Jump to content
  • Sign Up
×
×
  • Create New...

[NASA] Shaping the Emerald City

SpaceMan

By SpaceMan,
in World News

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Diamond Member
SpaceMan Hunter

SpaceMan 0

Posted
  • Diamond Member
Posted
Earth Observatory
  1. This is the hidden content, please
  2. This is the hidden content, please
  3. Shaping the Emerald City
 
This is the hidden content, please
June 16, 2026

Seattle, Washington—sometimes known as the “Emerald City”—was glimmering in the morning sunlight when an astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photo on June 16, 2026. The city’s parks and tree-filled neighborhoods lend a lush, green look to the metropolis, while tall buildings downtown cast long shadows and ships navigate surrounding waterways.

The broad contours of the city’s landscape and the water around it owe their shape to the advance and retreat of glaciers during the last ice age. Between roughly 18,000 and 16,000 years ago, the Puget lobe of the

This is the hidden content, please
covered the area in a mass of ice up to
This is the hidden content, please
(1,000 meters) thick. The glacier scoured the basins now occupied by Puget Sound and the region’s lakes. 

The glacier left its mark above water, too. Several of Seattle’s notorious hills (of which there are

This is the hidden content, please
, depending on who’s counting) are
This is the hidden content, please
. These elongated mounds of glacial debris run north-south, parallel to the direction of the ice’s movement. East-west travelers in the city, facing challenging ups and downs, may attest to this topographic trend.

The ice also transported large boulders called glacial erratics from more northerly locations and

This is the hidden content, please
around the region. A particularly large erratic, the
This is the hidden content, please
, stands about 20 feet (6 meters) tall and draws its name from the North Seattle neighborhood in which it rests.

This is the hidden content, please
June 16, 2026

In more recent times, humans have undertaken projects to rework the topography. Notable alterations include

This is the hidden content, please
north of downtown and
This is the hidden content, please
at the mouth of the Duwamish River south of downtown, which created around 1,300 acres of new land. Seattle’s professional sports stadiums
This is the hidden content, please
.

This photo was acquired after several

This is the hidden content, please
to update waterfront infrastructure downtown, initiated in 2010, were completed. These include a new
This is the hidden content, please
, a
This is the hidden content, please
, and a
This is the hidden content, please
to replace an above-ground highway and create more inviting public access to the waterfront.

Some replumbing of the region’s waterways is apparent from the astronaut’s perspective, as well. In the 1910s, the Army Corps of Engineers

This is the hidden content, please
on either side of Lake Union to connect Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) with Lake Washington. Starting in 1916, the
This is the hidden content, please
Lake Washington to Lake Union, and the
This is the hidden content, please
, northwest of Lake Union, began raising and lowering watercraft between the freshwater lakes and tidal Puget Sound. As a result of this project, Lake Washington’s water level dropped about 9 feet (3 meters) and ceased draining from its natural outlet at its southern end.

Today, the waters in and around Seattle support many uses: container ships, cruise ships, car and passenger ferries, floatplanes, and recreational craft ply the sound and lakes. And as for Seattle’s emerald nickname, pockets of

This is the hidden content, please
still exist within city limits, containing centuries-old trees such as Douglas fir, Western red cedar, and Western hemlock. Seattleites often spot wildlife such as bald eagles, coyotes, and sea lions in the city’s various habitats.

Astronaut photograph

This is the hidden content, please
 was acquired on June 16, 2026, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 560 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the 
This is the hidden content, please
. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The 
This is the hidden content, please
 supports the laboratory as part of the 
This is the hidden content, please
 to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC 
This is the hidden content, please
. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

Downloads

This is the hidden content, please

June 16, 2026: Wide view

JPEG (14.37 MB)

This is the hidden content, please

June 16, 2026: Detailed view

JPEG (6.72 MB)

References & Resources

  • Booth, D.B., et al. (2003)
    This is the hidden content, please
    . Development in Quaternary Science, 1, 17-43.
  • Cascade PBS (2025, January 9)
    This is the hidden content, please
    . Accessed July 17, 2026.
  • City of Seattle (2026)
    This is the hidden content, please
    . Accessed July 17, 2026.
  • HistoryLink.org (2017, February 5)
    This is the hidden content, please
    . Accessed July 17, 2026.
  • HistoryLink.org (2016, December 30)
    This is the hidden content, please
    . Accessed July 17, 2026.
  • Williams, D.B. (2017)
    This is the hidden content, please
    . University of Washington Press.

You may also be interested in:

Stay up-to-date with the latest content from NASA as we explore the universe and discover more about our home planet.

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

3 min read

The glacial lake left a layer of silt and clay in southeastern Manitoba, creating fertile farmland that was divided during…

Article
This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

4 min read

Lake Unter-See in Antarctica, sealed beneath thick ice, has unusual water chemistry and cone-shaped microbial structures resembling some of Earth’s…

Article
This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

This is the hidden content, please

4 min read

Ice splintered off the southern Patagonia glacier and drifted across a growing glacial lake.

Article

This is the hidden content, please

0
Link to comment
https://hopzone.eu/forums/topic/322279-nasa-shaping-the-emerald-city/
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Vote for the server

    To vote for this server you must login.

    Jim Carrey Flirting GIF

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Important Information

Privacy Notice: We utilize cookies to optimize your browsing experience and analyze website traffic. By consenting, you acknowledge and agree to our Cookie Policy, ensuring your privacy preferences are respected.

  I accept