Mystery of the disappearing lake

[SpyderLady]

Mystery of the disappearing lake

22nd June 2007

A glacial lake in Chile has disappeared and no one knows exactly why.

The five-acre lake was still at the Bernardo O'Higgins National Park in March this year, reports Sky News.

But by late May it was nowhere to be seen, say rangers.

They found a dry crater 100ft deep and several large pieces of ice that used to float on top of the water in the country's southern Andes.

A group of geologists and other experts are going to the area in the next few days to investigate.

The lake was in the region of Magallanes, and situated 1,250 miles south-east of the capital Santiago.

A river that flowed out of it has been reduced to a trickle.

One theory is that the water disappeared through cracks in the lake bottom into underground fissures.

But experts do not know why the cracks would have appeared because there have been no earthquakes reported in the area recently.

Juan Jose Romero, head of Chile's National Forest Service in Magallanes, said: "It has simply disappeared. No one knows what happened."

[califgirl]

Dang, now you see and now you don't. This will be an interesting follow up story, just to see what happened.

[mahjong]

5 acre lake is like a pond. The worlds biggest lake in Africa is gone due to global warming.Guess anything can happen.

[olhillbilly]

A five acre lake thats 100 feet deep, would be bout as far across as it is deep.

[SpyderLady]

5 acres...my house sits on almost 1 acre. So 5 of them, seems like a fair amount of water to disappear in 2 months.

[mahjong]

Maybe someone has a couple of water-buffalo's.lol That lake in Africa,worlds largest,gone in less than a year.

[sebastianlady]

There is a lake in Michigan that pretty much dries up about every 20 years, Rainy Lake. It is guessed that the water travels underground. The water always comes back. They have found logs marked with logging markings from areas not connected by river in the lake. I know about this lake because I have seen it do that, but I could not find anything on the internet to share about it. It is a big limestone and sinkhole area, so water could easily travel underground there.

[mahjong]

Does it have a artesian well,most here do?

[sebastianlady]

yes, but the well was not bothered... I drank from it when the lake was just about gone. The lake is quite deep in the center. Divers choose not to go there because in the deep water, it is not clear. It worries a lot of people on the years it goes, but it comes back. Fish have changed now though, pike are there now and they eat all the other stuff we used to fish for.

[mahjong]

Pike will do that,luckie you don't have muskies in there or they'd eat the pike.lol