What's in the photo? A giant, milky-green swirl on the lake's surface
When was it taken? Feb. 21, 2020
Lake Skadar (also known as Shkodër, Shkodra or Scutari) is the largest lake in Southern Europe, with a surface area between 140 and 200 square miles (360 to 520 square kilometers), depending on the time of year. It is situated on the border between Montenegro, which surrounds the western half of the lake (left in the photo), and Albania, which encircles the lake's eastern shore. The body of water is split 65% to 35% in Montenegro's favor.
During late winter and early spring, the lake's water level rises, and it usually fills with a milky-green substance that often gets whipped into a vortex by a combination of wind-driven surface currents and the natural flow of water between the lake's major inlets and outlets.
Lake Skadar formed millions of years ago and was once connected to the Adriatic Sea (visible in the background of this image). (Image credit: Wikimedia)
Skadar is a karst lake, meaning it was once a cave system that flooded and eventually collapsed, likely because the caves were made from the same easily erodible rocks that now swirl on the lake's surface, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. The lake is a "cryptodepression" because most of the lake's floor is below sea level.
The shipwreck of a paddle steamboat, named Skanderbeg, lies along the lake's western shore. Local partisans sank the vessel in 1942 after Italian soldiers commandeered it during the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia in World War II. When the lake's water levels are at their lowest, part of the shipwreck rises above the surface.
The lake also hosts around 50 freshwater snail species — more than any other lake on Earth, according to a 2013 study.
A 2024 satellite photo shows an unusually active bloom of toxic cyanobacteria swirling in the water of Nevada's Pyramid Lake.
This 2018 satellite photo shows an unknown substance swirling across the Gulf of Gdańsk in Poland. Scientists were shocked to later discover what it really was.
A 2016 astronaut photo shows surprising plumes of milky material swirling in the waters of Turkey's Lake Van, the largest alkaline lake on Earth.
Hence then, the article about giant milky green vortex swirls across massive cryptodepression lake in southern europe earth from space was published today ( ) and is available on Live Science ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Giant, milky-green vortex swirls across massive 'cryptodepression' lake in Southern Europe — Earth from space )
Also on site :
- ESMO 2026 .. Mabwell to Present Latest Clinical Data on Nectin-4-targeting ADC 9MW2821 for Triple Negative Breast Cancer in Oral Presentation
- ‘Heated Rivalry’ Is First TV Series Soundtrack in More Than a Decade to Achieve This Billboard 200 Feat
- On Sebastia’s hilltop, Israelis and Palestinians are fighting over who owns the past and controls the present