Australia is one of two "island continents" (the other, of course, is the Antarctic) - so big that it is misleading to think of it as an island per se. Most inhabitants live along or near the coasts where nearly all its large cities are situated. Vegetation sufficient to stand out in the landscape is confined mainly to the southeastern corner and tropical areas in the northern sectors near the equator. Semi-arid and desert conditions prevail in most of the interior. High mountains are scarce; plains dominate. To the east lie the two islands of New Zealand. North Island has active volcanoes. South Island has a great mountain range, the Alps.
Ausralia is a vast continent embedded in the Indo-Australian tectonic plate that is moving northward against the Indonesian Islands. Most of its citizens live near the coast. This map names the states of Australia and shows its major road network:
All of Australia is pictured in this Landsat mosaic (a larger and somewhat different version appears near the bottom of page 7-3.
Most of Australia is semi-desert. Mountains are infrequent and relatively low. One region of low ranges and dissected crystalline and sedimentary rocks we will see again in a mosaic on page 17-3. But here we will look more closely at one of the images making up that mosaic. This is the so-called Pilbara District of northwest Australia, near the coast. In this image is perhaps the best single exposure on a denuded surface with little vegetation of the geologic phenomenon know as "batholiths". These are intrusive igneous rock masses - often 100s of kilometers in dimension - that came as melt into the crust but did not reach the surface (until eventually revealed by downward erosion). Between these giant bodies are metamorphosed rocks containing basalts that are now called "greenstones". This is probably the classic example of an Archaen Greenstone Complex, and especially of batholiths, anywhere on Earth.
In the Northern Territories is Arnhem Land, populated mostly by aborigines. This scene is about 200 km east of Darwin, the only large town in the region. The scene below was taken during a dry period, but rain forests (dark red) occur, and vegetation blooms after rains. This land contains animals such as portrayed in the movie "Crocodile Dundee".
Much of the Australian Interior is dry, harsh, inhospitable, and sparsely developed. This next scene lies in the Sturt Desert where New South Wales, South Australia, and Queensland meet. Numerous sand dunes aligned with long dimension running NW-SE blanket the landscape. Normally rainfall is less than 12 inches (30 cm) a year. But in this scene there had been a heavy period of rain a bit earlier such that water has collected (temporarily) in the low areas between dunes.
Approximately 80% of Australia is arid lands (the other 20% includes tropical forests in the north and temperate forests along some of the coasts). Only a fraction of the drier terrains have numerous sand dunes like those in the Sturt Desert above. Here are two views of the Great Sandy Desert in northwest Australia, the first showing some broad sandy cover, the second showing mostly bedrock with sparse vegetation:
The influence of a prolific, if short-lived, rainy season in the interior is evidenced in these next two Landsat scenes within the Great Artesian Basin, located at the border of Queensland and New South Wales. Top image: After especially heavy rains, the Barcoo River fills a depression with water that extends as a large lake, Lake Cuddapan. The surrounding land is also now displaying grass and marshy vegetation, the former suitable for cattle grazing. Bottom image: After the wet season, the land reverts to a barren state but the lake beds remain wet enough to support extensive wetlands vegetation.
The main destination of tourists exploring the Australian Outback (interior) is the town of Alice Springs. Nearby is the MacDonnell Range, fold mountains that are expressed as ridges. In this next image, the Gosses Bluff impact crater (Section 18) is a small circular area to the north (near top center) of the Ranges.
Several hundred kilometers from Alice Springs is the country's most famous natural landmark known both by its aboriginal name, Uluru, and by the name given it by English settlers, Ayers Rock. This is the largest monolith in the world, being 3.8 km long and 348 meters high. It consists of arkose (feldspar-rich sandstone), in highly tilted strata. Now a National Park, it boasts several five star hotels within sight to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of visitors now trekking to it each year. Below we show a 2 m color image of Ayers Rock taken by the IKONOS satellite and an aerial oblique view in natural color.
