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Astronaut Tom Jones: Lake Erie Ice Flow, April 15, 1994. Looking at early spring from shuttle Endeavour with my crew on STS-59, Space Radar Lab 1. NASA: Ice flows are visible along the eastern shore of Lake Erie in this north-looking view. Lake Erie is 241 miles (388 km) long and from 30 to 57 miles (48 to 92 km) wide. Lake Erie is the fourth largest and shallowest of the five Great lakes with a maximum depth of 210 feet (64 meters), and is the only Great Lake with its lake floor above sea level. Lake Erie is partially ice bound in winter and is normally closed to ship traffic from mid-December to the end of March. As the ice begins to break up in March, predominantly westerly winds push the ice eastward toward Buffalo, New York (top right of image). The city of Erie, Pennsylvania can be seen near the left center of the image on the southern shore of Lake Erie. Presque Isle, a peninsula, is discernible protruding out into Lake Erie. This peninsula helps form Erie’s superb harbor, Pennsylvania’s only Great Lakes port. Portions of the dissected Allegheny Plateau can be seen covering the lower right quadrant of the image. Near the center of the image, the bluish-colored waters of Chautauqua Lake are discernible. To the south of Chautauqua Lake are sediment-laden waters of the Allegheny Reservoir.

Astronaut Tom Jones: Our STS-59 crew took this image of the southern Alaska coast and its many mountain ranges and glaciers on April 14, 1994. The big glacier on the center right on the coast is Bering Glacier. It's fed by the Bagley Icefield to the north. The snow-free valley is that of the Chitina River, which meets the Copper River at center left. Where the Copper bends back to the north, you can see 12,100-ft. Mt. Drum, part of the Wrangell Mountains. NASA: Bering Glacier currently terminates in Vitus Lake south of Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, about 10 km from the Gulf of Alaska. Combined with the Bagley Icefield, where the snow that feeds the glacier accumulates, the Bering is the largest glacier in North America. Warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation over the past century have thinned the Bering Glacier by several hundred meters. Since 1900 the terminus has retreated as much as 12 km. (The Bering Glacier ‘surges,’ an acceleration of the flow rate of the glacier, every 20 years or so. During these periods the glacier terminus advances. The surges are generally followed by periods of retreat, so despite the periodic advances the glacier has been shrinking overall.) Most of the glaciers along the Alaskan coast are retreating along with the Bering Glacier.

sts059-219-065 Onekotan

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Astronaut Tom Jones: Our view of New Zealand's South Island on April 16, 1994 from shuttle Endeavour. The Southern Alps are the snow-capped range at left, with Mt. Cook (at 12,218') the prominent peak at middle left. North is at upper left. The three north-south lakes on the south side of Mt. Cook are (from top) Lake Takapo, Lake Pukaki, and Lake Ohau. Lake Benmore is at center bottom. The milky blue lakes, fed by glacial meltwater, are even more striking when seen on their shores. This is one place I've actually seen both from space and on the ground. From north to south, the South Island and New Zealand are well worth the trip.

Astronaut Tom Jones: On April 18, 1994, the STS-59 crew aboard shuttle Endeavour captured this view of the mouth of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, USA. Our work operating Space Radar Lab 1 had been going very well for the past 9 days--2 more to go until reentry. In this photo, north is to the upper right, where the Delmarva peninsula ends in a point at Cape Charles. Barrier islands stretch along the Atlantics coastline. At center, sunglint highlights Cape Henry, Virginia Beach, and the Norfolk naval base. At upper left, the James River enters Hampton Roads above Norfolk, the historic anchorage that in March 1862 saw the world's first combat between ironclads. Around and to the north side of the Newport News peninsula, and parallel to the James, the York River flows down from Yorktown to enter the Chesapeake. Gloucester Point in the York is just opposite the town of Yorktown and its 1781 battlefield. My STS-68 crewmate Jeff Wisoff was raised in Hampton, at the tip of the peninsula; NASA's Langley Research Center is at the Y-shaped junction of rivers on the north side.

sts059-L14-170 Mt Pinatubo

NASA Description: Bighorn Basin and Yellowstone, Wyoming, U.S.A. April 1994 The snow-covered highlands of Yellowstone and the irrigated agricultural lands of the central Bighorn Basin are featured in this south-southwest-looking, low-oblique, panoramic photograph. Large, oval Bighorn Basin spans 10 000 square miles (25 900 square kilometers), is 120 miles (193 kilometers) long and 60 miles (97 kilometers) wide, and is surrounded by forested mountains that rise more than 13 000 feet (3965 meters) to perpetually snowcapped summits except on the north where the basin merges with the Crazy Mountain Basin of south-central Montana (not visible). The center of the basin is low, flat, and dry. To the south lies the Great Divide Basin (left side). Viewing clockwise from ice-covered Yellowstone Lake (barely discernible) are the Absaroka Range; the Bighorn Mountains (lower left); the Bridger Mountains and Owl Creek Mountains, which extend westward from the Bighorn Mountains; the Wind River Range (north of the Great Divide Basin); the Wyoming and Salt River Ranges (top center); and the Snake River Plain of eastern Idaho (top right). The Bighorn, Shoshone, Greybull, and Clarks Fork Rivers carry runoff from the Absaroka Mountains across the Bighorn Basin and eventually empty into the Yellowstone River (not visible) in southern Montana.