Drought-Shrunken Waterways Reveal Ancient Villages, Monuments, Sunken Ships

Aug 23, 2022

Droughts around the world are causing havoc. They're hurting the economy and destroying wildlife. Some are threatening water supplies and power plants that create power from dams.

That’s the bad part. The interesting part is what’s being uncovered in sites across the globe. The dry weather is draining lakes and rivers to super low levels. People are finding everything from sunken ships to dead bodies.

Here is a list of some of the things either re-exposed or discovered due to the dropping water levels:

  • Three 600-year-old Buddhist statues found in the Yangtze River. That's in China. 
  • Up to 20 sunken Nazi warships in the Danube River. That's in Serbia. 
  • A rock circle called the “Spanish Stonehenge” in the Valdecanas reservoir in Spain. The circle is officially called the Dolmen of Guadalperal. It's thought to be 7,000 years old. 
  • An unexploded 1,000-pound bomb from World War II. It was in Italy’s Po River. 
  • A Roman bridge from the 1st century CE in Italy's Tiber River.
  • An ancient village flooded on purpose in 1963. That was to make way for the Belesar reservoir in Spain.
  • The “ghost village” of Aceredo on the Spanish-Portuguese border. It emerged from the Alto-Lindoso reservoir.
  • One of the largest natural bridges in a canyon, in Lake Powell. The lake spans northern Arizona and southern Utah. 
  • Footprints from people who lived thousands of years ago in Lake Powell.
  • Garbage, guns, beer cans, baby strollers, bullets, fake human skeletons, arrowheads, sunglasses, building materials, sunken boats, and five human bodies in Nevada's Lake Mead.

Photo from Reuters.

Question
The author utilizes a _______ to present the reader with examples of things that have been re-exposed or discovered due to the drought. (Common Core RI.5.5; RI.6.5)
a. Venn diagram
b. alphabetical list
c. bulleted list
d. timeline
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