NASA’s series of stark, eye-opening satellite images, its “” project, reveals years of global change in just seconds, changes from weather, humans and natural phenomena that transform Earth’s landscape.

From 2000 to 2012, for example, the in Brazil went from more than 80,000 square miles of pristine forest to just 26,000 square miles due to deforestation. The in Asia has shrunk by 90 percent.

Changes are happening in the United States, too, with the , Massachusetts, expanding, in the Gulf Coast, and contracting. Below, 12 before-and-after photos reveal what can happen in the blink of an eye. All photos come from NASA.

Lake Powell, 1999/2014

Prolonged drought has caused water levels in Utah’s Lake Powell to drop dramatically. In the first image from 1999, the lake’s waters are high, its colors blue. In the second image, from 15 years later, side canyons expose a pale outline around the lake’s perimeter. Lake Powell is at just 42 percent capacity.

(Credit: NASA)

(Credit: NASA)

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2000/2011

In Dubai, construction crews morphed a desert wasteland into a global destination. Some of those construction projects are seen in the photos below, which shows the urbanization of Dubai from November 2000 to April 2011, including one that involved dredging up sand from the bottom of the Persian Gulf to piece together a collection of artificial islands in the shape of a palm tree (visible in the bottom left of the second shot).

(Credit: NASA)

(Credit: NASA)

Columbia Glacier, Alaska, 1986/2014

The Columbia Glacier, one of the fastest-changing in the world, according to NASA, retreated from its original spot at the northern tip of Heather Island, Alaska, more than 12 miles inland between 1986 and 2014. It also lost nearly half its volume and thickness. The glacier is expected to reach the shoreline by 2030.

(Credit: NASA)

(Credit: NASA)

Alberta Tar Sands, 1984/2011

Under Alberta, Canada, sit 170 billions of barrels of oil. Since 1984, the number of mines over these oil sands — so-called because of the substance bitumen, which covers the area’s sand — has grown slowly but exponentially, to tap into this oil reserve. As evidenced by the landscape changing below, the mines are invasive. Heavy duty construction equipment digs up 720,000 tons of sand each day, NASA notes, carving holes up to 260 feet deep into the Earth.

(Credit: NASA)

(Credit: NASA)

Cape Cod, Massachusetts, 1984/2014

Along Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Chatham specifically, the barrier has shifted south along the coast constantly breaking up and forming new connections between the sandbars and islands that rest in the Atlantic Ocean — exactly what coastal barriers are meant to do. Storms in 1987, 2007 and 2013 played a key role in transforming the coastal barrier shown below.

(Credit: NASA)

(Credit: NASA)

Atchafalaya Bay, Gulf Coast, 1984/2014

Though much of the Mississippi River Delta is disappearing at an alarming rate, in Atchafalaya Bay, two new deltas have emerged, built from sediment carried by the river. The changes from 1984, when the first image was taken, and 2014, when the bottom image was taken, are evident. The Atchafalaya is a distributary (opposite of a tributary) of the Mississippi River, meaning it breaks from the main river and forms finger-like extensions.

(Credit: NASA)

(Credit: NASA)

MORE FROM WEATHER.COM:

Pedersen Glacier is photographed from Aialik Bay in Alaska in 1909. (USGS/ U.S. Grant)