Lake Chad, satellite image. Image 3 of 4. Lake Chad, located in the Sahel region just south of the Sahara, was the fourth largest lake in Africa in th
Lake Chad, satellite image. Image 3 of 4. Lake Chad, located in the Sahel region just south of the Sahara, was the fourth largest lake in Africa in the 1960s and had an area of more than 26,000 square kilometres. However, by the 21st century its extent had shrunk to less than 1,500 square kilometres, around a twentieth of its size. This is due to its increased use for irrigation combined with droughts. Image obtained using the Landsat 5 satellite in 1987. Vegetation is coloured red, water areas are dark coloured. For a series showing the lake's shrinkage from 1963 to 2007, see images C003/2034 - C003/2037.
Size: 4937px × 3555px
Photo credit: © NASA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1900s, 1980s, 1987, 20th, 5, africa, african, arid, cameroon, century, chad, decreasing, desert, desertification, drought, drying, drying-, dunes, earth, environment, evaporation, geographical, geography, human, image, impact, industrial, industry, inland, lake, land, landsat, losing, loss, niger, nigeria, observation, person, sahara, sahel, satellite, sediment, sequence, series, shrinking, space, water
