Fans of the Arctic

NASA's Earth Observatory captured striking satellite imagery of alluvial fans—cone-shaped sediment deposits—forming along river channels on Severny Island in the Russian Arctic. These features develop when fast-moving mountain rivers slow as they reach flatter terrain, allowing them to drop their sediment loads and spread into fan-shaped patterns. The image shows multiple fans in opposing orientations alongside a braided river channel. NASA notes that the abundant sediment comes from glacial meltwater and seasonal snowmelt, which carry eroded material from the mountains. Scientists have found that glaciers across the nearby Novaya Zemlya archipelago thinned significantly during the 2000s and 2010s, particularly at lower elevations—a sign of how Arctic warming is reshaping these remote landscapes.

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