Lake Disappears into Andes

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.

Comments

007

[netglen]

Just like what happened to the lake in that James Bond movie. Launch the rocket!

Re:007

[HTH NE1]

No, I blame the Seatopians. They've done this before.

Re:007

[vigmeister]

Ok... Just because Mr. Bond got married to a Japanese chick, doesn't mean you don't respect the movie and respect it's details.

The lake never disappeared. It was a metal sheet all along and they discovered it when connery threw a rock on its surface...

Watch your James Bond movies before you use them in a joke ... F***ing Brosnan fanboys...sheesh!

Cheers!

Re:007

[kd5ujz]

I belive he is talking about Goldeneye, and not You Only Live Twice.

Re:007

[vigmeister]

Like is said... f***ing Brosnan fanboys :)

Cheers!

The lake will be returned...

[Original Replica]

.... for One Hundred Million Dollars!

Re:The lake will be returned...

[Cassius Corodes]

Damn water thieves.. and our water chip is broken!

Re:The lake will be returned...

[Anonymous Coward]

Will you accept 100 million paesoes?

(i cant spell, so shoot me (virtually only, please))

Re:The lake will be returned...

[Adambomb]

Mayor Adam West: MY GOD! Somebody's stealing my water!

Meg: It just went down the drain.

Mayor Adam West: They're crafty I tell you. It happens when you least expect it.

[Waters plant.]

Mayor Adam West: SHOW YOURSELVES, DAMN YOU! I've been investigating them for months. It has cost $150,000 dollars of the taxpayers' money, but I'll find the culprits if it costs me a million.

Re:The lake will be returned...

[rts008]

I guess it's a trip to Necropolis to see the ghouls for you!

Although if you fire up Fallout 2, there are more water chips laying around than you can shake a stick at...the first time I played F2 I scarfed up all I could carry and stashed for later.
HaHaHa! the joke was on me...they aren't even worth trying to sell.

Re:The lake will be returned...

[Taco Meat]

If something goes wrong, there are but three scapegoats: GW (teh prez) fer bein stoopid, GW (the climate phenomonon) because it's actually happening, you know, or your mother (the bachelor's wife) for having you.

got that?

Re:The lake will be returned...

[ArsonSmith]

George Bush has been taking lessons from Chuck Norris. After his first lesson GWB jump kicked the environment and created global warming. Chuck Norris is such a bad ass even after his first lesson someone could do that much damage.

Re:The lake will be returned...

[ThePengwin]

Or even 100 million Canadian Tyre Dollars?!?

Re:The lake will be returned...

[dosquatch]

But of course global warming is caused by George Bush

Correlation != causation, dammit! For all we know based on Al Gor^H^H^H^H^H^H the evidence, Global Warming causes George Bush.

Re:The lake will be returned...

[Anonymous Coward]

haha, there isn't that much money in the whole world!!!

Re:The lake will be returned...

[Machtyn]

The darn ghouls up and got themselves killed before I got there.
/me currently making his way through the game. //about to wipe out the Regulators in the Boneyard.

Re:The lake will be returned...

[Minwee]

Really? Thanks to a shipping error, we've got hundreds of 'em over here.

Re:The lake will be returned...

[Gilmoure]

Hope the ice pirates didn't leave any space herpes.

Re:The lake will be returned...

[everphilski]

Perhaps it was the Noid who should have avoided me!

Re:The lake will be returned...

[AndersOSU]

Oh my god! does that mean that there's worse to come? Alright I give, I'm finally installing those compact fluorescents.

Re:The lake will be returned...

[AndersOSU]

Limited time offer:
Fresh Andean Glacier water - limit twelve 1-Liter bottles per person. Paypal $4/bottle to AndersOSU

Hurry, offer only good while supplies last!

Re:The lake will be returned...

[rts008]

Enjoy!

Two of my three most favorite games were Fallout and Fallout2...MANY hours spent with both games.

In case this is new to you, no spoilers will be put on you here.

The only advice I will offer is two things:
1. Save often! Even when you don't think you need to, you may need to!
2. Don't be afraid to think outside the box- both with the in game dialog with the NPC's, but in your actions also.
      You will end up limiting yourself more than the game does otherwise.

"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Anonymous Coward]

"But if we hadn't noticed the fissure, then it would be PROOF."

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[bky1701]

If most crows are black, it's likely and reasonable that you will assume a crow is black is until you see otherwise.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[WrongMonkey]

Yes, every unusual event can be safely assumed to be caused by global warming until there is evidence to the contrary. Who can deny that logic?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Walt Dismal]

However, at the bottom of where the lake was, is a huge crop circle in the shape of an X-Box. Additionally, a message from space was found engraved on a titanium plate. Translators think it said "All your lake are belong to us".

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[lego_boy_aus]

And based on this: If the temperature of the Earth has risen and fallen in the past, "it's likely and reasonable that you will assume" that any current changes are entirely natural...

Alternatively, given that the solar output has increased recently, "it's likely and reasonable that you will assume" that any change in the Earth's tempersture would be related to that...

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[goldspider]

Boy, ain't that the truth.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Anonymous Coward]

What would happen if most herrings were red?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Raideen]

Never attribute to tectonic events that which can be adequately explained by global warming.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[geekoid]

"And based on this: If the temperature of the Earth has risen and fallen in the past, "it's likely and reasonable that you will assume" that any current changes are entirely natural..."

Except the changes in CO2 far exceed any measurement from the last 800,000 years. Not some of them, not kinda near, far exceed . the most prior 1900 was 300ppm, now we have 350ppm...
We have warehouse full of evidence that the earth is warming faster then at any other time.

So it's not the fact that it is warming, it's the speed at which it is warming, as well as the amount of CO2.

"Alternatively, given that the solar output has increased recently, "it's likely and reasonable that you will assume" that any change in the Earth's tempersture would be related to that..."

Except that the invers squar laws say otherwise. Also, while increased over all, the earth continued to warm during a multi-years cooling period of the sun.

Science has looked at those and ruled them out pretty simply.
Personally, I wish it was one of those, then we can plan for the change, instead we have neo-cons and the pundets going on about how it isn't happening and the fact that nearly everybreputable scientist in the world agrees. But hey, you go on and ignore the science, the evidence and keep repeating whatever Rush says like a good little sheep.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[timmarhy]

JUNK SCIENCE - thats all you promote with that comment. assumptions are no where near proof in science.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Archangel Michael]

So, does CO2 explain the global warming on Mars?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[timmarhy]

"keep repeating whatever Rush says like a good little sheep."

highly amusing when it's global warming nuts that do all the parroting while having no understanding of the topic at all. wouldn't the fact we disagree with what you claim everyone else believes to be true, proof that we aren't just towing the line?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who knows what Global Warming is wouldn't expect lakes in mountains to disappear. In fact, the article doesn't mention Global Warming at all. But don't let the facts get in the way of science bashing.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[dgatwood]

Well, I misread the title and read it as "Lake Disappears into Anodes" and came up with an even more shocking theory....

