3 min readImage of the Day for July 14, 2026Sediment eroded from ice-capped mountains splays out across a broad river valley on Russia’s Severny Island.NASA Earth ObservatoryJul 14, 2026 Article
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Editor's Note: Today's story is the answer to the July Puzzler.
Call it an alluvial face-off. On the southern end of Severny Island in the Russian Arctic, rivers rush down from rugged terrain flanking a broad valley. Upon reaching flatter ground, the waters slow and distribute sediment into cone-shaped features called alluvial fans. Several appear in opposing orientations alongside a braided river in this Landsat 9 image.
Severny Island (Ostrov Severnyy) is a mountainous, uninhabited landmass in the frigid high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, the island is largely covered in glacial ice. Some glaciers, especially in the north, terminate in the sea, while others end on land, feeding meltwater into glacial streams.
