Sediment Off the Louisiana and Texas Coast

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC, Posted on: Thursday, 2 October 2008, 06:13 CDT Download full size image

The effects of Hurricane Ike are still evident in this image, captured by the MODIS on the Terra satellite on September 26, 2008. The storm brought flooding to the area, some of which is still evident. Dead vegetation is visible along the shoreline as well. Runoff water from the flooding is likely causing more sediment than usual to color the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. In this image, the sediment colors the waters along the Texas and Lousiana coastline with ripples of green and brown.

There is a large plume of brown sediment from the Mississippi River that is visible towards the right side of the image. New Orleans is also visible as gray pixels just northwest of the sediment plume. New Orleans lies south of Lake Pontchartrain. Because New Orleans is below sea level and near a large lake, as well as the coast, flooding is a very large issue - this was evidenced by the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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