Glacial Lake In Chile Disappears

A glacial lake in Chile's southern Andes has disappeared, and scientists want to know why.

The disappearance of the five-acre lake in Bernardo O'Higgins National Park was discovered in late May by park rangers. Where the lake had been in March, they found a dry crater 100 feet deep, as well as several large pieces of ice that used to float atop the water.

"The lake had simply disappeared," said Juan Jose Romero, regional head of Chile's national forest service, or Conaf. "No one knows what happened."

Conaf plans a multidisciplinary expedition to the lake and promised a detailed explanation for its disappearance within a month, reports the Chilean daily El Mercurio.

Some experts are attributing the lake disappearance to the affects of global warming, while others blame it on a recent earthquake that struck southern Chile a month ago, adds El Mercurio.

But Sergio Sepulveda, of the Geology Department at the University of Chile, shot down the direct link to global warming.

Global warming could have melted the ice and increased water levels, which, in turn, could have put pressure on the glacial lake's walls and caused a break, he said. But global warming is not going to cause the lake to disappear in one month, added Sepulveda.

A river that flowed out of the lake was reduced to a trickle.

[bps1000]

It seems a reasonable conjecture that an earthquake created the conditions for the lake to disappear - water seeks its own level. Other liquids do the same, such as lava. In Hawaii, the recent earthquake activity at Kilauea Volcano resulted in the crater sinking, due to the new absence of lava below the crater. The lava tubes, where lava has flowed for recent years, are also empty. If considering the premise that earthquakes are interrelated worldwide, I think I'm a little nervous while waiting for that other shoe to drop. Thanks for the story about the lake. Plenty of food for thought.

[bps1000]

It seems a reasonable conjecture that an earthquake created the conditions for the lake to disappear - water seeks its own level. Other liquids do the same, such as lava. In Hawaii, the recent earthquake activity at Kilauea Volcano resulted in the crater sinking, due to the new absence of lava below the crater. The lava tubes, where lava has flowed for recent years, are also empty. If considering the premise that earthquakes are interrelated worldwide, I think I'm a little nervous while waiting for that other shoe to drop. Thanks for the story about the lake. Plenty of food for thought.

[montraville]

Increasing energy costs means more expensive ice, which means stronger drinks? An upside to the energy crisis! Fewer people driving anyway...

[drinuk]

spectrum108,
Get real, I ran pubs for over twenty years and they got ice whether or not they wanted it. Ice by the bucket load meant less drink, equals another 20% on the profit margin. As for over flowing upon warming ? do they ever let it get warm before they drink some? of course not, one slurp and you've allowed for the melting ice.
As for this lake, obviously the earthquake, which will probably happen at Yosemite soon too!

[andrew_693]

Very soon the bush-jesus squad will blame the terrorists and have more rights taken away from the rest of the world while Tobey Keith will revive his ailing career by singing a concert from inside the lake and rally the usual impulsive idiots again. Maybe the chileans are hiding their water in order to avoid being invaded by the cheney rice and the tony blackbeard blair administration...... you know what happens when you have valuable resources.

[cofmanaaron]

Spectrum08: You would be correct except for the large volume of ice present on top of land isolated from the ocean in Greenland and Antarctica. When this ice melts, it will flow eventually into the ocean. Some ice in Glacier form, slowly flows down into a fjord into the ocean. Hotter temperatures have been shown to cause meltwater to get underneath the glacier and lubricate its flow, accelerating it. Then it is like putting a frozen ice cube in your glass, it displaces water. Where did the lake end up? As a geologist, I think the more likely culprit was that earthquake. Don't worry, it will be put back in the atmosphere via volcanism eventually, but it sucks for Chileans now to lose that water.

[sparks224]

"Hasn't anyone ever "thought" about that ice? Has your glass "overflowed" from melted ice, ever!?!"
Posted by Spectrum108

No, your glass will obviously not overflow when the ice in it melts. But that's NOT what we're talking about.

If you keep adding ice to your glass, it WILL overflow.
When the ice that is now on land dropps into the ocean, the sea level will rise. Got it? It's NOT that hard to understand.

[sparks224]

Mystified2,
The "global warming people" are not talking about ice that is floating in water. It's the ice that is sitting on top of a large land mass (like Greenland for example). When that moves into the ocean, displacement will take place, and it will be significant.

[donnie900]

Helga was thirsty.

[mystified2]

By the way - ice displaces more volume than water. As ice melts, the water should go down a little, it won't go up and it certainly has no noticeable effect on pressure against the walls. The ice still has mass and contributes to the pressure in the same way as it would as water - one pound of ice = one pound of water. The global warming people really need to pay better attention in science class.