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Mountains and Rain Shadows

A Rain Shadow in Bolivia

Rain shadows occur near mountain ranges around the world. These photos show the dramatic differences in landscape between the Northeast and Southwest sides of the Andes mountain range in Bolivia from the ground and in satellite and map images from above.

Andes Mountains, bolivia, seen from near coroico
A photograph shows the Andes mountains in Bolivia as viewed from near Coroico. Green vegetation in the foreground stretches toward the green mountains.

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Andes Mountains, Bolivia, seen from La Paz                                             
A photograph shows the Andes mountains in Bolivia as viewed from La Paz. A brown, dry landscape in the foreground reaches toward the mountains.

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Bolivian Andes, satellite image
In this satellite image of the Andes in Bolivia, the mountains lie across the image diagonally from the top left corner to the bottom right.

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The region extending from the northeast side of the mountains to the top right corner is covered in green vegetation. The region extending from the southwest side of the mountains to the bottom left corner is a brown, arid landscape.

Bolivian andes, Map image
A map showing a larger view of the Bolivian Andes; it includes the same area as the satellite image.

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The region extending from the northeast side of the mountains to the top right corner is covered in green vegetation. The region extending from the southwest side of the mountains to the bottom left corner is a brown, arid landscape. The ocean is located in the bottom left corner of the image.

Note: The satellite and map images show the same location. The satellite image is zoomed in to show more detail.

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