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Maharloo Lake, Iran ESA23463799
17 September 2021 (upload date)
- Classification
- Photograph
- Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit line
- Maharloo Lake, Iran
- Rights
- Attribution, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Kids profiles and older: it shows nature, places, still life or a children's book. How works are placed
About this work
Maharloo Lake, a seasonal salt lake in Iran, is featured in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. Maharloo sits at an altitude of around 1400 m above sea level and is located around 27 km southeast of Shiraz, in southwest Iran. Yearly evaporation in the desert region is much greater than the yearly rainfall, meaning the lake is often very dry. Owing to the high evaporation rate, the lake’s bed has been covered by salt over time. This increased salinity in the lake’s waters has allowed certain algae to thrive and cover the surface. The water includes a variety of organisms that display colours ranging from pink to orange to red, with the strength of the colour differing in various periods of the year. Usually, the deeper the lake is, the darker the colours of the water. Given the lake is seasonal, water levels will drop in the summer and rise again in the winter. In this image, captured in June 2019, the lake appears dark orange which means that the lake is very shallow but still contains some water. In comparison, Maharloo was completely dry in June 2021. As is the case with many desert lakes, salt washed down from the surrounding mountains accumulates and can…
