Photo courtesy of NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
Source: NASA/JPL Web Site. This image is in the public domain, because it is a work of the United States Government.

This is an image taken by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite. It shows a 60 km stretch of the Yangtze River just west of the Three Gorges Dam. The upper image was acquired on May 20, 2001 before the dam was filled. The bottom image is from March 25, 2003, showing the partial filling of the reservoir.

When the Three Gorges reservoir will be completely filled in 2012, the lake will be some 600 km in length and submerge about 17,160 ha of farmland and some 200 ancient tombs.

Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 by Gerhard K. Heilig. All rights reserved.