SPACEPHOTOS

Grande (Guapay) River, Bolivia November 1984 The Grande River, also known as the Guapay River, is visible as a sinuous, light-colored feature that gradually bends southwestward in south central Bolivia. Numerous sand bars (highly reflective features) within the river help to establish the width of this broad floodplain. Notice the short flowing but highly silted tributary stream (also highly reflective, white-colored) that joins the much larger Grande River as it drains southeast and has built up a light colored delta at it’s mouth. The thin, straight (light-colored) lines are mainly a pipeline and a railroad right-of-way (diagonally crossing the image). The angular, elongated, and multicolored patterns shows the distribution of the widely spaced farmlands in this lowland region south of Santa Cruz (not in this picture). Cultivated fields are partially visible (although clouds obscure some of the agricultural fields) in the lower right corner of the image. The upper right corner of the picture shows a limited section of the rugged, sparsely populated and forested foothills of the Andes Mountains.