Flooding Along the Uruguay and Ibicuí Rivers

On June 18, 2025, torrential rains hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil. Reports indicate that the abundance of rain—more than 350 millimeters (14 inches) in places—caused flash flooding, landslides, and the evacuation of thousands of people.

Almost a week later, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station photographed the still-swollen Uruguay and Ibicuí rivers. The image above is a mosaic of several of those photos, acquired on June 24, 2025. (Click on the image to see the full mosaic.)

The image shows flooding along the confluence of the two rivers, located in the western part of the Brazilian state. (Argentina can be seen to the north of the Uruguay River.) Part of Itaqui, a municipality along the bank of the Uruguay River, lies within the river’s floodplain. Using data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, researchers previously showed that flood-related hazards are greatest along the outskirts of neighborhoods in the northern and western parts of Itaqui’s urban area.

Read more at NASA Earth Observatory

Image: Astronaut photographs ISS073-E-0248085 through ISS073-E-0248099 were acquired on June 24, 2025, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 400 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 73 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Mosaic by Chris Getteau, International Space Station Imagery Working Group.