The water level at Lake Mead – the largest reservoir in the United States – is the lowest it’s been since it was being filled in 1937. 💧
These Landsat satellite images show Lake Mead in July 2000 (first image) and July of this year (second image). As of July 18, 2022, Lake Mead was filled to just 27 percent of capacity.
Lake Mead supplies water to millions of people across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico. It also provides a stark illustration of climate change and the current long-term drought, which may be the worst in the U.S. West in 12 centuries.
The light-colored fringes along the shoreline in the 2022 image are mineralized areas of the lakeshore that were formerly underwater. The phenomenon is often referred to as a “bathtub ring.”
IMAGE DESCRIPTIONS:
Satellite image of Lake Mead in 2000. The reservoir appears as a lake of dark blue water, with three arms extending out to the top and both bottom corners of the image. The entire reservoir is surrounded by an almost uniformly dry, brown landscape, with swirls of darker umber.
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