Satellites show how a massive lake in Antarctica vanished in days

About twice the volume of San Diego Bay disappeared rapidly

satellite images from before and after drainage of an ice-covered lake in Antarctica

The Landsat 8 satellite snapped an image of an ice-covered lake on East Antarctica’s Amery Ice Shelf on March 31, 2019 (left). By September 14, 2019, the lake had drained away, leaving an ice-filled depression (right).

Landsat8/USGS and NASA

On June 5, 2019, a massive, ice-covered lake sat atop East Antarctica’s Amery Ice Shelf.