*sigh* Must not read Slashdot when sleep deprived.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[DarkAxi0m]

I believe that get the reading from drilling deep into ice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_core#Ice_core_dat a sorry for wiki link ;)


But im no ice drilling scientists but i can't think how that would be accurate anymore that a "good guess", wounder what the +/- is on the readings

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[dgatwood]

Except that the invers squar (sic) laws say otherwise.

No, the inverse square law doesn't say otherwise. It says that the energy falls off proportional to the square of the distance. That's useful in comparing the amount of energy received by Earth versus Mars, but it isn't relevant except in an absolute sense when the radius (r) is constant and the energy is changing. In a relative sense, if the output doubles, the amount received by Earth also doubles. The inverse square term falls out when comparing relative increases in output.

Assume that the distance (radius) is "r". For any quantity of energy, "q", the value 2q/(r^2) is twice the value of q/r^2 for any constant value of "r".

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[letxa2000]

Yes, every unusual event can be safely assumed to be caused by global warming until there is evidence to the contrary. Who can deny that logic?

Absolutely! Except for those things caused by George Bush, of course.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[kinglink]

Then if you found a white crow one day, you're theory is what? Some crows are white, but most are black. Then if you see more white crows "The white crow population is growing"

And if you start seeing less black crows for what ever reason (they flew away, someone is spray painting crows, White is a dominate gene for crows) the theory becomes "White crows are killing off black crows, we must kill white crows to avoid losing the black crows for ever"

However none of that is science. Those are just simple hypotheses, science most people have forgotten is the way to correctly study and prove our hypotheses. It's not a way to force political agenda, fiction, or subjective in any manner. To prove something in science you prove it with a verifiable proof that anyone can replicate. Claiming you have proof shouldn't be acceptable for anyone in scientific circles until the proof is available. Again something that seems to get ignored.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[vought]

We have measurements for Mars as far back, as accurate and as geographically diverse as those here on Earth?

Jesus. People who hate Al Gore will believe anything that validates their dislike of him.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[AoT]

That's where my keys went. /me shakes fist at sky

Damn you global warming.

Strangely Global Warming almost never responds, and when it does it's a bunch of bullshit.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[cheater512]

Except the changes in CO2 far exceed any measurement from the last 800,000 years. Not some of them, not kinda near, far exceed . the most prior 1900 was 300ppm, now we have 350ppm. It has peaked over 350ppm in the past.
It always drops again.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[lego_boy_aus]

"Except the changes in CO2 far exceed any measurement from the last 800,000 years"...Interesting claim. I would quite like to know how they know the records go back 800,000 years, and how they claim these are the highest readings in the time covered by the records.

From what I have researched, these records come from ice cores. However, a minor problem with ice is that it has a habit of meling above a certain temperature. Given that there may be 800,000 years covered by the samples, that does not prove that the earlies sample is 800,000 years old. how are we to know if it is not in fact 8,000,000 years old, but due to natural climate variations, a large proportion of the sample has melted in this time.

So, without the dubious claim of having accurate readings for the past 800,000 years, we are left with the claim that the issue is the speed of the temerature rise. Strangely enough, there aren't all that many accurate temperature readings for the globe over 1,000 year old, and so all that can conceivably be claimed is that the current temperature fluctuations are the fastest in recorded history.

And so we come to "Except that the invers squar laws say otherwise. Also, while increased over all, the earth continued to warm during a multi-years cooling period of the sun.".

So from this we should be able to deduce that you believe that the sun is having no affect on temperature change here. however to claim thus would be to ignore evidence from at least 2 planets, where the temperature there has continued to rise. In fact, looking at our nearest neighbour, it seems that other than the sun, there has been no other possible cause for this temperature rise.

Besides which, I seem to recall that temperatures peaked around 1998, and have been stable/dropping since then.

Which leads on to "Science has looked at those and ruled them out pretty simply". Strangely enough, it seems that the only science that HAS ruled these out is the science dependant upon a "CO2 is causing this, what can we do to stop CO2" funding system. this is emphasised by the attacks on scientists funded by "big oil", and the way in which their studies are considered biased due to the funding source. However, no such claim of bias is levelled at those whose funding comes from organisations with a vested interest in keeping the AGW myth going, or those who would lose funding were it to be known that the change in the Earth's climate WAS natural.

Additionally, ALL the research being done that shows CO2 is the cause of global warming is started under the premise that this is what is the cause, relies entirely on almost identical computer models, includes large "fudge factors"...and has yet to provide accurate results based on known information, even for past years. The only real exception to this has been where the models have succesfully produced results based on known information for a given year, but which fail entirely when information for a different year is used instead.

Wouldn't it be nice if others as well as "big oil" did research where it was begun on the premise that CO2 is NOT the cause of the earth's change in temperature. Maybe then we would get some true research done, rather than propoganda to assist in gathering further funding. At present, any scientist wishing to do true research is hard pressed to find a funding source due to the "CO2 is the cause" lobby. This is the ONLY group claiming that the science is finished, and which is still dependant on "fudge factors" to prove this.

An additional consideration would be that those who do research which "proves" CO2 is the cause are not willing to allow those who do not agree with this THEORY to look at their computer models, purely because they do not wish the degree they rely on "fudge factors" to be known. If their research was accurate and valid, they should be able to take their model and based on the same data (ie, CO2 levels, solar output, etc.) for ANY year be able to produce an accurate measure

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Darby]

Absolutely! Except for those things caused by George Bush, of course.

Riiiight...

Except, you forgot the part above where Shrub caused global warming. So he's included automatically as a cause for things that he's caused have caused ;-)

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[jcr]

I can never remember whether it's the anode or the cathode that's the source or the drain...

-jcr

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Anonymous Coward]

How huge was this crop circle? I'm sure the farmers cultivating crops at the bottom of the lake were devastated.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[MrYotsuya]

"Except the changes in CO2 far exceed any measurement from the last 800,000 years"

i stopped reading right there. anyone claiming to have accurate readings back to 800,000 years is a liar

I suppose he can dig up the more correct figures for 6,000 years ago, the same time when dinosaurs were walking the earth and Adam and Eve were getting started.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[WalksOnDirt]

So, does CO2 explain the global warming on Mars?

The Mars warming is thought to have been caused by winds removing surface dust and exposing more of the dark underlying rock. The extra sunlight absorbed by the rock then heated up the planet. See here:http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/200 7/marswarming.html

Significant changes in the albedo of Mars have been observed. On the other hand, the monitoring of the Sun's output does not show the increase that would be necessary for it to be the cause of the warming on Mars.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[ZwJGR]

The amount of CO2 produced by humans is not actually that much when compared with natural production (respiration, organic decay, volcanoes, sea, etc.)
Hence a single volcano going of will have a far more significant impact then human production.

However the real kicker is the relationship between CO2 and temperature. In his movie Al Gore says that there is a correlation between CO2 and temperature. Correct.
What he doesn't say is that the temperature changes appear to lead the carbon dioxide level changes by up to 200 years. (The peaks and general shapes of the lines are offset).
(I would speculate that this is due to differing ocean soluability levels?).

