The Case of the Disappearing Lake in Chile

by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 06.22.07
Business & Politics (news)

disapearing_lake.jpg

Dropping water level is one thing. But when a 100 foot-deep lake (30 metres) with a surface area of 332,000 square feet (101,200 square metres) just up and disappears, park rangers take note. Even if it is in such a remote area it has never been named. The lake, according to The Guardian, was last seen three months ago: Now, dust bunnies are flying around a huge, dry, empty crater (this image is an actual crater - not the former lake).

"In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal. We went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared," Juan José Romero, regional director of Chile's National Forestry Corporation, said this week. "The only things left were chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure."

So what happened? A team of geologists and other scientists are on their way to find out, but the suspect--despite the lowering and disappearance of lakes in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru--is not global warming. The theory is based on what happens when you pull the plug in the tub: An earthquake created a crack and all the water drained out. Via ::The Guardian More on lakes ::The Upside of Global Warming ::Save Water When You Shower

Image courtesy of Universe Today

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    Comments (8)

    Isn't that a picture of Meteor Crater in Arizona?

    Oh well, I guess it gets the point across, anyway. Finding pictures of dried up lakes is maybe not so easy.

    jump to top anthonares [TypeKey Profile Page] says:

    yeh, i was going to ask the same thing. meteor crater, not dried lake bed.

    --------author´s note follows----------------

    yes, that is a crater...which I mentioned in the text. Sometimes there are just no images out there - so we make do with creative inspiration.

    jump to top ariella says:

    I actually just finished reading the article about it on CNN. They state there haven't been any earthquakes in the area. I guess it's still too early to tell what happened.

    http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/21/missing.lake.ap/index.html

    jump to top vigilant20 says:

    It's worth noting that the lake wasn't there at all 30 years ago, so it is probably just ground movement. If there is a fault under the lake it may have closed up before allowing the lake to form and now it has just opened up again.

    jump to top ecobore [TypeKey Profile Page] says:

    I think this disappearing lake phenomenon is not unique... and not so mysterious. Lakes disappear on glaciers when glaciel Ice Plugs melt beneath the lake. This happens frequently. Perhaps there was a plug of ice somewhere under this lake (although not located on a glacier)... perhaps an existing rock channel was opened when ice or permafrost beneath the lake was melted, releasing the water through a preexisting geologic channel. Global warming again???

    jump to top jackO says:

    Global warming....righhhht.

    jump to top Mr. Jules says:

    I agree to jackO,
    It is another form of Global warmming !

    jump to top Liu says:

    www.redelk.org propheziced in the 80s that all of these things would happen..he wrote them down on his spiritual TRIP caused by a 70 day fast,
    one of the things he said was that the Creator told him that man will steal mans water. lakes will mysteriously disappear and nature will be blamed as a culprit when in reality it will be caused by glass like tube structures

    jump to top Breann Lang says:

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