Photos | Earth as art
Tibetan Plateau, Central Asia
Credit: KING
Central Asia’s Tibetan Plateau is justifiably nicknamed the “Roof of the World,” with an average elevation of more than 4,500 meters. It is the world’s highest and largest plateau, covering an area roughly four times the size of France. The plateau includes the two highest mountains in the world (Mount Everest and K2) and the largest canyon in the world (Yalung Tsangpu River Great Canyon). The plateau was formed by the collision of the Eurasian continent and the India subcontinent, which still press against each other today. This 2005 Landsat 5 scene features some of the area’s deep, glacier-fed lakes—the two largest in the image are Migriggyangzham near the upper left and Dorsoidong just below it.