Furthermore, the Earth has undergone much more intense fluctuations before, without the American drivers, etc.
It is known that the current period is one of increased solar activity, and a correlation between solar activity and temperature has been established. (google it).
People were worrying about an ice age 30 years ago... Look how the media have switched the fear factor around.

Poverty in Africa, and clean water supplies should be prioritised in favour of "carbon credit" schemes (especially as the money goes to Al Gore's companies).

That isn't to say that environmentalism isn't bad, but CO2 is not the only thing they should be looking at.
Mercury in the lakes, sulpher dioxide, dioxins, lead polution, and in general the crud spewed into the air, land and water is more important.
Carbon dioxide is a "clean" gas in that the plants will absorb it for you, no problem.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[jibjibjib]

It seems you are the one who has forgotten what science is.

Hypotheses are never proved. The evidence either supports the hypothesis or disproves it, and if enough evidence supports the hypothesis then it is probably reasonable to believe that it is true. It still isn't proved though.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Walt Dismal]

It was in quick-growing wild rice.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[E 99]

Yes, every unusual event can be safely assumed to be caused by global warming until there is evidence to the contrary. Who can deny that logic?

"Evidence to the contrary" is too vague. Anyone can claim evidence to the contrary. I think if we really want to protect humanity from false logic, we our motto should be "Every unusual event can be safely assumed to be caused by global warming until the IPCC publishes a report stating otherwise."

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[whoop]

All that is needed is a consensus. Someone should put up a Wikipedia entry to state it. Then there is no denying the truth!

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[dosquatch]

"Except the changes in CO2 far exceed any measurement from the last 800,000 years"
i stopped reading right there. anyone claiming to have accurate readings back to 800,000 years is a liar

For real. Don't these heretics know the Earth is only 6000 years old?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[dosquatch]

Translators think it said "All your lake are belong to us". Etched into the lake bowl was the message - "So Long, and thanks for all the fissures."

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[macron1]

yeah i wouldnt worry about it its probably just missing

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[JrOldPhart]

> Except the changes in CO2 far exceed any measurement from the last 800,000 years.
> Not some of them, not kinda near, far exceed . the most prior 1900 was 300ppm, now
> we have 350ppm...

So All man made Global Warming proponents should stop exhaling.
End of CO2 problem.

And a lot of others too.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[ajs]

Significant changes in the albedo of Mars have been observed. On the other hand, the monitoring of the Sun's output does not show the increase that would be necessary for it to be the cause of the warming on Mars. The problem with this is that we have two events that are nearly identical in two places at the same time, and two theories which discount the most obvious common element because we don't have a working model for the way that common element could have the observed impact. Occam's Razor is a useful guide here, and suggests that more time spent looking for a common element that fits both systems is worth while. Just as an arbitrary example: the Earth's albedo has also been changing due to ice that has been melting steadily for the last 10,000 years since the last ice age. Has this lead to a recent change in the way the sun's radiation is absorbed by the Earth? It's hard to say. Does the sun's magnetic field have a larger impact on warming that we'd suspected? We don't know.

There's nothing wrong with the CO2-driven model of warming, it's just that it's not the only candidate, and in some areas, it's not the ideal fit to the observations. Actually, what I find most striking about global temperatures is that, for the end of a major ice age, we're experiencing shockingly cool temperatures as compared with the end of the last 4 roughly 100 thousand year ice age cycles. In the other four, the end of an ice age is signaled by a sharp spike in global temperature. At the end of the current ice age, we see a similar spike, which is truncated well below the peaks achieved by the previous warming periods (see above link).

It leaves me wondering what in the last 5,000-10,000 years could have stopped such a powerful rise in temperatures, and has the rest of the rise been merely delayed, or does this signal an early start to the next ice age?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[skiingyac]

From that graph, if the ice volume is now as low as it was at the end of the last few ice ages, shouldn't we think the temperature is the same now as it was during the other spikes? Which measurement is more accurate, ice volume or temperature? Also, are temperature readings for the last ~20,000 yrs more accurate than those from 300,000 yrs ago?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[skiingyac]

Overheard in some geological office:

A lake dries up after an earthquake, a fissure is found in the lake bed, I have a "theory" is that somehow the two are related... Hey boss, can I go on a month long trip into the Chilean mountains to make sure?

This is not news.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[ajs]

From that graph, if the ice volume is now as low as it was at the end of the last few ice ages, shouldn't we think the temperature is the same now as it was during the other spikes? Not at all. First off, you're assuming that peak temperatures result in low ice volume, and not the other way around. This isn't very likely. It's far more likely that earlier, more modest rises in temperature result in melting ice, which in turn results in increased temperatures due to a rise in atmospheric water vapor and decreased global albedo (more light from the sun is absorbed into the surface of uniced ground,rather than reflected back into space). This is a much more symbiotic relationship than you suggest, and there's nothing to suggest that melting would stop or slow substantially because global temperature, having already risen over 6 degrees C, did not continue to rise another 3 or so.

As for your bringing the temperature measurements themselves into question, I think the obvious retort to that is that multiple measurements have resulted in roughly the same numbers, so you're fighting an uphill battle against very credible historical data.

So, the question is: given that the major players were all in line, what stopped the temperature from reaching peak this time?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Anonymous Coward]

Except the changes in CO2 far exceed any measurement from the last 800,000 years.

we think, as we don't actually have any measurements... just projections.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Goaway]

Who can deny that logic?

Climate scientists? Those people you don't think really exist?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Goaway]

Contrary to popular belief, the fact that you don't know about something, does not mean it does not exist.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Goaway]

Care to point out where on the chart it peaks over 350?

http://www.gci.org.uk/images/CO2_CH4_Temp_440KyrBP .jpg

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[freeweed]

Also, while increased over all, the earth continued to warm during a multi-years cooling period of the sun.

And the Earth cooled for 3 decades during a multi-decade continual increase in CO2.

If you can discount my idea based on a very small datum, I can do the same to your idea :)

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[corbettw]

the most prior 1900 was 300ppm, now we have 350ppm

Seriously? You think 50ppm is enough to doom the planet? Even with that change, CO2 only comprises 0.035% of the atmosphere. Compare this to the atmosphere of Venus, where CO2 comprises 96.5% of the atmosphere. That's a monumental difference between the two planets, and shows just how much CO2 you need to have before things start warming up.

And considering that the vast majority of the biomass of this planet breathes in CO2 and exhales O2, I would think any real increase in CO2 would lead first to more trees and greenery growing up before the temperature going up.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[enjerth]

Don't forget that the alcohol industry is responsible for a great deal of CO2 emissions. Fermentation (C6H12O6 2C2H5OH + 2CO2) produces 2 molecules of ethanol and 2 molecules of CO2 for every molecule of glucose. Ethanol has a molecular weight of 46 and CO2 has a molecular weight of 44. For every 23 lbs of ethanol produced, 22 lbs of CO2 is produced as a byproduct.

