Images
June 5, 2026 - Appalachian Mountains
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The Appalachian Mountains sweep across the Eastern United States, creating a gorgeous array of ridges and valleys when seen from space. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the ancient mountains on June 3, 2026.
The green, heavily forested ridges are covered in a dense canopy that stands in sharp contrast to the light valleys. The Appalachian valleys are typically rich agricultural land, usually with rivers coursing through them. Geologically, the valleys are made up of softer, more erodible rock layers than the rugged mountainsides.
The formation of the Appalachians occurred over a vast expanse of time, with many of the rocks created somewhere between 540 to 300 million years ago, thanks to shifting of continents through plate tectonics. The US Geological Survey (USGS) states that the core rocks were formed more than a billion years ago, at a time when all of the continents we know today were joined together in a single supercontinent surrounded by a single ocean. These truly ancient rocks can be seen in many places in the Appalachian Mountains, including North Carolina’s Blowing Rock.
The southernmost point of the Appalachians is found in the U.S. state of Georgia, not far from the major city of Atlanta. In this image, Atlanta can be identified by a sprawling, spider-web shaped grouping of gray pixels.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 6/3/2026
Resolutions:
1km (217.3 KB), 500m (605 KB), 250m (927.6 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
The Appalachian Mountains sweep across the Eastern United States, creating a gorgeous array of ridges and valleys when seen from space. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the ancient mountains on June 3, 2026.
The green, heavily forested ridges are covered in a dense canopy that stands in sharp contrast to the light valleys. The Appalachian valleys are typically rich agricultural land, usually with rivers coursing through them. Geologically, the valleys are made up of softer, more erodible rock layers than the rugged mountainsides.
The formation of the Appalachians occurred over a vast expanse of time, with many of the rocks created somewhere between 540 to 300 million years ago, thanks to shifting of continents through plate tectonics. The US Geological Survey (USGS) states that the core rocks were formed more than a billion years ago, at a time when all of the continents we know today were joined together in a single supercontinent surrounded by a single ocean. These truly ancient rocks can be seen in many places in the Appalachian Mountains, including North Carolina’s Blowing Rock.
The southernmost point of the Appalachians is found in the U.S. state of Georgia, not far from the major city of Atlanta. In this image, Atlanta can be identified by a sprawling, spider-web shaped grouping of gray pixels.
Image Facts
Satellite:
Terra
Date Acquired: 6/3/2026
Resolutions:
1km (217.3 KB), 500m (605 KB), 250m (927.6 KB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit:
MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC
