Santiago - A lake in the Chilean Patagonia region has disappeared in just two months, the Chilean press reported Thursday. The one-kilometre square and 30-metre deep lake that was only accessible after a difficult, two-day trek through fjords and glaciers, was located until March west of the glaciers at the Campo de Hielo Sur, between the provinces of Aysen and Magallanes.
When workmen in charge of the site returned in May, there was only a hole where the late had been, the public National Forestry Corporation (Conaf) said. Millions of litres of fresh water were gone.
The river that had its source in the lake saw its volume dramatically diminish, Conaf added.
The lake was of glacier origin, so Chilean scientists think its disappearance may be linked to global warming and to the generalized reduction of glaciers, Gino Casassa, of the Valdivia Scientific Studies Centre (CESC) said.
The CESC, which has worked with British universities and with NASA on these matters, predicts the surface occupied by South American glaciers will continue to fall notably.
Casassa said similar phenomena, known as Glof episodes, have already been observed in the Himalayas and in other Andean areas of Chile and Argentina.
