Lake Mead: shrinking waters uncover buried secrets and grisly finds

[marmar]

(Guardian UK) Drought has a way of revealing things. Receding waters can highlight the precarity of the crucial systems that keep societies functioning and expose hidden ancient cities.

In the case of Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir, diminishing waters have in recent months uncovered long buried secrets and other mysterious finds: at least three sets of human remains, including a body inside a barrel that could be linked to a mob killing, and a sunken boat dating back to the second world war.

A grueling drought in the American west has depleted the lake, a crucial water source for 25 million people, drying out tributaries, threatening hydropower production and closing boat ramps at the popular recreation site. It is now at its lowest level since the lake was being filled in 1937.

Officials expect more grim finds, and have already received calls from visitors about possible remains that turned out to be animal bones or prop skeletons left by local scuba divers years earlier. ...............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/31/lake-mead-nevada-water-level-drought

[roamer65]

1. Soon this scene will be nearly impossible.

…and I have heard of mention that the rapid decrease of pressure on the arch of the dam may actually damage it.

But that’s one for the engineers to figure out.

[a kennedy]

2. I'm taking bets right now that Hoffa will be found at what's left of Lake Mead.