Today’s Image of the Day comes thanks to the NASA Earth Observatory and features a look at sunglint on Lake Titicaca.

Lake Titicaca is located on a high plateau in the Andes Mountains between Bolivia and Peru.

At 12,500 feet above sea level, it is one of the highest lakes in the world, as well as the largest lake in South America.

Sunglint is an optical phenomenon that occurs in satellite images when sunlight reflects off the surface of a body of water at the same angle the sensor is viewing it. The reflection causes an unusual gleam-look.

Lake Titicaca has a surface elevation of 3,812 m (12,507 ft). The “highest navigable lake” claim is generally considered to refer to commercial craft. Numerous smaller bodies of water around the world are at higher elevations. For many years, the largest vessel afloat on the lake was the 2,200-ton (2,425 U.S. tons), 79-metre (259 ft) SS Ollanta. Today, the largest vessel is most likely the similarly sized train barge/float Manco Capac, operated by PeruRail.

Other cultures lived on Lake Titicaca prior to the arrival of the Incas. In 2000, a team of international archaeologists and divers found the ruins of an underwater temple, thought to be between 1,000 and 1,500 years old, most likely built by the Tiwanaku people. The ruins have been measured to be 200 by 50 m (660 by 160 ft). The temple was accompanied by a village, some roads, terraces for farming and a retaining wall that ran for 800 meters

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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com

Source: NASA Earth Observatory