Lake Poopó
Once Bolivia’s second-largest lake and an important local fishing resource, Lake Poopó has dried up. The Landsat 8 satellite captured these before and after images of this shallow and salty lake located high in the Andes Mountains.
Shallow lakes depend on rain and inflowing rivers to recharge themselves. Drought and the diverting of lake water for agriculture and mining are believed to be the reasons for the lake’s disappearance.
Image Number: WEB15452-2016
Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey
