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News Science

Lake Disappears into Andes 307

steveb3210 writes "It seems that what was once a 5-acre glacial lake in the Andes has mysteriously disappeared. 'In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal,' Juan Jose Romero from Chile's National Forestry Corporation, Conaf, said. 'We went again in May and to our surprise we found that the lake had completely disappeared. All that was left were chunks of ice and an enormous fissure.'" The current theory is that an earthquake opened the ground and allowed the lake to drain. Looks like global warming is off the hook this time around.
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Lake Disappears into Andes

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  • 007 (Score:3, Funny)

    by netglen ( 253539 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:18PM (#19603553)
    Just like what happened to the lake in that James Bond movie. Launch the rocket!
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Juan Jose Romero from Chile's National Forestry Corporation, Conaf, said. 'We went again in May and to our surprise we found that the lake had completely disappeared. We totally made that lake our bitch.'
  • by Original Replica ( 908688 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:19PM (#19603569) Journal
    .... for One Hundred Million Dollars!
  • by Ellis D. Tripp ( 755736 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:20PM (#19603585) Homepage
    that a lake disappeared into a hole in the ground:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Peigneur [wikipedia.org]
  • by bronzey214 ( 997574 ) <[moc.liamg] [ta] [leppir.nosaj]> on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:29PM (#19603657) Journal
    Looks like global warming is off the hook this time around.

    Yeah, because global warming obviously leaves huge chunks of ice when it makes lakes disappear.


    Next time, the news without the hot-button bias, please?
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by oneiron ( 716313 )
      It was a joke. I smiled and almost chuckled. It seems you've invested a bit too much emotion into this issue. Next time the comments without the knee-jerk bitterness, please.
      • Re:Global warming? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by TPIRman ( 142895 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:45PM (#19603773)
        Mod parent up. For all those crowing about global warming in this thread, RTFA. There is no mention of global warming in the article. It's just an interesting story about a weird geological occurrence. The only reference to global warming was a harmless offhand crack from CowboyNeal. Lighten TFU, people.
  • Honestly, (Score:4, Funny)

    by Hawthorne01 ( 575586 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:29PM (#19603659)
    it was *RIGHT HERE* when I saw it last.
  • by sciop101 ( 583286 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:30PM (#19603673)
    Magic Words:

    LAKE! Whoa! Be Gone!

  • by dAzED1 ( 33635 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:31PM (#19603683) Journal
    I'm fairly certain that it is considered scientifically proven beyond doubt [google.com] that recent shifting in the upper layers of the Earth's crust are in fact due to the drying period we're now entering due to global warming. I can't believe you'd question such things [breitbart.com]; do you not understand causality versus correlation?
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by nwbvt ( 768631 )
      Though there are others who are not kidding [pretorianews.co.za] when they blame earthquakes and tsunamis on global warming.
  • Off the hook? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Target Drone ( 546651 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:32PM (#19603689)

    From the article: The Magallanes area "has seen interesting changes in the last few decades," he said, noting that the lake itself had not been there 30 years ago.

    Makes you wonder if global warming had anything to do with the lake forming in the first place.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by dabraun ( 626287 )

      Makes you wonder if global warming had anything to do with the lake forming in the first place.


      What's that they say - if the only tool you have is a hammer ... Why is it global warming fanatics feel the need to associate everything that happens with global warming - oh, right, they're fanatics.
    • The facts always support the hypothesis because the hypothesis changes to fit the facts! Mark my words, if we had ten years of cold weather and scaremongering activists and opportunistic climatologists will be warning of a coming ice age which we can only avoid by going green. Its happened before, after all. (The scaremongering, not the ice age. Well, OK, technically we have had an ice age before, too.)
  • by SubliminalVortex ( 942332 ) * on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:32PM (#19603693)
    What keeps "Old Faithful" at Yosemite alive and ticking....
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by skelly33 ( 891182 )
      ... or one of those "Y-something" parks, anyway. I must say though that those of us from the Yosemite side of the world call a 5 acre body of water a "pond". Oh well on both accounts.
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by magudas ( 688263 )
      'What keeps "Old Faithful" at Yosemite alive and ticking....'

      Tourists.

      That and <Dr. Evil's voice>"Liquid magma".</Dr. Evil>
  • by TubeSteak ( 669689 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:33PM (#19603701) Journal
    Lots of news organizations keeping selling this story as if there's a mystery.
    Well... What's the mystery?

    I mean, TFA explains it fairly well:
    1. earthquake creates a hole in the ground
    2. water goes into the hole

    What're the alternatives?
    That a herd of wooly mammoths drank up the lake?
  • Ooops (Score:4, Funny)

    by MyLongNickName ( 822545 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:35PM (#19603707) Journal
    Sorry. I was really, really thirsty.
  • by grapeape ( 137008 ) <mpope7 AT kc DOT rr DOT com> on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:35PM (#19603713) Homepage
    Did anyone bother to read this part?

    "A glacier specialist, Andres Rivera, told Chilean newspaper La Tercera that the lake's disappearance seemed to be part of the continual reforming of the landscape.

    The Magallanes area "has seen interesting changes in the last few decades," he said, noting that the lake itself had not been there 30 years ago."

    How long does a lake have to exist before its concidered an actual lake? Sounds like this was more of a big puddle that came and went. Since it was only 30 years ago that it formed, I guess we can feel free to blame global warming for its creation as well.
    • by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      "A glacier specialist, Andres Rivera, told Chilean newspaper La Tercera that the lake's disappearance seemed to be part of the continual reforming of the landscape.

      The Magallanes area "has seen interesting changes in the last few decades," he said, noting that the lake itself had not been there 30 years ago."


