For much of the year, an efflorescent salt crust makes Lake Lefroy stand out as a bright, white spot in satellite images. But after heavy rains, the ephemeral lake in Western Australia takes on a different look.

When the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired this natural-color image on February 9, 2021, water had pooled in the playa’s lowest points. The rain fell as part of a tropical low that soaked the Eastern Goldfields region in early February. The water was discolored by some combination of suspended sediments from the region’s red soils, light reflecting off the rust-colored lake bed, or bacterial activity in the salty water.

The smaller pools of green water in the center of the lake are areas where a mine discharges groundwater, a process called mine dewatering. The mine, built along a causeway that bisects the lake, taps into rich deposits of gold and nickel. Mining pits, roads, tailing ponds, and other mining infrastructure are visible along the causeway.