Now, consider that they're trying to produce ethanol for fuel. Ethanol is a clean burning fuel, but in producing ethanol, you put CO2 into the air in an almost equal measure. Do environmentalists really want to put that in their cars?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Listen Up]

You need to be very, very careful with the use of the word theory. You and every single person on this planet apparently does not understand the difference between conjecture, hypothesis, theory and a wild ass guess. Now, CO2-based global warming is *at best* a hypothesis. Only with disprovable, reproducible and predictable evidence can a hypothesis become a theory. Any half-assed idea someone comes up with is not a theory.

Now, the one bright point for you to look to is that science is a process. The scientific process will figure out the truth, regardless of other factors, it always has and it always will. Whether CO2-based global warming is eventually proven correct or incorrect (in whole or in part), science as a whole will gain, and everyone benefits.

And to answer your original point, scientists will either use carbon-dating or uranium-lead dating, both of which (until the 20th century) are extremely accurate tools.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Listen Up]

I need to make a correction, ice layers are initially aged by studying the gas trapped in the ice. More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_core

Interesting notes:

"Because water molecules containing heavier isotopes exhibit a lower vapor pressure, when the temperature falls, the heavier water molecules will condense faster than the normal water molecules. The relative concentrations of the heavier isotopes in the condensate indicate the temperature of condensation at the time, allowing for ice cores to be used in global temperature reconstruction. In addition to the isotope concentration, the air bubbles trapped in the ice cores allow for measurement of the atmospheric concentrations of trace gases, including greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. The air bubbles may also contain traces of aerosols, which are produced in great concentrations during volcanic eruptions."

Shallow cores, or the upper parts of cores in high-accumulation areas, can be dated exactly by counting individual layers, each representing a year. These layers may be visible, related to the nature of the ice; or they may be chemical, related to differential transport in different seasons; or they may be isotopic, reflecting the annual temperature signal (for example, snow from colder periods has less of the heavier isotopes of H and O). Deeper into the core the layers thin out due to ice flow and eventually individual years cannot be distinguished. It may be possible to identify events such as nuclear bomb atmospheric testing's radioisotope layers in the upper levels, and ash layers corresponding to known volcanic eruptions. Volcanic eruptions may be detected by visible ash layers, acidic chemistry, or electrical resistance change. Some composition changes are detected by high-resolution scans of electrical resistance. Lower down the ages are reconstructed by modeling accumulation rate variations and ice flow.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[dwarfking]

Don't be so quick to say "Science has looked at those and ruled them out pretty simply" until you've reviewed all science research.

For example, this article goes into details of what you indicate that the sun's actual output isn't directly correlated to the increase in temperature, but identifies that the changes in solar winds affects the amount of cosmic radiation able to hit the earth and this does match up more closely with temperature variations.

I'm not proposing this is in anyway more or less definitive than anything you may have read, but the fact is climatology is just too immature to be making definitive statements. We are by no means at the end of this science, simply because the problem domain is just to large.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Anonymous Coward]

"Except the changes in CO2 far exceed any measurement from the last 800,000 years"

So there was higher CO2 800,000 years ago.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Amouth]

wait.. does that mean you have times when you are not sleep deprived?? i wonder what it's like...

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Ambitwistor]

Given that there may be 800,000 years covered by the samples, that does not prove that the earlies sample is 800,000 years old. how are we to know if it is not in fact 8,000,000 years old, but due to natural climate variations, a large proportion of the sample has melted in this time.

There are numerous methods for dating ice cores. Besdies, many of these cores are taken from the deep Antarctic where there just isn't substantial melting: you may get slow accumulation from little precipitation, but very little melting.

Strangely enough, there aren't all that many accurate temperature readings for the globe over 1,000 year old, and so all that can conceivably be claimed is that the current temperature fluctuations are the fastest in recorded history.

That's true; they may not be the fastest "ever". But they likely to be the fastest in tens of thousands of years at least; we see no evidence of changes that abrupt in the paleological record.

So from this we should be able to deduce that you believe that the sun is having no affect on temperature change here. however to claim thus would be to ignore evidence from at least 2 planets, where the temperature there has continued to rise.

As noted by the earlier poster, this evidence does not support the Sun's influence on temperature change. Indeed, Martian temperatures also rose during a decrease in solar irradiance. This is evidence that the warming on both planets is not solar.

In fact, looking at our nearest neighbour, it seems that other than the sun, there has been no other possible cause for this temperature rise.

Elsewhere in this thread a poster gave a cause which is more consistent with the evidence than "the Sun" (namely, Martian albedo changes).

Besides which, I seem to recall that temperatures peaked around 1998, and have been stable/dropping since then.

Not true. (Incidentally, 1998 is a disingenous choice of reference year by global warming deniers, as it had an anomalously strong El Nino.)

However, no such claim of bias is levelled at those whose funding comes from organisations with a vested interest in keeping the AGW myth going,

You mean, like the National Science Foundation?

or those who would lose funding were it to be known that the change in the Earth's climate WAS natural.

Really? Who do you think would lose funding? Do you think climate science would disappear if not for anthropogenic global warming?

Additionally, ALL the research being done that shows CO2 is the cause of global warming is started under the premise that this is what is the cause,

That is ridiculously false. Nothing is assumed a priori about the cause. Rather, the strengths of various natural and anthropogenic forcings are estimated from observational data. You plug in the amount of heating due to the Sun, the greenhouse effect, the cooling due to volcanism and air pollution, etc., and run your models from that.

relies entirely on almost identical computer models,

The models are not "almost identical". Some operate on spatial grids, some use spectral methods; they have competing models of biosphere feedbacks, ice dynamics, etc.

Besides which, what is wrong with "almost identical" models? The Earth runs on the same laws of physics, you know. Do you complain that aerospace codes all run on the same Navier-Stokes equations? As long as they are coded independently so they don't share the same bugs, what is the problem?

includes large "fudge factors"...

Such as?

and has yet to provide accurate results based on known information, even f

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Ambitwistor]

The amount of CO2 produced by humans is not actually that much when compared with natural production (respiration, organic decay, volcanoes, sea, etc.) That's true, but not really relevant. Natural sources of CO2 are larger than anthropogenic sources, but they are almost exactly balanced by natural sinks. The comparatively small additional input from human activity is enough to oversaturate those natural sinks, leaving some manmade CO2 to accumulate in the atmosphere every year. The vast majority of the increase in CO2 concentrations over the last 150 years has been due to these additional manmade sources of CO2.

Hence a single volcano going of will have a far more significant impact then human production. That's false. Volcanoes are not a significant source of CO2 compared to either human production or to other natural sources (such as dissolution from the ocean or vegetative decay). All the volcanic activity in the world amounts to only a few percent of human production.

What he doesn't say is that the temperature changes appear to lead the carbon dioxide level changes by up to 200 years. By as much as 1000 years, actually, but that doesn't disprove the effect of carbon dioxide on temperature. The greenhouse effect is a physical fact; what is in dispute is how strong it is and what effects may mitigate it, not whether CO2 can increase global temperatures.

