NASA Founds!!!

[Alex Passi]

>Dear Indology Colleagues,

Query "Sri Lanka" at
http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/html/pao/searchpao.htm  for Nasa's
interpretation of Adam's Bridge; the photograph refers to another
site, but the explanation is relevant:
"STS-56 Earth observation taken aboard Discovery, Orbiter Vehicle
(OV) 103, is of a sun-glinted ocean along the northeastern coast of
Somalia. The small island of Xaafuun is connected to the mainland by
a well-developed double tombolo-two sand bars. Between the two
tombolos a lagoon is formed which gradually fills with sediment and
becomes a flat sand bar. Better known double tombolos include those
of Gibraltar, the now-partially submerged giant tombolos forming
Adam's Bridge (Palk Strait) connecting Sri Lanka to India, Monte
Argentario in Italy, and Long Island, New York. Such tombolos usually
indicate a constant sediment source and a strong unidirectional or
bi-directional (monsoonal) long shore current. In this case, sediment
is provided by the plumes of the major African rivers debauching into
the Mozambique Channel.
The sediment is carried predominately to the northeast along the
coast by the swiftly moving monsoonal Agulhas Current. Visible in
this scene are internal waves, shear lines and gyres of a variety of
scales. Sunglint photography from the NASA Space Shuttles
particularly allows scientists to study ocean circulation features in
greater detail than is possible from any other data source since
Seasat is no longer operational. "

Nope, no monkey-business there...

Alex Passi
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Alex (Alessandro) Passi,
Dept. of Linguistic and Oriental Studies, Via Zamboni 16, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
ph. +39-051-233133 - fax +39-051-235298
cell +39-338-269.4933.
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