Emerald Outback: Four Lakes Merge Into One After Unprecedented Australian Rain

A 2024 Landsat/NASA image captures four ephemeral lakes in Australia’s Barkly Tableland (Tarrabool Lake and Lakes Sylvester, Corella, and Deburgh) merging into a single emerald pool after two years of near-record rainfall that kept the basins filled. The merged water’s green hue comes from dense vegetation and algae, with paler sediment where overflow stirred up dust. The two rainy seasons (2022–23 and 2023–24) were among the wettest since 1990, a trend NASA links to climate change, and these lakes serve as important bird habitats when full.