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ISS005-E-9691

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	File Name	File Size (bytes)	Width	Height	Annotated	Cropped	Purpose	Comments
View	ISS005-E-9691.JPG	110346	639	435	No	No		From STIC, color adjusted
View	ISS005-E-9691.JPG	141454	540	787	Yes	Yes	NASA's Earth Observatory web site
View	ISS005-E-9691.JPG	270461	540	405			Scientist Request	Online Publication
View	ISS005-E-9691.JPG	968102	1000	1242	No		NASA's Earth Observatory web site

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Request	ISS005-E-9691.JPG	899675	1024	768		Yes	Presentation	Color adjusted
Request	ISS005-E-9691.JPG	1577039	3032	2064	No	No		From STIC, color adjusted

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Identification

Mission: ISS005 Roll: E Frame: 9691 Mission ID on the Film or image: ISS005
Country or Geographic Name: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Features: MOUNT KAZBEK, GLACIERS
Center Point Latitude: 42.5 Center Point Longitude: 44.5 (Negative numbers indicate south for latitude and west for longitude)
Stereo: (Yes indicates there is an adjacent picture of the same area)
ONC Map ID: JNC Map ID:

Camera

Camera Tilt: 33
Camera Focal Length: 800mm
Camera: E4: Kodak DCS760C Electronic Still Camera
Film: 3060E : 3060 x 2036 pixel CCD, RGBG array.

Quality

Film Exposure:
Percentage of Cloud Cover: 10 (0-10)

Nadir

Date: 20020813 (YYYYMMDD)GMT Time: 110738 (HHMMSS)
Nadir Point Latitude: 44.0, Longitude: 46.2 (Negative numbers indicate south for latitude and west for longitude)
Nadir to Photo Center Direction: Southwest
Sun Azimuth: 233 (Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point)
Spacecraft Altitude: 208 nautical miles (385 km)
Sun Elevation Angle: 50 (Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point)
Orbit Number: 1300

Captions

This photograph of Mt. Kazbek was taken from the International Space Station on August 13, 2002. The astronauts and cosmonauts took the photograph at the request of the Russian URAGAN project, which is studying changes in the world’s glaciers in response to global climate change. Although scientists have predicted the possibility of large glacial collapses as the climate warms, no one predicted that tragedy would strike the mountain village of Karmadon, a little more than a month later.

On September 20 a collapse of a hanging glacier from the slope of Mt Dzhimarai-Khokh onto the Kolka glacier triggered an avalanche of ice and debris that went over the Maili Glacier terminus then slid over 15 miles. It buried small villages in the Russian Republic of North Ossetia, killing dozens of people. Where the ice stopped, the glacial debris flow dammed rivers further below. Several lakes formed and one of them flooded a village. The lakes are now threatening to burst and form debris flows.

This photograph shows the lower part of the Kolka Glacier terminus, on to which the glacier from Mt Dzhimarai-Khokh collapsed—the mountain itself is further to the west. However, the Maili Glacier and its terminus, as well as the upper part of the Genaldon River valley that was filled by the debris slide is very clear in the photo. In this very detailed view, Karmadon is much further to the North.

Exactly a hundred years ago, in 1902, the same kind of catastrophe happened in this valley, killing 32 people. In 1969 Kolka Glacier surged, but there were no casualties and the villages were not affected. The 1969 surge was studied by a special expedition, however after the glacier stabilized, research in the area stopped. It was concluded that the 1902 catastrophe was also a result of a glacier surge. The latest data on the 2002 catastrophe raise doubts in this conclusion—it is possible that the 1902 event resulted from a similar cascade of collapses.

Russian scientists Olga Tutubalina, Dmitry Petrakov, Sergei Chernomorets (Moscow State University) and Lev Dessinov (Russian Academy of Sciences) have been cooperating with the NASA Crew Earth Observations project to help interpret detailed glacier imagery captured from the International Space Station. International Space Station crewmembers are surveying glaciers around the world using their low orbit and high-magnification lenses to get high spatial resolution.

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