Saving Mirador Basin

In the northeastern corner of Guatemala, ancient cities, mysteriously abandoned nearly 2,000 years ago, lie shrouded in green. The cities--El Mirador, Nakbe, Tintal, Wakna, Xulnal--are among the earliest major Mayan sites, and they contain some of the largest known Mayan structures.

Once connected by a series of causeways, today, the cities and other ruins (black circles) are isolated in the largest remaining tract of virgin forest in Central America. Their isolation, however, may soon come to an end.

Clusters of fires, outlined in red, hem in the deep green Mirador Basin, where the ancient cities are located, in this photo-like image acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite on April 10, 2005.

Under the thick pall of smoke rising from the flames, the landscape is tan, stripped of the tropical forest that once covered it. By contrast, the forested Mirador Basin is dark green. The fires burn through forests as people clear the thick vegetation for ranching or farming. Sometimes fires in cropland or pastures spread accidentally into forests.

In 2002, Mayan expert Richard Hansen was studying the ancient cities when he first noticed the fires encroaching on the pristine basin. He began to track fires with daily MODIS images such as this one, and used them to mount a campaign to preserve the forest.

Hansen and colleagues keep tabs on fire activity near the Mirador Basin through email alerts from the MODIS-based Fire Information for Resource Management System at the University of Maryland. Whenever MODIS detects a fire near the basin, the group receives an email alert with the fire's location, which they can send to local authorities.

---LiveScience Staff

• Amazing Images: Photos You Submit
• Image Galleries: Science All Around You
• Videos: Science and Nature in Action

Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz and Robert Simmon