Nazi Ships, Bodies In Barrels, Lost Cities And Other Finds Revealed By Drought In Pictures

Science Nazi Ships, Bodies In Barrels, Lost Cities And Other Finds Revealed By Drought In Pictures Eric Mack Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I cover science and innovation and products and policies they create. New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Aug 31, 2022, 07:03pm EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin TOPSHOT – A “bathtub ring” is visible at sunset during low water levels the Lake Mead reservoir due . . .

[+] to the western drought on July 19, 2021 as seen from the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River at the Nevada and Arizona state border. – The Lake Mead reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border provides water to the Southwest, including nearby Las Vegas as well as Arizona and California, but has remained below full capacity since 1983 due to increased water demand and drought, conditions that are expected to continue. (Photo by Patrick T.

FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images Around the world, it’s been a particularly intense time for drought thanks in large part to climate change. Lately the impacts have become increasingly visible in dry river and lakebeds across continents where everything from old World War II bombs and Nazi ships to dinosaur tracks and even human bodies have been emerging from the receding waters.

In the western United States the Colorado River Basin is parched, with major reservoirs like Lake Mead at a fraction of typical capacity. As a result, freshwater arms of manmade lakes have been transforming back to dry and scenic side canyons. A more macabre development has been the re-emergence of mishaps and murders from generations past like this previously submerged boat.

Lake Mead, NV – June 29: A formerly submerged boat that is now visible due to the drought, sits . . .

[+] along the shores at the Callville Bay Resort & Marina, Lake Mead. Lake Mead is at its lowest level in history since it was filled 85 years ago. The ongoing drought has made a severe impact on Lake Mead and a milestone in the Colorado River’s crisis.

High temperatures, increased contractual demands for water and diminishing supply are shrinking the flow into Lake Mead. Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the U. S.

, stretching 112 miles long, a shoreline of 759 miles, a total capacity of 28,255,000 acre-feet, and a maximum depth of 532 feet. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Easily the most grisly of the many dried-up discoveries has been the human body that was found shoved in a rusted-out barrel near the Lake Mead marina.

The remains have undergone DNA testing to see if it could be linked to a missing person case from 45 years ago. A rusted metal barrel, near the location of where a different barrel was found containing a human . .

. [+] body, sits exposed on shore during low water levels due to the western drought at the Lake Mead Marina on the Colorado River in Boulder City, Nevada on May 5, 2022. – A worsening drought has revealed a four-decade-old body dumped in Lake Mead, police said May 2, 2022, warning that falling water levels would lead to the uncovering of more corpses.

Boaters on Lake Mead near Las Vegas discovered a corroded barrel with its sinister contents during a weekend pleasure trip. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T.

FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images MORE FOR YOU New Research Finds A Connection Between Domestic Violence And These Two Personality Disorders This Scientist Helps Andean Forests And Ecuador’s Women In STEM Exceptional Fossil Preservation Suggests That Discovering Dinosaur DNA May Not Be Impossible Other human remains and artifacts that pre-date the reservoir itself have also been found. The Mormon community of Saint Thomas in Nevada was flooded seven decades ago when the Colorado River was dammed to create Lake Mead. Now, as the climate appears intent on returning the river back to its initial state, bones, dishes and other remnants of the forgotten pioneer town are resurfacing.

OVERTON, NV – MARCH 30: Bones that people have found are left on a foundation in Mormon pioneer . . .

[+] town Saint Thomas, flooded 70 years ago by the rising waters of the Colorado River when it was dammed to create Lake Mead, is exposed as a continuing drought keeps the reservoir near historic low levels March 30, 2007 at Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Overton, Nevada. St. Thomas was established in 1865 at the confluence of the Muddy and Virgin Rivers by Mormons dispatched to southern Nevada to plant cotton and expand the reach of their church toward the West Coast.

The town had grown to a population of 500 by the time it was inundated in 1938. The underwater concrete foundations were first seen by fishermen in 2003. Today tamarisk bushes cover the landscape.

The US Bureau of Reclamation is evaluating four proposals to manage the drought on the Colorado River which supplies water and power to millions of people in the western states. The bureau has warned that shortages are possible as early as 2010. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) Getty Images OVERTON, NV – MARCH 30: Artifacts that people have found are left on a foundation in Mormon pioneer .

. . [+] town Saint Thomas, flooded 70 years ago by the rising waters of the Colorado River when it was dammed to create Lake Mead, is exposed as a continuing drought keeps the reservoir near historic low levels March 30, 2007 at Lake Mead National Recreation Area near Overton, Nevada.