The dissected plateau country in southeast Australia receives much more rainfall so that the region is heavily forested with eucalyptus, gum, mahogany, and ironwood, as well as tree ferns, palms, and other tropical vegetation near the coast. The Blue Mountains and the Hunter Range make up part of the scene below. The largest city (more than 4 million) in Australia, Sydney, lies between Botany Bay (south) and Port Jackson Bay (north) and extends inland at least 20 km (12 miles). This is how it appears in an Terra MISR image taken just before the Olympics 2000 began in September. The city itself is just right of center.
Zooming in closer on Sydney, look at this annotated EO-1 image of part of that great city:
The downtown section of Sydney is impressive in this panoramic photograph:
When visiting Sydney in 1974, the writer (NMS) had a chance to tour its most famous landmark, the fabulous Opera House (while a performance rehearsal was taking place).
This marvelous structure, completed in 1972, shows up as a dominating feature in this Quickbird image of the harbor and downtown buildings of Sydney:
The 2000 Olympic Village in Sydney (outside the edge of the EO-1 image) is sharply singled out by an IKONOS-2 image: The writer during his 1974 visit was asked to lecture at the Australian National University in the new (construction began in the 1960s) capital of Canberra. (At that time I was supposed to speak on the Moon rocks I had studied in 1969-70, but when I noted two world experts on the subject, Drs. Anthony Ringwood and Ross Taylor, in the audience, I lost my nerve and switched the topic to "shocked rocks" about which they knew little.) In 1974 this newly built capital complex had wide open spaces and a still small population. Everything was built around a central lake. Here is a photo I took: By the mid '90s this Landsat TM subscene shows major population growth and spread, as the city itself also by then had many planted trees in full growth. The only big city along the southwest coast of Western Australia is Perth on the Indian Ocean, shown here in a Landsat subscene. Flat plains inland from Perth end abruptly against a spread of low mountains, the Darling Range, heavily forested. The linear nature of the contact of plains with these uplands (part of the Paleozoic crystalline shield), suggest a fault.
We look next at an area about 725 km (450 miles) east of Perth and 160 km (100 miles) inland from the south coast. It is underlain by ancient Archean crystalline and sedimentary rocks that have been worn down to lowlands (plains).Natural vegetation is known locally as mallee scrub, a mixture of saltbush and bluebush. Most of the upper right has been undeveloped but over the years, much of the remaining area has been cleared by burning. Calcium-rich soils there, plus a rainfall of 25-38 cm (10-15 inches) per year, have favored development of numerous interlocking large farms. Wheat is the principal crop. Here in October (Australia’s spring), the fields show only the first stages of growth. Between the farmlands and the pristine terrain to the northeast is one of Australia’s electrified "rabbit-proof" fences designed to keep that marauding pest away from the croplands. Salt lakes appear in the virgin lands.
When tourists come to Australia, besides Ayer's Rock and Alice Springs, and of course Sydney, the third popular destination is the famed Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, as seen in this image:
A closer look from space shows parts of the reef complex just north of the city of Cairns - the prime spot for vacationers who wish to explore the reef.
One way is by air; here is an aerial view of the reef:
The best way is to explore parts of the Great Barrier Reef close up, either by sailing over it in a glass-bottomed boat or by snorkeling. This is an indication of what you would see:
The GBR, like much of the world's coral reefs elsewhere, is experiencing damage by bleaching (the white coral stalk in the above photo is an example), brought on both by warmer temperatures and by chemicals added to the seas by man. In this global warming era, there is a real danger that the coral reefs across the globe can by killed.
One of the most beautiful and scenic countries in the world is New Zealand, a pair of islands some 1600 km (1000 miles) southeast of Sydney. These landmasses form near a major plate boundary between the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates. North Island is notable for its several active volcanoes and a major geyser-hot steam field.