(I would speculate that this is due to differing ocean soluability levels?) Yes, that's likely. What you're neglecting is that the additional CO2 from the oceans keeps the temperatures higher, for longer, than if there was no additional CO2. Without it, you would see temperatures leading CO2 levels, but they wouldn't grow as high or as for long as they actually do. You can see this by comparing the strength and duration of external forcings which produce the initial temperaure changes (e.g., variations in the Earth's orbit) to the temperature changes that resulted.

Furthermore, the Earth has undergone much more intense fluctuations before, without the American drivers, etc. There have been larger fluctuations than what has occurred so far, but there is no evidence for faster changes, which is what is particularly worrying about global warming.

It is known that the current period is one of increased solar activity, and a correlation between solar activity and temperature has been established. (google it). If you are implying that the current warming is primarily due to increased solar activity, you're mistaken. See Foukal et al.'s 2006 review paper for a good summary.

People were worrying about an ice age 30 years ago... Look how the media have switched the fear factor around. Well, the media likes to hype things up, but it doesn't change the large amounts of evidence in favor of anthropogenic global warming.

That isn't to say that environmentalism isn't bad, but CO2 is not the only thing they should be looking at. It most certainly isn't.

Carbon dioxide is a "clean" gas in that the plants will absorb it for you, no problem. No problem, except they don't absorb enough of it in the context of global warming.

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Ambitwistor]

You think 50ppm is enough to doom the planet? It's not enough to "doom the planet", but it is enough to produce the warming which has been observed, and there will be more warming still, at a comparatively rapid rate.

Even with that change, CO2 only comprises 0.035% of the atmosphere. Compare this to the atmosphere of Venus, where CO2 comprises 96.5% of the atmosphere. Yes, the Earth has a much smaller greenhouse effect than Venus. Global warming will only amount to a few degrees of temperature change, but that doesn't mean that its effects are unimportant.

That's a monumental difference between the two planets, and shows just how much CO2 you need to have before things start warming up What are you talking about? The Earth has already warmed up due to the greenhouse effect even before humans started adding to it. It's responsible for about 50 F degrees of warming, in fact. Are you really denying the existence of the greenhouse effect on Earth?

And considering that the vast majority of the biomass of this planet breathes in CO2 and exhales O2, I would think any real increase in CO2 would lead first to more trees and greenery growing up before the temperature going up. That's the CO2 fertilization effect. More trees and greenery will grow and temperature will also go up; it's not a "one before the other" thing. While more vegetation leads to a larger terrestrial sink of CO2, it's still not enough to sink all of our emissions; CO2 concentrations (and temperatures) still go up, and there are other effects (such as higher temperatures increasing the rate of CO2 emitted by organic decay in soil).

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[kyliaar]

Actual, global warming is a misnomer. It is ABRUPT CLIMATE CHANGE!!!!!

Gosh, what couldn't fit under that term. Global warming is way too specific of a term to use to cause mass panic, even though it is adaquetly hard to prove or disprove. Can't we just go back to the old method? God did it!!

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[kyliaar]

I can hide from you by shutting my eyes!!

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Lars T.]

So, does CO2 explain the global warming on Mars? Given that Mars' atmosphere is almost completely CO2 - what do you think? Not to mention that any warming on Mars will thaw more dry ice and release more CO2 into the atmosphere. But pretending that CO2 isn't actually well known to be a green house gas and that it will not amplify even the tiniest amount of increase in solar output is so easy, isn't it?

Re:"Looks like global warming is off the hook"

[Snaller]

"From what I have researched, these records come from ice cores. However, a minor problem with ice is that it has a habit of meling above a certain temperature. Given that there may be 800,000 years covered by the samples, that does not prove that the earlies sample is 800,000 years old. how are we to know if it is not in fact 8,000,000 years old, but due to natural climate variations, a large proportion of the sample has melted in this time."

Don't be an idiot. They measure the variations in one
core - its layer upon layer upon layer.

" In fact, looking at our nearest neighbour, it seems that other than the sun, there has been no other possible cause for this temperature rise."

Except of course the planetary tilt which changes back and forth over time due to the celestial mechanics.

"Besides which, I seem to recall that temperatures peaked around 1998, and have been stable/dropping since then."

Not on this planet.

"Additionally, ALL the research being done that shows CO2 is the cause of global warming is started under the premise that this is what is the cause"

No, that is what religion does, not real science. Many have been trying to disprove it, but found that they couldn't.

"Have YOU approached the science with an open mind, HONESTLY willing to look at "the science, the evidence" from both sides, "

There not "sides" - there are theories which are either supported by fact or not. There is no proof of god, but there is of global warming and co2.

Wouldn't be the first time...

[Ellis D. Tripp]

that a lake disappeared into a hole in the ground:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Peigneur

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[Deadstick]

a lake disappeared into a hole in the ground:

Isn't that where all of them are?

rj

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[davester666]

Of course global warming caused this.

Global warming caused the earth to expand, resulting in the outer crust cracking slightly, and the lake drained into it.

GW causes EVERYTHING!

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[Assassin bug]

Wow! That figuratively and literally sucked!

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[Anon54321]

Not according to current scientific theory.

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[Anonymous Coward]

GW causes EVERYTHING!

I thought we were supposed to be blaming Bush for everything.

Guess I missed the memo.

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[rs79]

Stupid people. Somebody pulled the plug. I would have thought this would be obvious.

"Duh. Double duh." - Weemba

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[SamuelDr]

Yup, Bush doesn't exist and GW is to blame for everything.

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[KlomDark]

We are, idiot, GW like in GWBush. Pay attention.

*snork*

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[g-san]

>> a lake disappeared into a hole in the ground:

> Isn't that where all of them are?

No. There are holes in donuts, holes in the ozone, holes in theories, holes in IE, and three holes in my underwear.

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[cheater512]

Bush caused Global Warming so anything blamed on GW is automatically blamed on Bush too.

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[dintech]

and three holes in my underwear.

What does the third one do?

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[pete-classic]

I prefer the ones with four holes. Makes it easier to pee.

-Peter

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you a moron?

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[Anonymous Coward]

wow, extra vagoo!

Re:Wouldn't be the first time...

[PitaBred]

There might even have 4 if he's a boy.

hey cowboy neal!

[Anonymous Coward]

quit posting in Zonk's blog.

Re:hey cowboy neal!

[Anonymous Coward]

CowboyNeal will post there whenever I damn well feel like it!

Someone will find a way...

[Anonymous Coward]

... to blame global warming anyway. Facts are irrelevant to doomsday cultists.

Re:Someone will find a way...

[Goaway]

Are you calling an entire field of science "doomsday cultists"?

That's a pretty grave accusation. Do you have any facts backing that accusation up?

Bull fucking shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Bull fucking shit. It's just more evidence of George Bush's Global Fucking Warming in action. Get a clue.

Re:Bull fucking shit.

[Zantetsuken]

No, I really doubt bulls fuck their own shit...

Global warming?

[bronzey214]

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:Global warming?

[oneiron]

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?

[TPIRman]

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.

Re:Global warming?

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a joke. I smiled and almost chuckled. It seems you've invested a bit too much emotion into this issue.

Looked less like a joke to me and more like a sly attempt at trolling for hits, merely masquerading as a joke.

