lakes Archives - usatoday24

is turning old mines into lakes

April 19, 2026 by usatoday24

The energy transition has a hidden side that often remains in the background: it is not only saying goodbye to fossil fuels but also thinking about what to do with these degraded lands after years of extractive activity. The mines. Leaving these exploited lands to their fate is a waste in every sense. Germany knows this and has promoted the largest landscape intervention in Europe: the Lusatian Lake District. You can see it better in the photo that illustrates this article: the before and after: what began as a network of huge open-pit coal mines is being transformed into a complex system of more than 20 interconnected artificial lakes, a true vacation paradise for sailing or taking a bike ride. In fact, You can now book a getaway over there. The project. Between Berlin and Dresden, Germany is transforming one of the most degraded landscapes in Europe into the largest system of artificial lakes on the continent: Lausitzer Seenland. This is a conversion project of old open pit lignite mines in a network of 23 lakes that occupy 13,600 hectaresten of them connected by navigable canals forming a continuous area of 7,000 hectares. The state-owned company LMBV Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft) oversees the technical execution, which includes the creation of tourism infrastructure, such as beaches, ports, cycling and camping areas, along with state-of-the-art facilities. The process is long and need a lot of money: Going from a mine to a long-term safe lake costs between 200 and 600 million euros and in Lusatia alone it has already cost 7 billion euros. Why is it important. This project represents the largest environmental restoration effort of post-mining landscapes in Europe and constitutes a relevant case study for the rehabilitation of degraded areas. As collect this analysis from the German Federal Environment Agency, 19 of these lakes have already achieved good/high ecological potential. That is, recovery is possible. Beyond ecological recovery, the lakes also fulfill water management functions: during 2018, more than 62 million cubic meters were released from the lakes to raise low levels of the Spree and Schwarze Elster rivers during drought, such as collect the local media Niederlausitz Aktuell. The project also has significant socioeconomic implications: the government has destined 40,000 million euros to promote this transition from mining in the eastern coal regions towards other vectors such as sustainable tourism. Context. At the time of the German Democratic Republic were extracted more than 2,000 million tons of lignite from depths greater than 60 meters, leaving enormous craters in the landscape. Lusatia was the country’s gasoline: in 1989, lignite production there reached 195.1 million tons. In total, open pit mining of lignite has devastated 179,490 hectares in Germany. German reunification in 1990 marked a before and after. The fall in energy demand and that the Federal Environment Agency will classify it Since lignite is the most polluting fossil fuel, it brought about a progressive dismantling of its mining. During the 1990s the LMBV was tasked with restoring 19 open pit mining areas in Lusatia. As explains Dr. Uwe Steinhuber of LMBV, it will take at least two generations to complete it. How they do it. The rehabilitation of Lusatia is supported by geotechnical stabilization and active hydrological control, such as collects LMBV in this report. To transform mining craters into safe lakes, it applies deep vibration compaction techniques that prevent liquefaction of sandy soil, while accelerating filling through controlled diversion of flows from the Spree River. The process is monitored by the Copernicus satellite, which detects ground movements. Water chemistry is the other great technical challenge in that the oxidation of pyrite causes extreme acidification such as documents the Canadian Journal of Soil Science. To neutralize it, they use treatment plants and ships, which allows them to reach the quality standards of the Federal Environment Agency. Yes, but. We have already seen that the calendar is long and the budget astronomical, but LMBV warns that still remains: at the moment they have invested 7,000 million euros, but the total cost of the project (which includes other regions) amounts to 13,800 million. The entire process will end in this decade, but it will be necessary to apply surveillance in the coming generations, both for contaminants and the geological stability of the area. Despite all efforts, rehabilitation is far from ideal: of the 36 lakes assessed by the Federal Environment Agency (which includes other lakes outside the tourist district), 12 they got “moderate” classification due to mercury or endocrine disrupting compounds such as tributyltin and one presented “poor” status due to excess nutrients. There is scientific evidence which support that mining soils present severe physical, chemical and biological limitations that make complete ecological restoration difficult. In Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels In Xataka | A mining company believes that under the soil of La Mancha there is a “Gold” of rare earths. And at the moment they won’t let him take it out Cover | Tourismusverband Lausitzer Seenland (Steffen Rasche)