St. Thomas was established in 1865 at the confluence of the Muddy and Virgin Rivers by Mormons dispatched to southern Nevada to plant cotton and expand the reach of their church toward the West Coast. The town had grown to a population of 500 by the time it was inundated in 1938.

The underwater concrete foundations were first seen by fishermen in 2003. Today tamarisk bushes cover the landscape. The US Bureau of Reclamation is evaluating four proposals to manage the drought on the Colorado River which supplies water and power to millions of people in the western states.

The bureau has warned that shortages are possible as early as 2010. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) Getty Images Dredging Up War’s Remnants Parts of Europe have been getting a similar treatment to the arid American west the past few years. But the result has been the re-emergence of the collateral damage from a war still in living memory.

In fact some of the remnants remain a bit too hot to handle, like the unexploded World War II bomb exposed on the dry bed of the Po River in Italy this month. BORGOFORTE, ITALY – AUGUST 04: In this view unexploded bombs from the Second World War are seen on . .

. [+] dry waters in the Po river in the province of Mantua on August 4, 2022 in Borgoforte, Italy. (Photo by Nicola Ciancaglini/Ciancaphoto Studio/Getty Images) Getty Images The same river was once plied by German forces, including this barge that may have been sunk while trying to flee as allied forces were pushing back axis powers in the war’s final months.

A heron stands on a large 55-meter barge that was sunk by WWII American bombing in 1944 while . . .

[+] preventing retreat of the German army, that re-emerged due to severe drought from the River Po in Gualtieri, Italy on June 15, 2022. – According to the river observatory, the drought affecting Italy’s longest river Po is the worst in the last 70 years. (Photo by Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP) (Photo by PIERO CRUCIATTI/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images It isn’t just Italian waters where Nazi metal is seeing sun for the first time in decades.

More of Hitler’s wrecks have been spotted in the Danube, among other places. History Returning to the Present Perhaps most remarkable is the number of artifact from the deeper (sometimes much deeper) past that have been revealed. The Roman military camp of Aquis Querquennis was flooded by the construction of a dam in Spain decades ago.

Researchers have made a habit of working to excavate as much of the ruins as possible each time in the past that drought has brought the water levels down. This time around they’ve been able to make quite a bit of progress. Also in Spain, the plummeting water levels at another reservoir have put the Dolmen of Guadalperal, which has been called “The Spanish Stonehenge,” back in the open.

The curious stones date to 5,000 B. C. but were thought to be lost forever after being flooded by a large agriculture project in the 1960s.

CACERES, SPAIN – JULY 28: The Dolmen of Guadalperal, sometimes also known as “The Spanish . . .

[+] Stonehenge” is seen above the water level at the Valdecanas reservoir, which is at 27 percent capacity, on July 28, 2022 in Caceres province, Spain. Some areas of Europe are at risk of drought following a lack of precipitation and severe heatwaves. Spain is battling one of the driest weather conditions in a long time, which could lead to implications for agriculture and tourism, with some areas already facing water restrictions.

(Photo by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images) Getty Images Further afield, in Iraq, yet another lowered body of water has revealed the surprisingly complete ruins of a settlement dating nearly as far back – this time to the Mittani Empire of over 5,000 years ago. DUHOK, IRAQ – JANUARY 30: An aerial view of the newly found ancient city of 3,400 years from the . .

. [+] Mitanni Empire period in Semel district of Duhok, Iraq on January 30, 2022. (Photo by Muhammed Felah Ibrahim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Parts of Asia have had the unfortunate luck of dealing with both record rains and droughts in recent years.

In China the lowered Yangtze River gave up the goods in the form of ancient Buddhist statues. Back in Italy it’s not just wartime history surfacing. A more significant amount of Nero’s Bridge over the Tiber River in Rome is now visible for the first time in recent memory.

ROME, ITALY – JUNE 24: The remains of the ancient Bridge of Nero, near Ponte Vittorio, resurface . . .

[+] from the drought-stricken River Tiber on June 24, 2022 in Rome, Italy. The bridge was built under Emperor Nero in the 1st century to improve connections to his properties on the right bank of the river (including his mother Agrippina’s villa). The river Tiber continues to drop due to the lack of rain and dropped six centimeters, according to the findings of the Umbrian Civil Protection Functional Center.

(Photo by Stefano Montesi – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images) Corbis via Getty Images But easily the oldest pieces of history that have been returned to us, arguably by our own hand, have been the dinosaurs tracks in the now exposed bed of the Paluxy River at a Texas state park. While periods of drought were proceeded by above average rains this year, including in parts of the American West, forecasters say we still have a long way to go to make up the water deficit, and climate trends point towards more artifacts emerging in the future. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn .

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