January 19, 2021 - Ethiopia's Bale Mountains

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   Ethiopia (Bale Mts)
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   A slogan for Ethiopia’s Bale Mountains National Park reads “One Park,
   Many Worlds”—a tribute to the biodiversity that thrives in the five
   different ecological zones found in the Bale Mountains. These zones
   include the Northern (Gaysay) Grasslands, juniper woodlands, Afroalpine
   meadows, Harenna forest, and the Erica Belt of moorlands and forest.
   The varied habitat creates a home for a wide variety of species: 78
   mammal, 12 reptile, 17 amphibian, 310 bird, and 1,300 flowering plants.

   The Bale Mountains are found about 250 miles (400 km) southeast of
   Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. The range was formed from lava
   outpourings, layer by layer, ultimately raising the Sanetti Plateau to
   a towering height. The plateau spreads across thousands of square
   kilometers in southeastern Ethiopia and much of it rises to 3,000
   meters (10,000 feet) above sea level. It is the largest area of
   Afroalpine habitat on the African continent.

   Sitting on top of the high base of the Sanetti Plateau, several
   volcanic cones reach more than 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) high. It is
   here, in these dramatic highlands, that Tullu Demtu rises to 4,377
   meters (14,360 feet) to capture the title of the second-highest
   mountain in Ethiopia. In the south, the height of the Plateau drops
   rapidly from 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) to 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) in
   just 8 km (5 miles). This steep drop is called the Harenna escarpment
   and leads to the second-largest section of moist tropical forest in
   Ethiopia—the Harenna forest. It is also the largest cloud forest in the
   country and home to the largest natural stand of wild coffee genetic
   stock—the plants that gave rise to famous Ethiopian coffee. The
   northern reaches of the Sanetti Plateau hold the Gaysay grasslands and
   juniper woodlands.

   The Bale Mountains are an area of critical importance for many reasons.
   Many endemic and endangered species call this region home, including
   the elegant mountain nyala, reedbuck, the African Golden Wolf, and the
   rare Ethiopian wolf. More than 40% of the 1,000 known species of
   medicinal plants found in Ethiopia live in these mountains. The
   biodiversity is so impressive that, according to UNESCO, it has been
   estimated that more mammal species would go extinct if the habitats of
   the Bale Mountains to disappear than if any other area of equivalent
   size on the globe were to disappear. In addition, more than 12 million
   people and their livestock that live in southeastern Ethiopia, northern
   Kenya, and Somalia, rely on water that originates from this mountainous
   region.

   Image Facts
   Satellite:  Terra
   Date Acquired: 1/8/2021
   Resolutions:  1km (44.1 KB),  500m (164.8 KB),  250m (524.4
   KB)
   Bands Used: 1/8/2021
   Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2021-01-19
 