Re:Global warming?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think what you're seeing is people getting tired of global warming having to be wormed into so damned many topics. It does get awfully tiresome. And /. isn't exactly a friendly place to discuss global warming. I say let them vent.

Re:Global warming?

[Anonymous Coward]

Global Warming is caused by that hot gas emanating from Zonk's ass.

Re:Global warming?

[TPIRman]

A fair point. I suppose folks do have a reason for being overly touchy, as global-warming strawmen typically abound in these parts.

Re:Global warming?

[Anonymous Coward]

no, this kind of bullshit is all too common around slashdot anymore and it's getting really old. chuckle all you want but the fact that we use to have some real discussion around here instead of endless flamewars really makes me wonder what's gone wrong. well, aside from management that's willing to sell the site out for more advertising dollars and a corrupt metamoderation system, that is.

Re:Global warming?

[Anonymous Coward]

Next time, the news without the hot-button bias, please?

About damned time someone spoke up. I hope these blasted hot-button moderators really get the skillet for all of the horrible global warming bias. I mean, someone should really fry 'em good, really turn up the heat and punish freelance global warming commentary.

Re:Global warming?

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no mention about it in the article but it has been mentioned on global warming sites, who are posting about it and ignoring the ice and that the people there say it was probably a crack in the earth.

Re:Global warming?

[TapeCutter]

I agree CowboyNeal's editorial input was (mostly) harmless and many of the comments are obvious jokes (some are even amusing). However I don't think cleverly crafted flamebait qualifies as an "offhand crack".

Re:Global warming?

[oneiron]

So, not only was it a harmless joke, but it's actually poignant commentary based on how this story is being treated elsewhere on the internet.

Re:Global Warming?

[NumenMaster]

/sarcasm on
It's quite simple actually. With all the hysteria out there about a one degree global temperature increase over the last century, it makes total sense that everything can be blamed on global warming. After all, it's easy to deduce with all our knowledge on it, stubbing my toe earlier today was due to global warming. It's just obvious. I've created a concensus, therefore, the argument is over and is indisputable.

Also, any other mysterious phenomena around the world can be blamed for global warming. Examples??

1. Why does Flavor-flav (sp?) have girls fighting to be his girlfriend?
2. Why does the PT cruiser look like something that runs on pent up sexual frustration?
3. Why do traffic lights blink late at night?
4. Why didn't I save loads of money by switching to Geico?

That's right folks. Global warming is the reason for everything happening. This includes possible tectonic disturbances in the Andes.

I can't forget a piece of advice (for real) I received from a very intelligent state employee. Move to Canada because it will be forty degrees warmer in a few years. Of course, no one but us evil Americans are subject to global changes.

/sarcasm

Re:Global warming?

[Snaller]

"There is no mention of global warming in the article."

There doesn't have to be for people to speculate it might be related. If the heat has melted an ice block for instance, so now it could just run out the drain so to speak.

"Lighten TFU, people."

I am, I still hope GW will wipe humanity out. Dirty rats.

Honestly,

[Hawthorne01]

it was *RIGHT HERE* when I saw it last.

Re:Honestly,

[gbobeck]

Dude, where's my lake?

Garrison Keillor Did It

[sciop101]

Magic Words:

LAKE! Whoa! Be Gone!

off the hook? what?

[dAzED1]

I'm fairly certain that it is considered scientifically proven beyond doubt 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; do you not understand causality versus correlation?

Off the hook?

[Target Drone]

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:Off the hook?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, not *every single thing* that has happened in the universe in the past 30 years is caused by global warming.

Re:Off the hook?

[dabraun]

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.

Re:Off the hook?

[42Penguins]

The lake hadn't been there 30 years ago, as stated by grandparent. IIRC, we were to blame for global cooling about 30 years ago.

Significant Human Interaction Theory, or SHIT:
Back then, CFCs and other particulates caused the water to condense into a lake. Now your car exhaust has caused the water to warm and evaporate.
Cycle of life.

Re:Off the hook?

[Saikik]

30 Years ago it was global cooling, now that the earth is starting to warm. The glacier has obviously decided to freeze.

-D. Cheney*

*this should really have a catchy name; "Cheney's Folly" maybe?

...and now we know...

[SubliminalVortex]

What keeps "Old Faithful" at Yosemite alive and ticking....

Re:...and now we know...

[skelly33]

... 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:...and now we know...

[magudas]

'What keeps "Old Faithful" at Yosemite alive and ticking....'

Tourists.

That and <Dr. Evil's voice>"Liquid magma".</Dr. Evil>

Re:...and now we know...

[hokiemattdude]

And by Yosemite we mean Yellowstone?

Re:...and now we know...

[igny]

Actually, it is totally connected to the event on the opposite side of Earth not so long ago.

Re:...and now we know...

[XSforMe]

You mean without toursit we could finally lay off all those underground farting monkeys?

I'm confused

[TubeSteak]

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?

Re:I'm confused

[kitsunewarlock]

God damned mamoths. They are multiplying at a rate 100,000x more than last year!

Re:I'm confused

[Pulse_Instance]

You should fix the mammoths page on wikipedia to include that fact.

Re:I'm confused

[butane317]

How is this modded Funny? I'd say it's spot-on.

Re:I'm confused

[hobo sapiens]

You insensitive clod! I'm a wooly mammoth!

Come to think of it, I have been feeling a bit randy as of late. Thirsty, too.

Re:I'm confused

[OldManAndTheC]

What're the alternatives?

• Lake is still there, but invisible
• Attack of the Giant Sponge
• Lake frozen, stolen by Ice Pirates
• Ice-Nine
• Initial report of lake was a hoax -- it was never really there in the first place

Re:I'm confused

[Anonymous Coward]

Done

Re:I'm confused

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this modded Funny? I'd say it's spot-on.

And this is where you fail science class. Yes, it is highly probably that this is exactly what happened, but until the situation can be evaluated further, the fissure located and explored, and it is confirmed that this is what happened, it's only a theory. I'm sure there are several other possible scenarios that haven't been included in this very short writeup. To say "A ha! That must be it," based on the first thing that comes to mind shows that you don't understand the scientific method.

Re:I'm confused

[Minwee]

Or, much more likely, giant flying saucers took it.

Re:I'm confused

[Anonymous Coward]

no no no

wait for the revision, then link using oldid, so people think your change is still there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mammoth& oldid=139878700

Re:I'm confused

[mqduck]

A hint: Your next Wikipiedia vandalization might last more than 10 minutes if you don't advertise it on somewhere like Slashdot.

Re:I'm confused

[pedantic bore]

What TFA neglects to mention is that there's

no record of any recent earthquakes in the area,
nor are there any holes in the ground.

So the word "mystery" seems about right.

Ooops

[MyLongNickName]

Sorry. I was really, really thirsty.

Re:Ooops

[Target Practice]

I think you're on to something. Just look for the largest arrival of giardia patients in the local hospitals, and we've found the cause.

Ha! Earthquakes! Really...

