Picture of the Week—Lake Disappointment
The colors in this picture remind me of Vincent van Gogh, but it’s not a painting
![20110520104045lake_disapp.jpg](https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/5udfY5amDmsrSNQE8ixwEyAatvM=/1000x750/filters:no_upscale()/https://tf-cmsv2-smithsonianmag-media.s3.amazonaws.com/filer/20110520104045lake_disapp.jpg)
The colors in this picture remind me of Vincent van Gogh, but it’s not a painting. This is a satellite photo of Lake Disappointment in Western Australia. The ephemeral lake was discovered in 1897 by a thirsty man searching for fresh water. He must have been incredibly disappointed to find that the creeks he was following led to a large, salty, undrinkable lake.
This photo, from the USGS Earth as Art 2 collection of satellite imagery, was taken on January 31, 2000 by the ASTER instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite.