The Morenci open-pit copper mine in southeast Arizona is North America's leading producer of copper. In the 1860s, prospectors arrived looking for gold; instead they found copper. Underground mining began in the 1870s, and the first pit was opened in 1939.

This ASTER image uses short wavelength infrared bands to highlight in bright pink the altered rocks in the Morenci pit associated with copper mineralization.

Image Details

• Mission: Earth Observing System (EOS)

• Target: Earth

• Spacecraft: Terra

• Instrument: Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER)

• Image credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team