Severe drought has been a hot topic in recent years as extreme heat and low water levels have devastated nature, wildlife and businesses. As major rivers and waterways have dried up, various intriguing (and sometimes grisly) discoveries have resurfaced. From ancient Roman bridges to a 19th-century passenger ferry recently uncovered at the bottom of the Mississippi River, we round up the remarkable discoveries unearthed by recent droughts.
A brand-new moai statue emerged from a dried-up lake bed in a volcanic crater in March 2023, thrilling archaeologists. The lake started drying up in 2018 and was previously deep enough that the statue must have been there for at least two or three centuries. More than five feet (1.6m) tall, it was found lying on its side in the muddy marsh looking up at the sky. The iconic UNESCO-listed moai stone figures were carved by the Indigenous Rapa Nui people of Easter Island between approximately 1200 and 1500 AD, and are thought to represent deified ancestors. The statues were made out of solidified volcanic ash often mined from the Rano Raraku crater – the same crater that yielded the new find.
This rusty old boat was discovered by officials in October 2022 following intense drought hitting California's Lake Shasta. It's the remains of a Higgins ship which carried goods and passengers during the Second World War. The 'Ghost Boat', so-called due to the mystery surrounding how it ended up in this lake, was used during D-Day invasions in the Pacific – but was previously thought to have sunk at the time. At the moment, no one is quite sure how it ended up in the bottom of Lake Shasta...
These so-called ‘hunger stones’ keep cropping up in several major European rivers as a result of the drought currently affecting Europe. Pictured here is a 15th-century instalment spotted in Děčin, Czech Republic, whose translated inscription reads: “If you see me, then weep”.
Italy recently suffered its worst drought in 70 years and Rome's River Tiber water levels became dangerously low. In July 2022, an ancient Roman bridge reappeared near the Vittorio Emanuele II Bridge in the capital. Previously submerged by water for centuries, the bridge was constructed during the reign of Emperor Nero, famed for the notorious Great Fire of Rome.
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This Second World War bomb was discovered in the dried-up River Po and has now, thankfully, been removed by the Italian army. It was found near the city of Mantua by local fishermen.
China was recently hit with record-high temperatures and record-low water levels, with the Yangtze basin’s levels 45% lower than usual in July 2022. In Chongqing, southwestern China, this 600-year-old rock carving re-emerged from the water, and had reappeared during 2020’s receding water levels too. At over three feet (0.9m) tall, the carving, sitting atop Foyeliang Island, depicts a monk resting on a lotus pedestal.
In August 2022, severe drought in Dinosaur Valley State Park – once situated on the edge of an ancient ocean – revealed these dinosaur footprints dating back 113 million years. The footprints are thought to have been trodden by an Acrocanthosaurus, which stood at 15 feet (4.5m) tall and weighed nearly seven tonnes.
The Dolmen of Guadalperal, aka the 'Spanish Stonehenge', shows the striking effect of Spain’s current drought crisis. The megalithic site is thought to date back some 7,000 years but was flooded in 1963 for a development project. However, 2022's receding waters in the surrounding Valdecañas reservoir brought the prehistoric site to the surface again.
This former village was exposed for the first time in 30 years in November 2021. The village was purposely flooded in 1992 to make way for the Alto Lindoso reservoir, where it remained submerged for three decades. Ghostly yet strikingly preserved buildings re-emerged in February 2022 after extreme drought, which worsened as the year went on.
Wales saw parts of the country reach highs of 37°C (98°F) in August 2022, around 17°C above average. This ancient bridge is usually submerged in water at the Llwyn-on Reservoir (the largest reservoir in the Taf Fawr valley), but the drought caused it to reappear.
You can only usually see the bell tower of this 11th-century church but Sant Roma de Sau, in Girona, has fully resurfaced due to Spain's ongoing drought crisis. The northeastern village was flooded in the 1960s to make way for a dam, but the past few months have allowed visitors to see the quaint structure again, with canoeists even able to paddle through its arch.
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At first glance, this washed-up rusty barrel on the shores of Lake Mead doesn't seem too unusual – a result of North America's largest artificial reservoir shrinking by roughly 175 feet (53m) since 2000. But inside it, skeletal remains dating back to the 1970s were found. The lake currently stands at its lowest levels since being filled in the 1930s, following the Hoover Dam’s construction. Among the more grisly discoveries are an increasing number of human remains, with a skull the most recent find.
Also discovered in Lake Mead is this once-sunken boat, which stands vertical in a section of the lake that had previously been underwater. As the drought continues to devastate the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and around Nevada, the federal government has announced plans to cut water allocations from the Colorado River Basin to Arizona and Nevada for the second year in a row. As low water levels persist, the discoveries continue.
The American Midwest has suffered severe drought since September 2022. The Mississippi River has receded to record-low levels, exposing this previously submerged passenger ferry named the Brookhill. Believed to date back to the 19th century, the boat sank following a major storm in 1915. While the site remains open for all to visit (until it's eventually submerged again), parts of the shipwreck have been stolen, leading to signs being installed reminding people not to take pieces of the ferry.
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