File:Amazing, Adventurous Lake Manly (MODIS 2024-03-06).jpg

English: March 3, 2024 February 18, 2024

Most days, the floor of Death Valley’s Badwater Basin is a dry salt flat, crisp with layers of desiccated sodium chloride, calcite, gypsum, and borax. For the last six months, however, abundant rainfall has brought the ephemeral Lake Manly back to life— and filled it deep enough to allow kayaking. Not only that, in late February 2024, weather created a “traveling lake”, according to the National Park Service.

In the Pleistocene Epoch, Badwater Basin was filled with magnificent and vast Lake Manly. Over time, the lake slowly dried up, eventually leaving behind only its shadow in the form of mineral deposits lining the floor of the lowest point in North America. From time to time, rainfall will fill the bottom of Badwater Basin, reviving Lake Manly. Rarely does the water last more than a few days or weeks.

The recent exceptional life of Lake Manly began in August 2023, when Hurricane Hilary doused Death Valley with extreme rains. Flash flooding damaged the National Park badly enough that it was closed to visitors for nearly two months. But the rains also restored shimmering water to the shallow lake. Initially expected to evaporate by November 2023, the waters receded over several months, but the lake persisted.

A second drenching in early February 2024 from a ferocious atmospheric river brought Lake Manly back to the August 2023 size. Widespread runoff from that storm filled rivers running into Lake Manly for weeks, expanding the size and depth of the lake. The National Park Service permitted kayakers to enjoy the rare opportunity to paddle in Death Valley.

Late February brought rising temperatures typical of late spring along with the absence of rain. Lake Manly began to ebb from evaporation. But the amazing lake had one more surprise—it traveled.

According to the National Park Service, between February 29 and March 2, winds measuring up to forty miles per hour pushed the water two miles to the north! As the winds subsided, Lake Manly travelled back to its original location. The trip increased surface area, which increased the rate of evaporation, so Lake Manly is currently shallower and smaller than before the two-mile voyage. It is also much muddier, and kayaking is no longer permitted.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired two false-color images, one on March 3, 2024, and the second on February 18, 2024, that capture the change in Lake Manly between those dates. This type of image helps separate vegetation (green) from water (blue) and open land, which looks tan or brown. In addition, deeper water looks darker blue, and sediment suspended in water may appear tan or green.

Clicking on the February 18 image shows Lake Manly near peak depth and largest surface area since filling in August 2023. The image on March 3 captures the lake returning from its northward windswept voyage. At that time, the lake’s waters were quite mud-laden (green) with only a small amount of deeper water visible. Toggling between the two images also shows that the southern edge of the lake remained further north than on February 18 and the northern extent appeared wider, both features showing the effect of the wind-forced movement.