Missing Lake Mystery Solved

A crack in the ice wall's to blame, scientists say
By J. Kelman,  Newser User
Posted Jul 5, 2007 4:58 AM CDT
Missing Lake Mystery Solved
This picture taken from a Chilean navy Monday, July 2, 2007, shows large pieces of ice and some areas with water at the bottom of a lake in southern Chile that was discovered dried up late may. Experts believe water flowed to a nearby fiord through a hole in a glacier at the northern end of the lake....   (Associated Press)

A Chilean lake that mysteriously went missing between March and May was a casualty of global warming, says the lead scientist investigating its disappearance. Melting glaciers created a stream of water that cracked one of the lake's ice walls, sending the water pouring into an adjoining fjord and, eventually, out to sea.

"This would not be happening if the temperature had not increased," says Andres Rivera, the glaciologist who led the research. The lake, in Chile's Patagonia region, made international headlines late last month when scientists realized it had disappeared. (More Chile stories.)

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