By IANS
Santiago : The Chilean government has sent a team of geologists to investigate the sudden disappearance of a glacial lake in the south of the country. raising a renewed debate over global warming.
Experts say glacial melting in the wake of rising global temperature had swelled the lake which then drained the excess water and eventually dried up, Spain’s EFE news agency reported Friday.
Cachet 2, a five kilometre long glacial lake in the eastern sector of the Northern Ice Field in Aysen area disappeared apparently due to the relatively high temperatures.
The disappearance of the lake was discovered Monday when experts observed a heavy increase in the flow of the Baker River that flows through the region.
Glacier scientist Gino Casassa said the melting of the Colonia glacier, which he blamed on rising world temperatures, filled the lake and increased pressure on the ice sheet.
The water bored a five-kilometre long tunnel through the glacier and finally emptied into the Baker River on April 6.
This was the second such disappearance of a lake a year after Lake Tempano, also in Aysen region, dried up.
Experts from the Centre for Scientific Studies in Valdivia said that the unusual increase in the temperature – up to 30 degree Celsius – caused the adjacent Colonia glacier and the nearby Cachet glacier to melt somewhat, increasing the volume of Cachet 2, which exceeded its threshold, and then “drained” to eventually dry up