This three-dimensional perspective view, looking up the Tigil River, shows the western side of the volcanically active Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. The image shows that the Tigil River has eroded down from a higher and differing landscape and now flows through, rather than around the large green-colored bedrock ridge in the foreground. The older surface was likely composed of volcanic ash and debris from eruptions of nearby volcanoes. The green tones indicate that denser vegetation grows on south facing sunlit slopes at the northern latitudes. High resolution SRTM elevation data will be used by geologists to study how rivers shape the landscape, and by ecologists to study the influence of topography on ecosystems. This image shows how data collected by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) can be used to enhance other satellite images. Color and natural shading are provided by a Landsat 7 image acquired on January 31, 2000. Terrain perspective and shading were derived from SRTM elevation data acquired on February 12, 2000. Topography is exaggerated by about six times vertically. The United States Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observations Systems (EROS) Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, provided the Landsat data

Source: NASA