The twenty-first 100 has not been kind to the water supply levels in Lake Powell , a meandering artificial lake that straddles the border between Arizona and Utah . This series of images , taken byNASA ’s Landsat satellitesfrom 1999 to 2015 , document the change .
The variety that ’s occur in 15 years is astonishing . In that time , the source has start from goodly and blue , down to a sickly shadow of its former ego , back up to 42 per centum capacity in April this yr :
At the beginning of the series in 1999 , water storey in Lake Powell were relatively eminent , and the water was a open , dark blue . The deposit - replete Colorado River appeared green - brownish . In the other days of this image serial , water stratum lead off to flatten . The declivity were first manifest in the side canon feeding the reservoir which thinned and then shorten . By 2002 , the lake level had dropped far enough that the expose canon bulwark created a pale outline around the lake .
Lake Powell ’s water levels plummet in other 2005 , grant to the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation . The northwestern side subdivision of Lake Powell persist cut off from the rest of the man-made lake . In the primary consistency of Lake Powell , weewee pooled along its eastern edge , while enceinte expanse of dry canyon floor were visible in the west .
In the latter half of the tenner , the drouth eased slightly . Precipitation was better , but still slightly below normal in the Upper Colorado River Basin . The lake stage set about to rally ; only the 2008 image appear to deviate from the trend toward grow body of water level . While the lake was significantly high in 2011 and 2012 than in 2005 , a careful comparison of the side canyons bring out that the level was still not back to 1999 levels , when the lake was near full capacity .
The full write up of the lake ’s transformation is over on theNASA Earth Observatory web site .
[ NASA ]
reach out to the author at[email protected ] .
Image credit : NASA
NASA
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