Alluvial Fan in Western China

A vast alluvial fan blossoms across the desolate landscape between the Kunlun
and Altun Mountains that form the southern border of the Taklimakan Desert in
China's XinJiang Province. The river appears electric blue as it runs out of
the mountains at the bottom right corner of the scene and then fans out into
scores of intricate, braided channels that disappear into the desert. Dry
channels in the river's former paths appear as silvery etchings at lower right.

This scene was acquired by the ASTER instrument on NASA's Terra satellite on May 2, 2002.