Mountains from Space: Peaks and Ranges of the Seven Continents

These spectacular pictures taken from different media (Space.cam using Shuttle Radar) are a unique collection of Earth's mountain ranges on all seven continents, some as seen from Space during the Shuttle Radio Topography Mission. Stefan Dech, professor at the University of Wurzburg in Germany where these 120 images were compiled, as head of the Remote Senisng Data Center over a five year course concludes: "distance creates clarity." These views of Earth's "natural sculptures" taken by highly technical instruments available only to the Space program, are from a distance of only fifteen miles above the Earth to five hundred miles out in Space. Dech felt awe in processing this geophysical data into actual photographs and now is able to share the marvel for the first time. They allow us to see the beauty and vulnerabilty, and "appreciate its wholeness without boundaries." Of all the coffee-table books of photos from Space on the market all at once, this shows our planet's craters caused by volcanoes in Hawaii and glaciers caused by global warming like the Malaspina Glacier in Alaska. The world's tallest mountain is Hawaii's Mauna Kea, and the snow is visible on Mt. Kilmanjaro in Tanzania which reaches 19,340 feet (eighty percent of its glacier mass has melted away). Some of these scientific images are digitally enhanced to make details free of haze, light refraction and clouds. Vast panaromas taken by astronauts from the International Space Station are shown in their glory. The first photos taken during the Apollo missions, particulary 8 and 11, showed the whole Earth as seen from Space. There is a good view of Anarctica's Vinson Massif, as are Russian, European, Australian, South American (Andes and Aconcagua), the Himalayas in India, and the Rockies and Mr. McKinley in North America. Dech is assisted in this presentation to the public by Glaser, a climate researcher who teaches at the University of Freiburg. Accompanying the breath-taking photographs, we have some personal acounts of mountain climbers such as Alexander Huber, Chris Profit, Stephen Venables and Reinhold Messner. He holds the claim-to-fame of being the first man to climb Mt. Everest 'without supplemental oxygen.' A great admire of Sir Edmund Hillary (the original conqueror who used an ice pick to cut the last steps 'on the roof ridge of the earth,' Messner was the first to climb all fourteen of the world's 8,000 meter peaks and wrote a book about it, ALL FOURTEEN 8,000ers. He worries about global warming, calling the tall mountain ranges "ecological fever thermometers." Mr. Dech's conclusion, looking down at those same mountains as seen from Space, agrees with Messner: "the view that extends out from a great distance is a gift." This book would make a wonderful gift. Messner has also written REINHOLD MESSNER, FREE SPIRIT: A CLIMBER'S LIFE, THE NAKED MOUNTAIN, and THE CRYSTAL HORIZON: EVEREST - THE FIRST SOLO ASCENT.

These photographs of our planet Earth show an enormous view, however, the details provide an intimate look into our world. The book is a "Oh, look at that.." resource for everyone. The images will draw you back to the book over and over again.

I haven't purchased this book yet. I saw just one picture, of the Hawaiian Islands, and I intend to purchase this book as a gift soon. The picture was amazingly beautiful, ethereal, what the world must have looked like at creation.