What Lake Bonneville Left Behind
The image was acquired with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on June 4, 2026, and overlaid on a digital elevation model.NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison At its peak, ancient Lake Bonneville would have been a sight to behold. Nearly as large as Lake Michigan, the Ice Age lake spread across much of western Utah and parts of Nevada and Idaho. When it eventually receded, it left behind flat, bright playas and salt flats rich with minerals—a landscape that would later serve as the setting for feats of engineering and technological ingenuity, as well as epic tales of exploration and desperation.
- ▪The image was acquired with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on June 4, 2026, and overlaid on a digital elevation model.NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison At its peak, ancient Lake Bonneville would have been a sight to be
- ▪Nearly as large as Lake Michigan, the Ice Age lake spread across much of western Utah and parts of Nevada and Idaho.
- ▪When it eventually receded, it left behind flat, bright playas and salt flats rich with minerals—a landscape that would later serve as the setting for feats of engineering and technological ingenuity, as well as epic tales of exploration an
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| Original publisher | NASA |
| Canonical URL | https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/what-lake-bonneville-left-behind/ |
| Publication time | Mon, 24 Aug 2026 04:01:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-24T04:52:29.796Z |
| Last seen | 2026-08-24T04:52:29.796Z |
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Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
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Earth ObservatoryScienceEarth ObservatoryWhat Lake Bonneville Left BehindEarthEarth ObservatoryImage of the DayEO ExplorerTopicsAll TopicsAtmosphereLandHeat & RadiationLife on EarthHuman DimensionsNatural EventsOceansRemote Sensing TechnologySnow & IceWaterMore ContentCollectionsGlobal MapsWorld of ChangeArticlesEarth Matters BlogBlue Marble: Next GenerationEO KidsMission: BiomesAboutAbout UsSubscribe🛜 RSSContact UsSearch 5 min readWhat Lake Bonneville Left BehindImage of the Day for August 24, 2026The drying of the massive lake exposed playas that became the setting for feats of engineering and technological ingenuity, as well as epic tales of exploration and desperation.NASA Earth ObservatoryAug 24, 2026 Article View more Images of the Day:Aug 21, 2026Instruments:Landsat 8 —…
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