Lake Mead Shrinks!

  • Released Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Lake Mead reservoir is nestled between Arizona and Nevada and runs up to the Hoover Dam. The reservoir stores Colorado River water and supplies it to farms, homes and business in Southern Nevada, Arizona, southern California and northern Mexico. Scientists at NASA are releasing dramatic pictures of the dwindling water supplies in the drought-stricken western United States. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado Basin is in its fourth year of drought and computer models project water levels will go down another 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to 6.1 m) by next year. Despite low water levels, The National Park Service says there is still plenty of water for recreation. The Landsat 7 satellite captured images of Lake Mead May 2000, and May 2003. The 2003 image clearly shows a shrinking lake.



Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Scientific Visualization Studio

Release date

This page was originally published on Tuesday, July 22, 2003.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:57 PM EDT.


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