Although the extraction of mineral wealth has been the major influence in the
history of Johannesburg and the surrounding Witwatersrand regions (with about
45% of all gold ever mined coming from there), the discovery of now-famous
hominid fossils at the Sterkfontein Caves, and the convening of the world's
largest-ever conference on environment and development, are setting a new
stage for the future. The United Nations began the second Development and
Environment Conference in Johannesburg on August 26, 2002. This meeting
addresses the implementation of international goals to fight poverty and
protect the global environment that were established at the first such
conference held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Johannesburg summit involves
about forty thousand participants, and perhaps 100 world leaders. One of
several official opening ceremonies for the conference was held at the
Sterkfontein Caves to recognize the outstanding universal value of the
paleo-anthropological fossils found there.
These views from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) highlight
a number of the land use, vegetation, and geological features found within
Gauteng Province (including the urban center of Johannesburg and the capital
city Pretoria) and parts of the North West and Free State Provinces. The image
on the right displays vegetation in red hues and is a false-color view utilizing
data from MISR's near-infrared, red and blue bands. Both the natural-color view
(left) and the false-color version were acquired by MISR's nadir camera on
June 16, 2002. The urban areas appear as gray-colored pixels in the
natural-color view, and exhibit colors corresponding with the relative
abundance of vegetation found in the urban parts of this arid region.
The mountains trending east-west near the center of the images extend from
Pretoria in the east to Rustenberg in the west. These ranges, the Magaliesberg
and Witwatersberg, separate the low-lying, hotter bushveld to the north from
the cooler highveld to the south. The large round feature near the north-west
corner indicates an ancient volcanic crater in the Pilanesberg National Park.
Many bright, buff-colored rectangular patches around Johannesburg are associated
with mining activities, and at least two of these areas (situated 40 kilometers
southeast of the city) hold large amounts of water. The Sterkfontein Caves (now
included within the recently created "Cradle of Humankind" World Heritage Site)
are located about 35 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. In the southern
portion of the images, a section of the Vredefort Hills is apparent to the west,
and to the east the Vaal River and a large water body contained by the Vaal Dam
delineate the border between the Gauteng and Free State provinces.
The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously
from pole to pole, and views almost the entire globe every 9 days. This image is
a portion of the data acquired during Terra orbit 13266, and covers an area of
about 190 kilometers x 221 kilometers. It utilizes data from blocks 111 to 112
within World Reference System-2 path 170.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team.
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