house station imagery. A whole bunch of such pastoralist settlements are unfold out throughout rural Kazakhstan. A significant street crosses the underside of the picture.

The Ashiozek River, marked by many meanders, brings water south to the lakes. The river spreads out right into a small delta, and water flows via these branches to lakes Aralsor and Zhalnak and different depressions additional south. (For scale, Lake Aralsor measures 15 kilometers, or 9.5 miles, huge in an east-west route.) The margin of a vegetated dunefield is seen within the decrease left nook; dunes usually accompany such lakelets on this area.

Evaporation will increase the salinity of the water on this area, permitting completely different species of salt-loving microorganisms to thrive. The completely different salinity and temperature in every lake affect the dominant microbe species that prospers. Totally different microorganisms show various colours, as various lake water depth accentuates or softens the tones. Uncovered salt—and never an energetic microbial group—could clarify the sensible white of the smaller lake mattress on the decrease proper.

The phenomenon of colourful neighboring lakelets happens in all semi-arid subtropical zones, as demonstrated by astronaut pictures of Lake Eyre in Australia and Etosha Pan in Namibia. Evaporation ponds on the margin of the Nice Salt Lake (engineered pans used for salt manufacturing) present the identical sort of variable shade variations. Typically, purple and orange colours point out greater salt concentrations and microbial exercise than blue-hued water.

Astronaut {photograph} ISS067-E-133135 was acquired on June 15, 2022, with a Nikon D5 digital digital camera utilizing a focal size of 400 millimeters. It’s supplied by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Distant Sensing Unit, Johnson Area Heart. The picture was taken by a member of the Expedition 67 crew. The picture has been cropped and enhanced to enhance distinction, and lens artifacts have been eliminated. The Worldwide Area Station Program helps the laboratory as a part of the ISS Nationwide Lab to assist astronauts take photos of Earth that can be of the best worth to scientists and the general public, and to make these pictures freely accessible on the Web. Extra pictures taken by astronauts and cosmonauts will be seen on the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Images of Earth. Caption by Justin Wilkinson, Texas State College, JETS Contract at NASA-JSC.