Re:Ooops

[Anonymous Coward]

That reminds me of a joke from the old Happy Days series, when one of the characters is telling Richie how a man just broke the record for drinking the most water.

Richie nods, then says...

"Yeah, and five minutes later he broke another record..."

Re:Ooops

[craagz]

You ebtter not linger around me..It is already raining hard in here

Re:Ooops

[Anonymous Coward]

Next time, could you avoid the lakes named after me? This happens every time...

Re:Ooops

[metlin]

It's okay, just make sure you pee it all back.

Re:Ooops

[Anonymous Coward]

Now don't pee in my backyard

Re:Ooops

[Anonymous Coward]

Chupacabra, is that you?

into andy's WHAT??

[Anonymous Coward]

i hate cliffhangers

Re:into andy's WHAT??

[spun]

Well, I didn't read the article, but from the blurb it sounds like it disappeared into Andy's fissure. Sounds painful, that lake looked cold.

Re:into andy's WHAT??

[had3l]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlYkIJVguCU

Well, no wonder Andy throws such great parties.

Re:into andy's WHAT??

[spun]

I don't even need to click on that link. And I can't, damn web filters at work. I know exactly what you refer to. Flight of the Conchords, am I right?

Re:into andy's WHAT??

[had3l]

Yeah! I love Andy's parties!

Re:into andy's WHAT??

[spun]

I have watched their HBO special about twenty times since I recorded it last year. It never fails to make me laugh. My favorites are "She's so Hot, Boom" and "Hip-hop-opotamous vs. Rhymenocerous." You know they have an HBO series now? I've got the first episode on my DVR, I just haven't had the time to watch it yet.

Yeah, Andy throws the craziest parties, doesn't he? Ooops. She. Andy hates it when I forget that.

Re:into andy's WHAT??

[had3l]

Unfortunately their TV series suck... But their stand up is great

Re:into andy's WHAT??

[spun]

That's what I'd heard. But my ex says I should watch it. She thinks the show is not so bad. I mean, they've had one, maybe two shows so far? That's not enough to judge a series. I haven't even seen the first show yet, so I can't really judge. We shall see whether I agree with you (and most critics ) or her. It would be sad if their series sucks. I even thought their Outback Steakhouse commercial was funny, and I hate commercials.

eye rolling speculation

[grapeape]

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.

Re:eye rolling speculation

[SeaFox]

"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.

Re:eye rolling speculation

[geekoid]

It was specifically NOT blamed.

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

Yes, change has accelerated that much.

Re:eye rolling speculation

[ArsonSmith]

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.

Re:eye rolling speculation

[chance2105]

TFA states the lake was five acres. In Oklahoma, that's a pond.

Re:eye rolling speculation

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure buddy, whatever you say.

I'll honestly never understand why you people think you're so smart when it's so clear how easy you are to manipulate.

GO GREEN!

Re:eye rolling speculation

[sobachatina]

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?

Re:eye rolling speculation

[mqduck]

Like this parent should be modded, I am cracking... up.

Re:eye rolling speculation

[grapeape]

And how many times must the cannon balls fly before they're forever banned?

Wish I had some mod point for you...that made my day...

There can be only one logical conclusion

[GammaKitsune]

The aliens did it. Just like Stonehenge, crop circles, and Al Gore.

Re:There can be only one logical conclusion

[schwit1]

"Chariots of the Gods man, they own South America."

Re:There can be only one logical conclusion

[Anonymous Coward]

The aliens did Al Gore?

But he and Tipper seem so happy.....

Re:There can be only one logical conclusion

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you think they are happy? They have one of those open relationship things.

Re:There can be only one logical conclusion

[Anonymous Coward]

The aliens did...Al Gore

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?

Torrent?

Where in the world is...

[iceman10]

Sounds Like Carmen San Diego is up to her old tricks again...

you're all wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:you're all wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

new mod submission: +1 chuck norris

after all, it can't be modded funny. there is nothing funny about chuck norris. only business. serious business.

Oh thank god...

[spankey51]

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...)

Re:Oh thank god...

[PhoenixOr]

Thank you! When I read the summary I immediately hit search: "riven" to see if someone had made the reference. You did it much more gracefully than I could have.

Q: Where are the Andes?

[weighn]

A: at the end of your Armies

martians ??

[codermaniac]

Probably martians sucked it from UFO's ?? even NASA reported about water on mars...

Re:martians ??

[sumdumass]

Martians my ass. It is all that guy how invented the carburetor that gets 100 miles to a gallon and makes your car run a water. The oil companies took him there to kill him off and hide the invention but he escaped and gave the technology to the locals. Now thay are using watter faster then oil.

What to do about it?

[Anonymous Coward]

The story is on slashdot so it must be important. Obviously we can't just leave it at this. I propose we fill in the fissure with cement and enlist a bucket brigade to refill the lake.

what do you think caused the fissure?

[weighn]

Facts are irrelevant to doomsday cultists. Facts are irrelevant to anyone with an axe to grind.

Japan: whales are the cockroaches of the oceans
IIS marketer: Apache just has more websites running per server

Re:what do you think caused the fissure?

[patrikor_007]

And the fact is...

Everyone has an axe to grind!

Re:what do you think caused the fissure?

[Alsee]

IIS marketer: Apache just has more websites running per server

Uhmmmmmmmmm....

Uhmmmmmmmmm....

More websites per server?

Uhmmmmmmmmm....

Are you sure you're not an Apache marketer in disguise? Because if you are, I think you just convinced me. More websites per server, that'll save us a fortune.

-

Lake Daikantana

[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.'

MOD PARENT UP!

[Anonymous Coward]

Man did you just nail that. Perfect 10!

Ehhh?

[GFree]

Can't we just blame terrorists like always?

*goes back to bed*

Re:Ehhh?

[dabraun]

Republicans blame everything on the terrorists.

Democrats blame everything on global warming.

It's probably a pretty good summary of american politics these days.

Re:Ehhh?

[Tatisimo]

Except this is South America we're talking about. They probably got their own politicians to blame there.

Re:Ehhh?

[Frosty Piss]

Thank of the CHILDREN, you animal...

Re:Ehhh?

[murderaliberal]

Actually it was Bush's fault, like always.

Re:Ehhh?

[hurfy]

Sounds like a lot of water for children to take.....

Gonna have to stick with aliens for this one ;)

Global warming is totally off the hook!

[spun]

When I read that, I heard in my head in a surfer-dude voice saying it as in, "Global warming is totally off the hook! It's AWESOME!"

I was confused.

I had to reread it to get the real meaning. My blood sugar must low, excuse me, I think I need to eat some dinner.

Re:Global warming is totally off the hook!

[Anonymous Coward]

When I read that, I heard in my head in a surfer-dude voice saying it as in, "Global warming is totally off the hook! It's AWESOME!"

I was confused.

I had to reread it to get the real meaning. My blood sugar must low, excuse me, I think I need to eat some dinner. Yeah, "blood sugar"...

Lay off the pot you stinking hippie!

Re:Global warming is totally off the hook!

[spun]

Hey! I have glaucoma you insensitive clod.

Re:off the hook? what?

