Musandam Peninsula OM - A Revisit of a Previous Post

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Oman - Landsat ETM+ N-40-25_2000 (1:175,000)

Musandam Peninsula - EVS Precision Map (1-175,000)

Musandam Peninsula - EVS Precision Map with 50-Meter Contour Intervals (1:175,000)

The above EVS Precision map project of the Musandam Peninsula was completed around the first week in September 2008. It was my last mapping "hurrah" before the start of this school year. I remember loving the look of this unusual piece of land calling it a "peninsula of peninulas.

Musandam Peninsula, Oman from Earth Observatory (EO)

It seems that the folks at EO dusted off a 2004 ASTER image of the Musandam Peninsula and posted it to their site today. The peninsula is still lovely to look at!

Enjoy!

Musandam Peninsula OM - 50-Meters Contours Using Plans One Through Four

Musandam Peninsula - EVS Precision Map (1-175,000)

I posted the above map of the Musandam Peninsula a few weeks ago. The geography is fascinating. However, I knew more work had to be done to complete my map. Specifically, I wanted to create contours to overlay onto the area.

My first attempt, Plan One, was straightforward - download the SRTM HGT file, load it into Global Mapper, generate contours and I would be finished . . . Whoops! Not so. It turns out that the SRTM HGT file for this area is full of voids, those nasty little holes of nothing. With voids my generated contours were grossly inaccurate.

I've been at this mapping business long enough to know that if one source doesn't work, there is most probably another, like Plan Two - the CGIAR-CSI SRTMs. These are void filled versions of the HGTs. I downloaded the appropriate SRTM tile, loaded it, generated contours and . . . Whoops! Not quite right.

Still not to be deterred, I went to Plan Three - using a void-filling piece of software called Void Killer 2 I tacked the contour generating problem once more. I am aware of a number of freeware SRTM void fillers, but I wanted to try the trial version of VK. I downloaded the trial copy, unzipped it and loaded the requisite SRTMs . . . Whoops! Won't let me make a copy and I didn't want to spend $43 to test it's claim as the best void filling software.

Musandam Peninsula - EVS Precision Map with 50-Meter Contour Intervals (1-175,000)

Plan Four to the rescue. In order to use Void Killer 2, it was necessary to convert the CGIAR-CIS SRTM tile from TIFF into DEM format. I loaded this DEM tile on top of the void peppered HGT file and generated contours . . . voila! It worked. Somehow the combination of the two sandwiched together allowed GM to generate contours without voids. Some of the 50-meter contours spill across water versus land, but that can be cleaned up. The HGT voids were filled with reasonable contours. The combination of SRTM HGT and SRTM DEM did the trick.

I would caution the state of Oman - Gentlemen, don't embark upon a multi-million petro-dollar project based upon these contours. However, I am confident that GM's contour generating algorithm is sound for the intrepid Omani backpacker, who could rely on these contours with a fair level of confidence.

Enjoy!

Musandam Peninsula OM - The Peninsula of Peninsulas

The Strait of Hormuz - US Government Map

Strait of Hormuz - Landsat ETM+ N-40-25_2000 (1-1,000,000)

Let's begin this post with an image of a US Government map of the Strait of Hormuz, followed by a Landsat ETM+ image of the same area. Iran is to the north and Oman and the UAE are located to the south. Extending into the Strait of Hormuz from Oman is a rather odd shaped peninsula. It is called the Musandam Peninsula. It is the subject of my latest EVS Precision mapping efforts.

I teach early Greek history to middle school students. Every year I show them the Greek landform I call the "Peninsula of Peninsulas". You and I know it as the Peloponesian Peninsula. It contains four distinct peninsulas. Now let's take a look at the Musandam Peninsula.

Musandam Peninsula OM - Landsat ETM+ N-40-25_2000 (1-175,000)

Musandam Peninsula - EVS Precision Map (1-175,000)

My conservative count of the peninsulas within this peninsula is 12 to 13. The shoreline of the map does not do the complexity of this peninsula justice. I mapped the entire shoreline of this portion of Oman at 1:12,500 scale. To appreciate the shoreline complexity, one should zoom into this twisted piece of real estate using Landsat ETM+ imagery. Google Earth and Google Maps contain the Landsat imagery for this area. The digitizing took in excess of 12-hours to complete.

Located on the northern coast of the Musandam Peninsula is a city of 3,000 hardy souls. The small city of Kumzar, where people speak Kumzari, was isolated from the rest of Oman until recently. The people fished and stayed connected with the other Omanis by sea. Now days, they are able to use a helicopter to fly to and from the larger Omani cities. NPR has an interesting news piece that shows pictures and contains first hand information about Kumzar. Apparently the area offshore of Kumzar is highly regarded as a dive site. This website has a number of shoreline and underwater photos of the area around Kumzar.

During the brutally hot summer months, the Kumzarians, leave their northern home and travel to Khasab which has more tolerable summer weather. After summer has gone and milder weather returns, they go back to their isolated northern village.

Enjoy!