This shimmering satellite image from NASA’s Landsat shows tendrils of gold surrounding Ghana’s sacred “lake of souls,” – Lake Bosomtwe, which is said to have been carved out by a devastating asteroid strike around 1 million years ago.
Lake Bosomtwe (also spelled Bosumtwi) spans 19 square miles (19 square kilometers), and is located just to the southeast of Ghana’s second-largest city, Kumasi (partially visible in the top left of the photo above). The roughly circular body of water, which is up to 240 feet (70 meters) deep, is Ghana’s only natural lake. It is in the Bosomtwe district of the Ashanti Region.
Oral narrative of how lake was formed
Anyone who has visited Lake Bosomtwe before, especially at the Abono town side may have heard the famous oral narrative of how the lake was discovered in relation to the hunter called ‘Bompe’, his dog ‘Daakye’ and the hunt for an antelope (Otwe).
It is interesting especially hearing the narrative from the children at the Abono side of the lake explaining that the hunter, Bompe was on a hunting spree one night with his dog – Daakye – and they came across an antelope (Otwe). He reportedly fired at the antelope and thought he had hit it, but the wounded antelope fled the scene. The hunter is said to have followed the blood droplets presuming the angle at which, he hit the antelope, it was going to drop dead nearby.
According to the narrative, the hunter followed and saw the antelope resting near a small body of water, but when he made an attempt to approach it, the antelope reportedly jumped into the water and was not seen again. The hunter thinking the pond was too small for the antelope to drown reportedly jumped into the water but did not find it.
Since he could not find it, he reported back to the village folks who concluded the pond was a sacred site. According to the narrative, the small magical body of water rapidly swell into the lake we see today.
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, the Lake Bosomtwe area is also considered a “place where souls bid farewell to Earth before entering the afterlife.”
The scientific narrative of a meteor slamming into planet earth
In reality, the lake actually formed around 1 million years ago, when a roughly 3,300-foot-wide (1 km) meteor slammed into planet earth, 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.
In article published by Harry Bake on Yahoo News on May 26, 2026, it was stated that 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 Bosumtwe could provide insight into how these extraterrestrial craters formed, Sapah said.
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.)
“The stark visual evidence of anthropogenic [human-caused] change juxtaposed with a million-year-old geological landmark is striking,” Sapah said.
