SPACEPHOTOS

Lakeland Area, Florida, USA November 1998 The heavily populated central west coast of the Florida peninsula, centered on Tampa Bay (top), include the urban areas of Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater in this westerly looking view that extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the karst topography inland. Interstate Highway 4 (light colored, linear feature) runs east and west across the center of the scene from Tampa Bay to the lakes inland at the bottom of the view. The dark, roughly oval features along the eastern (bottom) side of the picture are lakes that have formed in sinkholes that pockmark the underlying limestone rock. The highly reflective, angular surfaces towards the south central part of the picture are open pit phosphate mines. The extensive darker terrain along the north central edge (right) of the image is poorly drained swampland