Sinai from Space
May 15, 2002
Referred by: NASA Human Space Flight
Summary authors & editors: Martin Ruzek; NASA Human Space Flight
This spectacular oblique view of the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt on the left to Saudi Arabia on the right was captured by the astronauts of STS 109 while servicing the Hubble telescope in March of this year. The underlying darker deeply dissected Precambrian metamorphic rock of the southern end of the peninsula lies in sharp contrast to the lighter colored sedimentary rock further to the north and the more recent sands and gravels along the coasts. The Gulf of Aqaba is a finger of the Red Sea bottom center, pointing north to the Dead Sea, the small body of water near the center of the view. The Gulf of Suez appears in the lower left corner. Northwest Saudi Arabia occupies the lower right side of the view, Jordan and Syria the right and top right, and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, Israel and the West Bank to the top left and center. Thin white lines of cloud have formed along the coastal mountains of southern Turkey and stretch across the top of the view near the Earth's limb.
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