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Missing lake mystery solved
04/07/2007 11:01 - (SA)
Santiago - Scientists said that a
lake in southern Chile that mysteriously disappeared last month
developed a crack which allowed the water to drain away.
A build-up of water opened a crack in an ice wall along one
side of the lake. Water flowed through the crack into a nearby
fjord and from there into the sea, leaving behind a dry
lake-bed littered with icebergs, scientists told Chilean state
television on Tuesday.
"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 solve 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 4 to 5 hectares - about
the size of 10 soccer fields.
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.
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