NASA's Earth Observatory features many different kinds of satellite imagery, both data from satellites and more direct observational images and photographs (i.e., showing what things look like on Earth from high above it). A few days ago they featured an astronaut photograph of an impact crater in the Namibian Desert -- that's in Africa -- named Roter Kamm, translated to English as "The Red Comb".
It is locatable with Google Maps -- right here. I zoomed out far enough that you can also see Mount Aurusberg. On the map, that's the green shape above the crater. It's part of the mountain range that's also visible in the Earth Observatory photo.
It's in a very remote and hostile place. I did a bit of Google map searching, but I couldn't definitively locate the nearest inhabited location. Might be Rosh Pinah, which is a mining town - read on.
So I wondered if there were any pictures of it taken from the ground. And I found one (shown below), which has a decidedly Martian feel. The basic story is that the chap that took it had a friend who could get him there -- because being a place where diamonds are mined, it's an area that's closed to the public.
As if there were enough members of the public who would want to go there. But I get it -- even if Roter Kamm doesn't attract tourists, the diamonds probably would attract diamond poachers. And I've heard, though I'm not pursuing that now, that in this region the beach sands include the occasional diamond.
So here's the pic from the rim of Roter Kamm, which by now has mostly filled with red Namib desert dust.
No comments:
Post a Comment