From NASA:
Description:
I downloaded the high-resolution version (16.4 MB) and I can’t see any artificial structures on it. Am I wrong, and is there a visible man-made feature in the picture?
I spent about 5 minutes on the hi res image, but it starts to pixilate before I can see any clearly man-made objects.
Maybe if we were looking at the northeaster US or some area where there was a really long bridge…
BTW, are you interpreting “feature” in your quote as “man-made feature” I assume they are talking about geographic features.
You can just make out the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway on the 8000x8000 image.
You’re right! And I had specifically looked for that earlier since NOLA is pretty well represented, and I was just there a few months ago driving on that causeway. You kinda have to know it’s there to see it.
I see some features that look like smoke plumes (like from power plants) in central and western Florida, and something that looks like contrails in the midwest, but can’t say I see any cities, highways, dams or other artifacts.
Lake Meade is probably also discernible, but my knowledge of geography is insufficient to pick it out.
I can’t spot any individual structures, but you can certainly spot cities and other man-made features.
In particular, if you check Lake Ponchartrain, you can easily spot all the concrete/pavement around the New Orleans area on the southern side.
Likewise, several American cities are visible from the change in color. Houston is obscured by clouds, but Dallas, Atlanta, St Louis, Tulsa, Omaha, Memphis, Miami, Tampa, and several other cities can be picked out.
And I’m not sure if it’s what you’re looking for, but a good number of artificial lakes are visible. They were created by Corp of Engineer dams. They look natural on the photo, so you’d have to know they were man-made.
In the LA basin you can see lines which are development along some of the freeways - but I see no individual structures.
Does Lake Mead count? I think I can also see Port Mansfield Channel which cuts through Padre Island in South Texas.
Look almost directly above and very slightly to the right of the Gulf of California in that image (it’s actually due north of it). Very recognizable by its shape, and, yes, easily visible.
ETA:
I mean the northern end of the Gulf, of course. The entire gulf stretches a large distance to the southeast.
Since Mexico City is almost dead center, the Pyramid of the Sun would be a good candidate. But there are clouds in that area and I haven’t found exactly where the pyramid would be.
Does the Salton Sea count?
Lake Mead is easy to spot. You can also see Lake Hartwell (Ga./S.C border)
Lake Mead is easy to spot. You can also see Lake Hartwell (Ga./S.C border)
Without any zooming, in the initial image the crows foot delta of the Mississippi is clearly visible. The bulk of it is due to the US Army Corps of Engineers channeling the river.
I can’t quite tell if the white spots over on Cape Canaveral are part of the launch complexes & air force base there, or whether they’re just part of the patchy clouds to the north. My guess would be the latter, unfortunately, but maybe somebody has better eyes than I do.
I could make out Austin and San Antonio, nestled up to the Balcones Escarpment in Central Texas. Just northwest of Austin, I can make out Lake Travis, a man-made lake in the Hill Country.
There appears to be a cold front moving across Texas. If you look near the middle of the front of the clouds, you see a dark patch of land sticking out. This is the Texas Hill Country. It’s eastern edge is defined by the Balcones Fault. At the northern edge of where the hills meet the storm front, you can make out Austin. (Had the picture been taken an hour or so later, Austin would be obscured by the clouds.) Start where the dark patch meets the clouds. Follow the dark/light line a bit southeast and you’ll come to the Capital City. Now, keep following the fault line south as it curves back to the west. You’ll notice a little divot where the fault turns sharply west, the continues a generally southerly route. Right at this divot is San Antonio. It is distinctive by its loop highways.
If you follow the cold front to the northeast, you can find the DFW Metroplex. It is behind the front, just about where the front ends at the TX/OK border.
I couldn’t quite believe it myself at first, but looking closely at the Austin-San Antonio area you can see little white spots…those are all large open pit limestone quarries. It is quite easy to confirm this by bringing up the satellite map of the area in Google Maps and noting the location of Canyon Lake (an artificial lake in the Hill Country north of San Antonio) and comparing the quarries seen there to the Blue Marble shot.
So there…Texas-sized honest to goodness visible from space quarries, no dam-created lakes required. Suck on that China! 
I’m open to accusations of moving the goalposts, but I’m tempted to say that manmade lakes don’t count. The dam that creates the manmade lake would count, but not the lake. I would apply the same criterion to the Mississippi delta. Same for big holes (limestone quarries.)
I want to see a structure! Like a huge sports stadium or something! 
You people have better eyes (and better knowledge of geography) than me, so I’ll spend more time staring at the Lake Pontchartrain area, and looking for large cities that were mentioned in this thread.
It is a bad angle for it, but the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah is also visible. You have to know where it is to find it, just south of the the Great Salt Lake. But it is there. And if you look at the lake itself you can clearly see the separation created by the causeways across the lake. But I can’t make out the causeways themselves.