SPACEPHOTOS

Wasatch Mountains and Uinta Mountains, Utah April 1998 A northwest-looking image shows the rugged terrain of northern Utah extending westward and northward into the Basin and Range Province of northern Nevada and southern Oregon. The Great Salt Lake is visible just slightly above the center of the image. To the lake’s west is the Great Salt Lake Desert, the floor of former Lake Bonneville. Just south of the Great Salt Lake and at the center of the image is Utah Lake. Just east of Utah Lake and extending north-south are the snow-covered peaks of the Wasatch Range, once considered to be part of the Rocky Mountains, but now considered to be the easternmost extension of the Basin and Range Province. Extending in an east-west line are the faulted, snow-covered Uinta Mountains, which are a part of the Rocky Mountains. Just to the north of the Uinta Mountains near the right center of the image, are the Great Divide Basin and the Flaming Gorge Reservoir of southwestern Wyoming. To the south of the Uinta Mountains and north of the Book Cliffs is the Uinta Basin, a major oil and natural gas region. Toward the bottom left of the image is the San Rafael Desert