Caspian Sea 02/28/07

MODIS image of the Caspian Sea

A symphony of greens and whites color this image of the Caspian Sea, captured by the MODIS on the Terra satellite on February 28, 2007. The portion of the Caspian Sea that is pictured is actually the northern part, which is mainly located in Kazakhstan. White floes of ice cover much of the green water.

The Caspian Sea is actually bordered by many countries, including Russia (shown on the left side of the image), Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan. The Caspian Sea is actually the world's largest lake, by both area and volume. According to Wikipedia, it is called a sea because "when the Romans first arrived there, they tasted the water and found it to be salty."

Text and image courtesy of NASA's MODIS Land Rapid Response Team.