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Lake mystery solved

SANTIAGO: Global warming causing Chile’s glaciers to melt is likely a key factor behind the mysterious disappearance of a two-hectare glacial lake, scientists said on Tuesday. The disappearance of the lake in Bernardo O’Higgins National Park was discovered in late May by park rangers, who were stunned to find a 40-metre-deep crater where a large lake had been just two months earlier. After flying over the lake on Monday, scientists said they were able to draw preliminary conclusions that point to climate change as the leading culprit for the lake’s disappearance. They suggested the melting of nearby glaciers raised the lake’s level to the point where the increased water pressure caused part of a glacier acting as a dam to give way. Water in the lake flowed out of the breach, into a nearby fiord and then to the sea, said Andres Rivera, a glaciologist. Mr. Rivera flew over the site in a plane, taking hundreds of photographs. — AP

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Lake mystery solved

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