Thursday, June 21, 2007

Foul Play

Missing: Large lake in southern Chile

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A lake in southern Chile has mysteriously disappeared, prompting speculation the ground has simply opened up and swallowed it whole. The lake was situated in the Magallanes region in Patagonia and was fed by water, mostly from melting glaciers.

It had a surface area of between 4 and 5 hectares (10-12 acres) -- about the size of 10 soccer pitches.

"In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal ... we went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared," said Juan Jose Romero, regional director of Chile's National Forestry Corporation CONAF.

"The only things left were chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure," he told Reuters.

CONAF is investigating the disappearance.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry about that. I was a little thirsty!

But man, a little later, I had GO!


:)

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Mother Gaea was thirsty?

Al Gore would make the obvious connection to global warming :P

Anonymous said...

So much for the local fishing industry...

k said...

Oh, my goodness, I've missed you! It's ever so good to be back.

This vacation thing has to be done just so, I find. Otherwise I end up with WEEKS gone by of no blog indulging at all.

I think I've got it figured out.

ahhh!

Steppen Wolf said...

Reminds me of a scene from Austin Powers where they keep producing incriminating evidence of his lusty self and all Austin does is to keep denying they are his... Similar to what we do in the face of an overwhelming evidence that we are indeed screwing up the delicate balance here...

Pretty Lady said...

Sunil, much as I agree with you in principle, it seems to me that it is hubristic to take personal responsibility for what may well turn out to be simple Tectonic Activity on a large scale. In our modern neurosis, we tend to forget that Nature itself may be harsher and more draconian than any corporate or governmental activity that humans may devise.