There are more and more lakes

March 8, 2025 by usatoday24

While numerous environments of the world, including Spain, live with recurring droughts and the constant threat of aridification, there is a place where lakes proliferate. Now a satellite images captured by NASA show us 30 years of change in the Tibet plateau, a place where the lagoons have multiplied. Three decades. New images published this week by the American space agency, NASA, within the framework of its program Earth Observatorytwo different sides of the Tibetan plateau show us. The first image shows us an almost desert area, with two larger lakes and another handful of small or medium lakes. The image shows us the state of the region on August 1, 1994. 30 years later, on August 11 of last year, NASA’s satellites re -captured the same environment, only this time with a very different landscape. The second of the images published by NASA shows us the same framing, only this time, the light brown color of the ground is splashed by an infinity of small and medium -sized lakes. In this second photo, the two larger lakes extend by a larger surface, and are accompanied by others also of considerable size. Landsat. The images show us part of the counties of Nyima and Qiemo, an arid zone in large elevation but without the mountainous orography around him. The first image was captured by the TM instrument (Thematic Mapper) of the satellite Landsat 5more than 30 years ago. The second was captured by the OLI-2 instrument (Operational Land Image-2) aboard Landsat 9. Several generations of Landsat satellites have been observing the earth from orbit. According to NASA explainssince the 1970s, these satellites capture images of the region every 16 days. This series of images has allowed scientists to detect this unique change in the geography of the region. Image captured by the satellite in August 1994. NASA Earth Observatory, Michala Garrison, based on Landsat data from Us Geological Survey Image captured by the satellite in August 2024 in. NASA Earth Observatory, Michala Garrison, based on Landsat data from US Geological Survey Lakes, many lakes. Several recent studies have verified changes in the region. In 2023, A study Posted in the magazine Science He revealed that, in a global context in which the dominant trend was the opposite, the tibet plateau lakes were accumulating water. A Subsequent studyis published in ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensingquantified this proliferation in the region. The Lagos count indicated that the bodies of water of more than 0.1 km² in the region went from 4,385 units in 1991 to 6,159 in 2023. The surface covered by lakes went from 37,471 km² to 53,267 km². What happens on the plateau? The Tibet plateau is an endorheic basin, which implies that the water flowing in it does not go to the ocean. Its only output is infiltration or evaporation. For water to accumulate, therefore, it has to flow at a greater pace than evaporation. Experts believe that the reason is precisely in a greater water flow. What is not clear is its origin. One possibility is that rainfall has increased in the region. Another, that the water comes from the thaw of the mountainous mountain ranges that surround the plateau, such as the Himalayas. In Xataka | In September some rains flooded the Sahara. We have new images of the “resurrection” of their lakes Image | NASA Earth Observatory, Michala Garrison, based on Landsat data from US Geological Survey

3.7 billion years ago it still had lakes

January 23, 2025 by usatoday24

The evidence that Mars once had rivers and seas that covered much of its surface with water continues to accumulate. These tests serve, however, more than just to demonstrate what we already know with some certainty, they also help us to know what these seas were like and, perhaps one day, they will tell us the story of their disappearance. New tests. The images captured by the rover Curiosity have made it possible to identify in the Martian rock some geological structures undulating waves similar to those that can be found in the sandy beds of lakes and on beaches on our planet. These structures not only denote the presence of water, they also imply that it was on the surface, at the mercy of the winds of Mars. The ripples. These geological marks were found in two places and, according to estimates, they were formed about 3.7 billion years ago. This detail is important since, as the team responsible for its discovery emphasizes, it implies that the surface water of the red planet lasted longer than some estimates calculate. That is, they extend the period in which Mars was partially covered by water. The ripples observed by Curiosity are tiny: about six millimeters high, and separated by intervals of between four and five centimeters. From these data, the team estimates that these were formed on the floor of a shallow lake, about two meters deep. Uncovered. Another important detail that these marks reveal to us is that the water in these lakes was liquid on the surface, that is, it was not covered by a layer of ice, since it would be the result of the action of the wind. This also contradicts some of the climate models applied to the Martian climate of the time. “The shape of the waves could only have been formed under water open to the atmosphere and affected by the wind,” stated in a press release Claire Mondro, co-author of the study. Modeling the undulations. The team analyzed the Curiosity observations and simulated through computer models the conditions that gave rise to these marks on the rock. Thus they were able to estimate an average wavelength of about 4.5 centimeters and the estimated depth of the body of water in which they formed. Details of the analysis were published in an article in the magazine Science Advances. Curiosity. He rover Curiosity has been 12 years of activity on the surface of Mars, where it has already traveled tens of kilometers. Perseverance’s older brother arrived in Gale Crater in mid-2012 as the spearhead of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. In Xataka | The space dream was to spend billions of euros to go to Mars to end up eating crickets Image | NASA/JPL-Caltech

Log In

Sign In

Forgot password?

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections