Extent of ancient Lake Mega Chad (2020)

This map, created by Joshua Stevens for NASA's Earth Observatory, shows the extent of Lake Chad in ancient times. In the centre, in dark green, you can see the current extent of the lake, on the border between Chad and Cameroon.

At its maximum extent, just 7,000 years ago, Lake Chad covered around 1,000,000 square kilometres, roughly twice the size of Spain and larger than the Caspian Sea (currently the largest lake).

With the end of the last ice age, the lake gradually lost its size to the great Sahara desert. Since the arrival of Europeans in Africa in the 19th century, the lake has been the subject of great interest, and several sources from that period already mentioned how it was rapidly shrinking in size.

In the mid-20th century, with population increases in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, pressure on the lake increased significantly, and consequently its size decreased from 26,000 square kilometres to just 1,500 square kilometres.

Sources

• Remnants of an Ancient Lake – NASA Earth Observatory