‘Lost’ Chilean lake is refilling
Scientists say a crack at the bottom of a Patagonian lake caused it to drain away.
Scientists say the Patagonian lake is beginning to fill up again [EPA] |
Scientists said that a lake in southern Chile that mysteriously disappeared last month developed a crack which allowed the water to drain away.
A buildup of water opened a crack in an ice wall along one side of the lake according to experts speaking to Chilean state television on Tuesday.
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Water then flowed through the crack into a nearby fjord and from there into the sea, leaving behind a dry lake-bed littered with icebergs.
“It looks like it’s slowly filling up with water again,” said Andres Rivera, a glacier expert who headed a team which recently flew over the lake in a bid to resolve the mystery.
The lake is situated in the Magallanes region in Patagonia and is fed by melt-water from glaciers.
Earlier this year it had a surface area of about the size of 10 football pitches.
Scientists noticed it had disappeared during a routine patrol of the area in May.
Rivera said the incident was evidence of the effects of global warming.