North Island was the destination of the writer (NMS) as the first major stop on my round-the-world mission for NASA and the U.S. State Department in 1975. I flew into Aukland after an 18-hr flight, was interviewed for national TV, then was driven south for a fabulous overnight stay at Lake Taupo, and next day on to Wellington. That
city is at the south tip of the Island, just off the bottom center of this Envisat MERIS image:
But to those who have toured N.Z., South Island is ranked as even more striking because of its spectacular mountains and lush plains. The snow-capped Southern Alps, a chain of complexly folded and metamorphosed rocks elevated by plate collision to current heights above 3000 meters (10000 ft). Their western side is bounded by the great Alpine fault, analogous to the San Andreas of California (and many visitors compare the landscapes of N.Z. to parts of that state). The entire South Island has been emvisaged in a Day-IR HCMM image (see page 9-8), shown next, in which many of the black patches are snow. Note the effect on the regional topography by the Alpine Fault (linear boundary below top center). On its south are high mountains; to the north are low plains.
On December 7, 2007 the MODIS instrument on Aqua obtained this cloud-free image of the South Island:
The Alps have been extensively glaciated, producing the rugged peaks and valleys walls that resemble Yosemite in California. As evident in the scene below, the eastern Alps give way to the Canterbury Plains, across which flow (top to bottom) the Waiau, Waimakariri, and Raikaia Rivers. The Banks Peninsula to the east is built up, in part, of several now extinct volcanoes. The city of Christchurch (blackish area) lies at its northwest end. Land use is mainly sheep and cattle husbandry, and wheat, oats, and fodder farming on the Plains.
The kinship in appearance of the New Zealand Alps to those in Europe is evident in this Landsat 7 ETM+ image that shows Mt. Cook, at 3754 m (12316 ft) the highest point in this mountain chain, and almost twice as high as the highest mountain in nearby Australia. The ranges on the two islands were once connected before New Zealand split off.
The ground photo below was taken from the coast north of Christchurch looking at the terraces in the Canterbury Plains cut by the Karangama River with the high Alps in the background.
A closer look at the Southern Alps is afforded by these two images, the second being of Mt. Cook, highest in the range, and similar to the Matterhorn in the European Alps:
Movie-goers, and especially fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, should recognize this scenery. The entire Ring was filmed mostly in South Island of New Zealand, but with some scenes in North Island. The actors and crew were based out of South Island's largest town - Christchurch, seen here in an International Space Station photo (the 250000th picture taken from that platform). The circular hills are a dissected old volcanic edifice.
As one moves out into the great Pacific Basin beyond Australia and New Zealand, many island groups are found scattered about, mainly in low latitudes. Many islands are volcanic (see the Hawaiian Islands as the lead example, on page page 17-3). Some of those have fringes of coral around them. In this latter category, the third largest island is New Caledonia. This photo, taken by an astronaut aboard the ISS, shows a part of the island with its peninsula that contains the largest city, Noumea.
Many Pacific islands are atolls (see page 17-4 for other examples). A typical atoll is Mantangi Island in the Fiji Island group of several hundred. The entire island is a coral reef some 3 km (2 miles) in length. It is fringed with submerged coral (lighter blue) and a white coral sand beach; inland the island is covered with tropical trees and brush.
The writer's airplane landed on Tahiti in the French Polynesian islands. This volcanic pair is fringed with a narrow coral reef:
Islands are widespread over the Pacific. Some have notably histories in World War II. Midway northwest of the Hawaiian Islands was part of the turning point battle of the Japanese campaign. While it was being attached by Japanese carrier planes, U.S. carriers launched strikes at the Japanese, sinking three of their carriers. Here is Midway, still a U.S. Marine base; it is a very narrow coral reef:/p>
General Douglas MacArthur was, along with Admiral Chester Nimitiz, the duo who devised the "island hopping" strategy that recaptured some islands that the Japanese had occupied earlier in their spread across the west Pacific. Guadacanal and Tarawa were the sites of two of the most vicious battles. Tarawa appears here in this satellite image - one wonders why such a tiny island was so vital in the campaign but again the airport was the main motivation.
With these last scenes, we conclude our odyssey around the fascinating landscapes and urban centers on our planet Earth.
