ABSTRACT: Space Shuttle Hand-held Photography: A Unique Remote-Sensing Resource
William R. Muehlberger
On each Space Shuttle mission, the astronaut crew takes over 2000 photographs (color, some color infrared) of selected features of our dynamic planet. Atmospheric and oceanic targets constitute many of the recorded features. Geologic features include deltas, sand dunes, volcanoes, fold belts, fault zones, stereo strips of selected mountain ranges, fault zones, etc. Resolution of the film is comparable to LANDSAT on nearly vertical views (100 mm lens resolution approximately 80 m and the 250 mm lens about 30 m). Because the photos are in color (sometimes with stereo pairs) and with various sun angles and look direction, the viewer has new and unique opportunities to study the region of interest.
In oblique photos, the Dead Sea fault zone can be seen to be a set of straight segments with sharp bends at the Dead Sea, in southern Lebanon, and near the northern Lebanon-Syria border. Near vertical views detail the shapes of structures developed at these bends. The northern Dead Sea fault zone splinters as it enters Turkey where it leaves the more rigid Arabian Plate and enters the accreted zones of the Alpine-Taurid-Zagros-Himalaya collision zone. The East Anatolian fault zone (frequently shown as a simple left-lateral transform fault) is actually a set of transform fault segments that separate narrow belts of thrust faults.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91002©1990 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Denver, Colorado, September 16-19, 1990