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A Landsat-7 image (taken on 27 July 2000) of the Lena Delta on the Russian Arctic coast, where the Lena River empties into the Laptev Sea. The Lena, which flows northward some 2,800 miles through Siberia, is one of the largest rivers in the world; the delta is a protected wilderness area, the largest in Russia. Russia is the subject of a “cluster” of articles in this issue, including a striking proposal for disposing of Russia’s remaining tactical nuclear weapons, and two historical studies—of a particularly dangerous incident involving the U.S. Sixth Fleet during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, and of Stalin’s puzzling program for a battleship navy.
For a full-color version of this duotone treatment, visit the Earth as Art website, posted jointly by the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA. Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey; further data available from the USGS, EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota.