NASA Space Station Image: Caravelas strandplain, Bahia Province, Brazil

high res (1.5 M) low res (92 K)

ISS014-E-10499 (23 Dec. 2006) –Caravelas strandplain, Bahia Province, Brazil is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 14 crewmember on the International Space Station.

This view highlights a flat coastal landform known as a strandplain, or ancient shoreline. The image is dominated by numerous, fine parallel lines (trending diagonally from upper left to lower right), each of which is an ancient shoreline made up of sand transported from rivers to the north.

The strandplain has been generated by these narrow shorelines accumulating against one another, line by line in their dozens or even hundreds, over thousands of years. The shorelines can be grouped into at least four packets depending on the crosscutting relationships younger packets will cut into or stratigraphically overlay older packets. These relationships indicate that the youngest packet lies nearest the coast (furthest right) and the oldest packet lies north of the city of Caravelas (bottom).

The Caravelas River flows into the Atlantic Ocean at the bottom of the view. Sediment from this river, and from the current shoreline, produces the light browns and dun colors visible offshore.

On the day this image was taken the river water was relatively clear; clear water (gray) is visible flowing out of the main river mouth, and also off to one side to the south over a levee.

The Caravelas airport appears near the middle of the view, and is built on one of the ancient shoreline packets. Caravelas itself, a fishing town of about 20,000 inhabitants, lies on an estuary and was once a flourishing whaling center–the prominent cape at top right is known as Ponta da Baleia (Whale Point).