Fedchenko Glacier

by wordlesstech team

The Pamir Mountains in eastern Tajikistan, include some of the world’s highest peaks, soaring to heights of 7,300 meters (24,000 feet ). They are part of the “roof of the world”, home to thousands of glaciers. Among them is Fedchenko, which at 77 kilometers (47 miles) is the longest glacier outside of the Earth’s polar regions. NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon

In this false-color image acquired on Oct. 2, 2011, by Landsat 5, the Fedchenko Glacier can be seen as it snakes its way northward from the western slopes of Independence Peak.

The sparsely vegetated, arid mountains appear reddish-brown, while snow and ice are bright cyan.

The melt waters of Fedchenko Glacier feed into the Muksu, Vakhsh, and Amu Darya rivers before eventually making their way to the Aral Sea some 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away.