Gold glitters around Ghana’s ‘lake of souls’ thanks to catastrophic meteor strike — Earth from space

QUICK FACTS

Where is it? Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana [6.498727489, -1.4087398896]

What’s in the photo? Ghana’s only natural lake, surrounded by exposed veins of gold

Which satellite took the photo? Landsat 8

When was it taken? Dec. 29, 2015

This shimmering satellite image shows tendrils of gold surrounding Ghana’s sacred “lake of souls,” which was carved out by a devastating asteroid strike around 1 million years ago.

Lake Bosumtwi (also spelled Bosomtwe) spans 19 square miles (19 square kilometers) ‪—‬ a little smaller than Manhattan ‪—‬ and is located just to the southeast of Ghana’s second-largest city, Kumasi (partially visible in the top left of the photo). The roughly circular body of water, which is up to 240 feet (70 meters) deep, is the country’s only natural lake.

To the Indigenous Asante people, the lake is a sacred site. According to their mythology, a hunter named Akora Bompe chased a wounded antelope into a small magical pond, causing the small body of water to rapidly swell into the lake we see today. It is also considered a “place where souls bid farewell to Earth before entering the afterlife,” according to NASA’s Earth Observatory.

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In reality, the lake actually formed around 1 million years ago, when a roughly 3,300-foot-wide (1 km) meteor slammed into our planet, creating “arguably the best-preserved complex young impact structure known on Earth,” according to the International Commission on Geoheritage.

The catastrophic collision likely triggered “a blinding flash of light and an immense fireball [that] would have incinerated life for dozens of kilometers,” Marian Selorm Sapah, a senior lecturer in the University of Ghana’s Department of Earth Science, told the Earth Observatory. If the same event occurred today, it would likely obliterate the city of Kumasi, she added.

Lake Bosumtwi is Ghana’s only natural freshwater lake.

(Image credit: International Commission on Geoheritage)

Remote sensing analysis has revealed that the material blasted out of the impact settled in a raised, lobed pattern known as a “rampart” crater. This suggests the area was covered in a layer of groundwater when the collision occurred, according to the Earth Observatory.

Rampart craters are rare on Earth but are more common throughout the solar system, including on Mars, as well as on smaller bodies, such as Ganymede, Dione, Tethys and Charon. As a result, studying Lake Bosumtwi could provide insight into how these extraterrestrial craters formed, Sapah said.

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The impact also fractured Earth’s crust and allowed mineral-rich magma to rise to Earth’s surface, forming shallow veins of gold and other valuable elements that have been mined for generations. This activity has resulted in the golden flecks and lines visible in this satellite image.

The rate of gold mining has accelerated in recent years due to advances in technology. Another satellite photo taken in 2024 (see below) shows much more visible gold, which has been exposed by this increased activity. (The lake also appears green in the newer photo due to higher concentrations of phytoplankton in its waters.)

A more recent satellite photo, captured in 2024, shows that the level of gold mining around Lake Bosumtwi has increased significantly over the last decade.

(Image credit: NASA/Landsat)

“The stark visual evidence of anthropogenic [human-caused] change juxtaposed with a million-year-old geological landmark is striking,” Sapah said.

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A 2011 astronaut photo shows off a series of colorful mini-lakes that appeared around the edge of a giant salt flat, known as the Etosha Pan, following a major flooding event.