Srinivas Mitra's Blog: Channeling Earth: Rivers Seen From Space

Irrawaddy River, Myanmar

The Irrawaddy River splinters into several outlets in its delta on the Bay of Bengal, creating the ideal environment for mangroves. However, a lot of the mangroves have been cleared for rice cultivation, leaving the coastline without the natural protection of these partially submerged forests. Since this image was captured by the Landsat 7 satellite in 2000, even more mangroves have disappeared and in 2008, Cyclone Nargis brought a 12-foot storm surge that devastated the area, threatening the country’s food supply.

Alluvial Fan, Tibet

Lake Morari on the Tibetan Plateau is fed by a glacial river that has formed a dramatic apron of sediment, known as an alluvial fan, over the years. The fan grew big enough to damn the river and form the lake. The water must go back around and through the fan sediments to drain through the lake’s outlet on the left side of this image, taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station in 2006.

Ganges River, India

The false color image of the Ganges River Delta was taken in 2000 by the Landsat 7 satellite. Bare, sandy soil appears white in the image, and the swamp forests of the region, home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, show up as green. The 1,560-mile-long river originates in the Himalayas and flows across the Uttarakhand state of India to the Bay of Bengal

Mississippi River

Over the past 10,000 years, the Mississippi River has wandered along 200 miles of coastline, switching to a new outlet into the Gulf of Mexico every thousand years or so. Left alone, it would continue to move. Holding it in place is one of the Army Corps of Engineers’ most impressive feats. The Mississippi is the biggest river in the United States, stretching 2,320 miles.

The image above, taken by the Landsat 7 satellite in 2001, shows the Birdfoot Delta, which the river has inhabited for around 600 years and measures more than 31 miles across. The image below, taken by GeoEye’s Ikonos satellite, shows the river after it broke at least two levees in June 2008, flooding the city of Gulfport, Illinois.