Discoveries Revealed Through Drought

Extreme drought gripped the world this year, fueling wildfires, draining rivers, reducing harvests. Amid the climate hardship are artifacts of thousands of years of lost history once buried or flooded, now reappearing due to plummeting water levels. From a sunken WWII-era landing craft in Nevada to an abandoned village in Iraq to a medieval horse bridge in England and undersea prehistoric stone monuments in Spain, here are sites that silently witnessed and documented historic climate change. —fan chen

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01 D-Day Debris

LAKE MEAD, NEVADA

 The fast-receding waters of Lake Mead exposed a sunken World War Il-era vessel a Higgins boat used for beach landings. The rusted craft once surveyed the Colorado River; after being sold to a marina decades ago, it got stuck in sediment nearly 200 feet underwater. Before the boat was uncovered, the megadrought resurfaced bodies of more recent homicide victims and left a white "bathtub ring" of mineral deposits around the lake.

02 Footsteps of Carnivores

GLEN ROSE, TEXAS

Recently revealed footprints at Dinosaur Valley State Park, show 15-foot-tall carnivorous dinosaurs trod this spot in Texas 113 million years ago. Usually hidden underneath the Paluxy River and filled with sediment, these tracks appeared this summer when the river completely dried up. Eventually rain will likely bury them again. The prints belong to Acrocanthosaurus, bipedal dinosaurs with three toes and claws on each limb. The last time the prints were visible was in 2000.

03 Spanish Stonehenge

CÁCERES, SPAIN