Mountains from Space: Peaks and Ranges of the Seven Continents

by Stefan Dech, Rudiger Glasser, Reinhold Messner

Using highly specialized, advanced digital satellite imaging-first made possible in the year 2000 with the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission-this book presents an astounding collection of images of the Earth's mountain ranges carefully compiled over the course of five years by the German Remote Sensing Data Center. Now available to the public for the first time here, the most majestic peaks on all seven continents are visible as they never would be to the naked eye-in views taken from 500 to 15 miles above the Earth that reveal the entire mountain range at once, unobstructed by clouds, haze, and the refraction of light.

Mountains from Space is much more than a collection of extraordinary pictures; it is a serious work of nonfiction about every important aspect of these fascinating geological formations, from their genesis by volcanic activity to their specific sociological features. Contributions by esteemed scientists and mountaineers alike highlight this provocative study of our planet Earth.

Genres: Geology

244 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of a picture book, but oh the pictures... I love looking down at the planet from an airplane, and this takes it all a step further and what is mind bogglingly amazing and earth and soul shattering is how intensely small our mountains are when looked at from space in contrast with the diameter of the planet. When Everest can look like a bump, you just realize how small each person or tree really is, and that is humbling and very holy. Reinhold Messner wrote several essays in the book, fitting as he is one of the greatest climbers to have lived, and he writes, "seen from above, landscapes are made up of mountains and watercourses. Just as a transparent model of the human body consists of a framework of bone and a network of arteries, the earth's crust is structured in mountain ridges, river, creeks, and gullies." Comparisons of landscapes and the body resonate with me, maybe in a mystical way as we contain the ideas of the planet and the universe within us as well.

Geology is one of my favorite topics in life, I am without a doubt a geology geek, and as it discussed in this book, I felt like I was reading a holy and sacred text. I knew the Himalayas were still rising, from 2-5 cm a year; I didn't know the Alps are also rising at a pace of 1-2 mm a year. I can't even imagine how high they will go, there is some evidence that Everest is generating some radioactive heat that is melting it, so is there a equilibrium on the rise and the erosion? Geologic questions fascinate me, and I think it is the only time I wish for immortality because just as geology reads the history of our planet, it can try to predict its future, and sometimes I wish I could be there to see it. One of my ideas of a heaven is a place where I just watch the planet as it changes, that the rate of geologic time will mesh with my very human sense of time, and I will just be mesmerized by the rise and fall of mountains and the oceans and the changes in river patterns, and the colors of winter, spring, summer, and autumn washing over the continents and the changing outlines of the continents as they move.

Besides all of it, my favorite new fact is that as we all know, the earth at the equator "bulges out as a result of centrifugal force" and the radius is greater at the equator than at the poles. SO the highest mountain as mesured from the center of the earth would be Ecuador's Chimborazo since it lies on the equator, higher than Everest by 6,740 feet. Measured tradtionally it is the 99th highest...

The photos are not all actual photos; some are virtual images with false color to represent vegetation, etc; fascinating all the same especially when the satellite images are placed over a virtual panorama with the picture that you are looking at representing a view from altitudes of 200-440 miles high. Another picture of the Himalayas is a digital elevation model from an altitude of 4,350 miles. Such a unique perspective on this little planet I worship...