      So the disappearance of the lake is just a small part of the area's sea change.
    • by geekoid ( 135745 )
      It was specifically NOT blamed.

      Melt 30 years ago wasn't fast enough. Today it would be.

      Yes, change has accelerated that much.

    • This is all part of the cycle, fist in the begining of global warming there would be large amounts of condensation thus creating this lake. Now it has gotten so bad that the global warm has cause this lake to evaporate. Soon others will follow suit. Everyone stay in your homes and don't run anything that uses power. We must think of teh children. hybrid.
    • by sobachatina ( 635055 ) on Friday June 22, 2007 @11:30AM (#19608943)
      How long does a lake have to exist before its concidered an actual lake?

      Good question! While we're at it:

      How many years can a mountain exist before it's washed to the sea?

      Yes and how many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?

  • The aliens did it. Just like Stonehenge, crop circles, and Al Gore.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:42PM (#19603753)
    I can't believe how horribly wrong you ALL are. This was caused by the natural phenomenon known as Chuck Norris. He got thirsty, drank the lake, and then punched the earth as a calling card to his greatness.

    Use your heads people, COME ON.
  • by spankey51 ( 804888 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:43PM (#19603757)
    If anyone finds an old leather-bound book in the fissure, please send it to:

    "Atrus, Son of Ghen."
    5 Riven St. Apt 233
    D'ni, K'veer. II DI KI II III

    (Note: I know the LCD panel on page 1 looks pretty, but please refrain from touching it...)
  • Ehhh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by GFree ( 853379 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @10:54PM (#19603851)
    Can't we just blame terrorists like always?

    *goes back to bed*
  • It happened near a test facility in Betaverse.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Jade [wikipedia.org]

    How has nobody made the Ob. SF ref. yet with this many comments?!
  • by ross.w ( 87751 ) <rwonderley.gmail@com> on Thursday June 21, 2007 @11:23PM (#19604039) Journal
    It crossed the pacific ocean to Maitland [abc.net.au], NSW. You can have it back now...
  • Nice try (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jsse ( 254124 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @11:24PM (#19604047) Homepage Journal
    The picture [bbc.co.uk] to the right is more like a CG to me. No way I should believe your yet another Roswell-mistery.

    (just kidding ^_^)
  • by Devar ( 312672 ) on Thursday June 21, 2007 @11:33PM (#19604125) Homepage Journal
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4566355.stm [bbc.co.uk]

    BBC News
    Fri, 20 May 2005 00:50 EDT

    Residents of a village in central Russia are trying to solve the mystery of a lake that disappeared overnight.

    Russia's NTV channel showed a huge, muddy basin where the lake once was, in the village of Bolotnikovo.

    "It looks like somebody has pulled the plug out of a gigantic bath," said the TV's correspondent, next to a deep debris-filled hole.

    Local officials in Nizhny Novgorod region say the lake was probably sucked into an underground cave.

    The name of the village - which lies about 250 km (155 miles) east of Moscow - roughly translates as "boggy".

    No Water

    The discovery was made by local fishermen when they arrived at the lake early in the morning.

    "I looked and there was no water. I thought: Oh my God, what's going on?" one of them told the TV.

    Rescuers were called out to search the uncovered lake bed to see if anybody could have been sucked under, but it is thought no-one was on the lake when the waters vanished.

    "It's very dangerous. If somebody is caught by such a calamity, the chances of survival are practically nil," fireman Dmitry Zaitsev said, pointing out that lakeside trees appeared to have been dragged down with the water.

    The lake's disappearance may have been caused by subsidence allowing the water to drain into a cave system or underground river, local official Dmitry Klyuev said.

    According to Mr Klyuev, several houses were swallowed up in similar circumstances 70 years ago.

    'Dark mystery'

    But more supernatural explanations were circulating among the villagers, including the influence of dark forces.

    Village youngsters said the lake had appeared during the reign of the feared Tsar Ivan the Terrible and had been "shrouded in dark mystery" ever since.

    "We used to go swimming there, but we were rather afraid of its depth, and there were various rumours. For instance people said there used to be a church there underwater," one girl told the TV.

    But one elderly villager sitting outside her house had another kind of force in mind.

    "I thought the Americans had got here," she said, laughing.
  • and you thought it was just a movie........
  • I've heard this same story every couple years for as long as I can remember. No big deal.

    They find the lake hiding in a barn somewhere. Ends up getting grounded for several months.

    Darn lake, don't know what it was thinking. Lakes these days, great day in the morning already, what's the world coming to?
  • I've seen the video evidence. I've seen him pull the plug. Somewhere in the mud you'll find a bald guy with a lisp. Ask him about that wascally wabbit. And remember like the pig said. thea-ta-thea that's all folks!
  • by syousef ( 465911 ) on Friday June 22, 2007 @01:47AM (#19605055) Journal
    ....and their water cooling requirements.
  • LOL (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Soiden ( 1029534 )
    I live very near to that lake, and it's funny how the world is more cared for this event than Chile itself.
  • by amchugh ( 116330 ) on Friday June 22, 2007 @02:16AM (#19605231)
    Meanwhile... 7-11 just sold their first petagulp.
    Coincidence? I think not.
  • by MobileDude ( 530145 ) on Friday June 22, 2007 @07:54AM (#19606601) Homepage
    QUOTE: The current theory is that an earthquake opened the ground and allowed the lake to drain. Looks like global warming is off the hook this time around.

    uh, what do you think caused the earthquake? That's right! GLOBAL WARMING! Of course, you would know this if you had seen the movie, "An Inconvenient Sicko" starring Al Bore...

Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle. -- Steinbach

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