Cape Province, South Africa as seen from STS-58

STS058-77-083 (18 Oct-1 Nov 1993) --- In this scene of the south coast of Africa, Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point on the continent, appears as the leftmost cape. Viewed with the Earth's limb top left, clouds at bottom, the view direction is west and north top right. The Cape of Good Hope, with Cape Town nearby, is the thin spike beyond. The great bay in the foreground is Algoa Bay with the city of Port Elizabeth. This was the first time European voyagers are known to have rounded the Cape of Good Hope in their quest to reach India by sea. The entire fold mountain belt of southern Africa is visible: these mountains appear as green (forested) wavy structures stretching west form the foreground, to the Cape of Good Hope, and then northwards some distance. One theory about their origin is that the Falkland Plateau, now an undersea extension of South America, was jostled up against Africa more than 150 million years ago, in times before the Atlantic Ocean existed, before Africa and South America drifted apart from one another. The jostling caused the evolution of the fold mountain belt.

coasts bays mountains earth observations from space sts 58 onboard activities columbia orbiter earth limb johnson space center cape province cape province south africa sts high resolution good hope south america cape agulhas leftmost cape cape town fold mountain belt foreground first time european voyagers mountain belt west form algoa bay one theory oct 1 nov view direction bay port elizabeth times falkland plateau million years atlantic ocean nasa geography travel and description

30/10/1993

NASA

https://images.nasa.gov/

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