ah-ha..i found the original article and seems this isn't new..no stinkin virus is going to stop me.bahahahahaha http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6225676.stmLast Updated: Thursday, 21 June 2007, 09:57 GMT 10:57 UK
Lake disappears suddenly in Chile
See how much the landscape of the lake has changed
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Scientists in Chile are investigating the sudden disappearance of a glacial lake in the south of the country.
When park rangers patrolled the area in the Magallanes region in March, the two-hectare (five-acre) lake was its normal size, officials say.
But last month they found a huge dry crater and several stranded chunks of ice that used to float on the water.
One theory is that an earthquake opened up a fissure in the ground, allowing the lake's water to drain through.
"In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal," said Juan Jose Romero from Chile's National Forestry Corporation, Conaf.
"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."
Geologists and other experts are being sent to the area, which is some 2,000km (1,250 miles) south of the capital, Santiago, to investigate.
The region is shaken by frequent earth tremors and one idea is that a strong quake which hit the neighbouring region of Aysen in April opened up the fissure in the bottom of the lake.
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.
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http://science.howstuffworks.com/disappearing-lake.htmHow can a lake simply disappear?
by Jacob Silverman:
Silverman, Jacob. "How can a lake simply disappear?." 02 July 2007. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/disappearing-lake.htm> 03 August 2009.
Inside this Article
How can a lake simply disappear?
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Sometime in May 2007, a glacial lake in southern Chile disappeared. Chilean surveyors reported in March that the lake was its usual size, 100 feet deep and covering an area around five acres. Located in Bernardo O'Higgins Park, in the southern Andes mountains, the lake is (was) rarely visited and didn't even have a name. When Chilean forestry officials arrived, they were surprised to find nothing more than "chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure" where the unnamed lake had once been [Source: The Guardian]. Five miles away, a river that was once more than 130 feet wide barely flowed. What could cause such a massive disturbance to make an entire lake and much of a river disappear?
Global Warming Image Gallery
Photographer: George Wood / Agency: Dreamstime.com
Scientists were at first puzzled out how a glacial lake
like this one could abruptly disappear. See more
global warming pictures.
Global warming seems to be the knee-jerk response lately whenever a dramatic environmental change is observed. Indeed, global warming is a big concern for lakes, as many bodies of water are experiencing receding water levels due to a combination of low rainfall and high temperatures. In the Magallanes province, where the lake is located, the Tempano and Bernardo glaciers are shrinking, and both of those glaciers contributed water to the lake. Experts like Gino Casassa and Andres Rivera, both glaciologists, point to global warming as the cause of the glaciers' melting. So global warming was immediately considered as a possible cause, but when investigating the lake, scientists considered several other possibilities.
One theory scientists considered was that an earthquake in the area opened a fissure in the earth, which sucked down the lake. Southern Chile experiences hundreds of small earthquakes a year, and a fairly large tremor was detected on April 21. The fissure observed in the empty lake bed could have provided an outlet for the lake water to escape, much like a stopper being pulled from a sink.
A second possibility draws in part on global warming and the melting of glaciers. Glacial lakes often develop behind natural dams, which are made of ice or a pile of rock and earth debris a glacier leaves behind (called a moraine). Once the dam is broken, whether by an avalanche, earthquake, warming or other event, water bursts through and the lake sometimes drains.
It took scientists several weeks before they were able to discover the answer because the site is very remote -- about 4,900 feet above sea level and 1,250 miles south of Chile's capital, Santiago. But in early July 2007, scientists got their answer.
An investigation has revealed that too much water was the problem. The melting Tempano and Bernardo glaciers filled the lake beyond the crater's capacity. The increased pressure broke the lake's moraine through which water flowed out, later ending up in the ocean. The lake is refilling as the chunks of ice on the lake bed melt, though Chilean scientists pointed out that global warming did have a serious effect. Glaciers naturally melt and reform, but warming is causing the Tempano and Bernardo glaciers to melt more than they should..
For some lakes, rapidly appearing or disappearing is part of a natural process. The lake in Chile did not exist 30 years ago, though, again, global warming is likely affecting the process. Some lakes, including many in Alaska and Florida's Lake Jackson, go through a similar process regularly, disappearing and reappearing during certain seasons, or from year-to-year or decade-to-decade.
from global warming to aliens..wonder what's next..old nazi's... 
Mon Aug 03, 2009 12:48 pm
