Satellite eye on Earth: February 2017 – in pictures

These beautiful photos published at the website  guardian.com on March 21, 2017 show the active forces of wind, water, cold and heat on the body of the planet.   Concentric swirl patterns, vortices, ice swelling and receding, the geometry of fluid dynamics describe structure becoming.   When I see them I am reminded  of images that come to me when I do craniosacral therapy.     Those vortices, swirls, storms and droughts show up in our bodies too, just like the planet’s.  Looking at the natural world around us we can feel the natural world within us in a more profound way. 

Every so often, a vibrant green colour infuses the waters of Lake Maracaibo. Floating vegetation – likely duckweed – was swirling in the Venezuelan lake when Nasa’s Aqua satellite flew over in February 2017. Most of the time, Maracaibo’s waters are stratified into layers, with nutrient-rich, cooler, saltier water at the bottom, and a warmer, fresher layer near the surface. But after heavy rains, the layers can mix and make the lake an ideal habitat for plant growth. A narrow strait roughly 6km (4 miles) wide and 40 km (25 miles) long connects the lake to the Gulf of Venezuela and the Caribbean Sea. The influx of saltwater through the strait makes Maracaibo an estuarine lake. This mixing causes the water currents responsible for the concentric swirl pattern, according to Lawrence Kiage, a professor of geoscience at Georgia State University.

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