[Anonymous Coward]

That Breitbart site is a little fruity. How can you find it credible?

It was obviously Carmen Sandiego

[assassinator42]

Who else could pull off such a heist? Hell, she could probably steal the entire mountain range, but she was feeling lazy.
Now they need to find her.

terminology

[ff3j]

off the hook or
off the hook
? ;)

This type of Phenomenon has been seen before...

[forkazoo]

It happened near a test facility in Betaverse.

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

How has nobody made the Ob. SF ref. yet with this many comments?!

sorry about y'alls lake

[atarione]

I was hella thristy.

Re:sorry about y'alls lake

[Anonymous Coward]

You are hella stupid.

Global warming off the hook...

[Red Mage 13]

'Gnarly' added a scientist researching the lake's tubular disappearance.

Moses did it!

[KnowledgeKeeper]

Only, this time, he split the earth, not the waters.

I think I found it

[ross.w]

It crossed the pacific ocean to Maitland, NSW. You can have it back now...

Some do it more or less naturally

[ChePibe]

Lake Jackson in North Florida, for example, does it every few years as ground water levels fluctuate. I'm sure that human intervention has something to do with these water levels, but isn't likely the only determining factor.

It's kind of funny that, before you go bass fishing, you have to actually make sure there's water in the lake. Sometimes, it drains very quickly.

Re:Some do it more or less naturally

[DustyShadow]

And it just happened again last month.

Re:Some do it more or less naturally

[DustyShadow]

Oh and the main reason for Lake Jackson's draining is sink holes in the lake open up into the underground aquifer and the water drains out to the Gulf. I don't think man has anything to do with it.

Nice try

[jsse]

The picture to the right is more like a CG to me. No way I should believe your yet another Roswell-mistery.

(just kidding ^_^)

Re:Nice try

[freedom_india]

A small lake will never reflect such blue light. I mean look at the sky and the water. They are both different shades...

Re:Nice try

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one to imagine a gurgling sound on the background of that second image?

Maybe I could find a gold ring there somewhere...

Aand?

[nlitement]

Is there a reason not to obtain satellite imagery from the area over that period of time?

Re:Aand?

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah, not every country in the world is blessed with a space agency :P

Re:Aand?

[craagz]

Trust me, you really really don't want to see what actually happpened. You might end up scarred for life

Re:Aand?

[iggymanz]

yes, a five acre lake is nothing, 470 feet on a side, this is too trivial too even bother with, have we no real news today? A heavy equipment operator could whip up a five acre lake in a few days.

In Other News

[MillionthMonkey]

Mysterious New 5 Acre Lake Appears in Crawford, TX

Where'd it go?

[Anonymous Coward]

We are in ur Andes, takin' your 5-acre glacial lakes!!1!11

Re:Where'd it go?

[NumenMaster]

Yes. We emptied the glacial lake and bottled it. As a matter of fact, I drank some of it today while I was refueling my global-warming-mobile. It tasted light and glacial. yumyum.

Flashback: Vanishing lake baffles Russians

[Devar]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4566355.stm

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.

Where in the world is he?

[CavemanKiwi]

Someone had to ask :)

Challenge accepted

[Farmer Tim]

Obviously global warming has caused the earth itself to expand, resulting in this fissure.

But eventually this expansion will cause a similar fissure to open under an ocean and allow the world's seas to drain, thus eliminating the fabricated risk of rising sea levels from the proven myth of glacial melt. So even if all those ignorant, biased climatologists living the caviar lifestyle on fat research grants somehow turn out to be right despite the overwheming evidence to the contrary from expert SUV drivers and totally impartial oil magnates, there's absolutely nothing to worry about.

I call this "The Moronic Knee-Jerk Theory of Environmental Equilibrium", and expect it to be accepted widely by people who like to set up obvious straw-men.

Re:Challenge accepted

[sumdumass]

Interesting. You created a sock-puppet strawman argument to counter regular strawman arguments. Man, science is advancing at alarming rates.

Re:Challenge accepted

[Farmer Tim]

Precisely. This is known as "irony", and I'm glad the object lesson that bullshit can be thrown both ways and isn't remotely helpful isn't lost on you.

FWIW, I'm not 100% convinced about man's effect on climate change, but I do think (a) burning oil is probably the most wasteful thing we can do with it, (b) energy self-sufficiency and improved efficiency are good long term goals for any economy, and (c) it's better to replace a finite energy source before it becomes impractically expensive. And if nothing else, China's future suphur dioxide emissions from burning coal are going to cause environmental problems well beyond their borders.

I'm certainly not prepared to claim either side of the debate is being entirely honest or level-headed.

Re:Challenge accepted

[Anonymous Coward]

"I'm certainly not prepared to claim either side of the debate is being entirely honest or level-headed."

One of the few balanced judgements to come out of the Global Warming disaster!

Having done a lot of reading of the evidence, I think that most of the exaggeration is on the part of the Global Warmers, but the Deniers have often responded in kind.

However, the worst casualty in all of this is science. Polarised viewpoints, cherry-picking of data and 'adjustment' of experimental findings to conform to your view (or the view of your grant funder) have turned much of climate science into politics or advertising.

Science is the great looser here.

Re:Challenge accepted

[JasonBee]

Really?

>>FWIW, I'm not 100% convinced about man's effect on climate change

Are you convinced of the bahaviour of electrons in a semiconductor? They theories behind all of that stuff is even weirder but you're not ditching your computer...

At this point I've given up on asking for some change...I'm thinking it's better to find a nice place away from all the morons if all hell breaks loose - as it will in stages, depending on where the problems exist.

>>and if nothing else, China's future suphur dioxide emissions from burning coal are going to cause environmental problems well beyond their borders.

Let me argue meanly for second: You might have a neighbour who molests children...are you saying that you're missing out on that too?

We've all recognized that wasted energy is likely a bad thing. However there is a lot of money to be made by energy interests by WASTING energy. Ergo the argument that China is getting ahead by wasting energy, which it is. China and India argue that we went through that phase a hundred years ago. They're right. Why are we suddenly seeing the light after being gluttons when we're already post-industrial anyway? I'm sure you fee so left out of the game when you could live here:

  [http://seekingalpha.com/wp-content/seekingalpha/i mages/China_Pollution.jpg].

Becoming post-industrial wastrels means co-operation because lots of corporations are leaving easy money on the table by NOT encouraging us to burn through all the energy man has at hand. It will run out. And in the meantime China and India will become so goddamn polluted that most of us won't want to go there. The quality fo life will drop precipitously in some areas and there will be riots...maybe even a civil war. The climate changes on top of that will merely add insult to injury.

And you want to bail on a great idea just because our neighbors want to keep up with the old patterns...which they have no choice in avoiding right now since most of them still wash the fricking clothes in RIVERS.

Do some reading to understand WHY China and India have been given some leeway in avoiding the carbon emissions targets that are touted here so widely. It's because we've arrived, they are barely on their way. If you read any history you'll notice that many wars have begin over simple issue of trade and commerce...remember the Boxer rebellion? The idea is that we can afford the cuts now and in the end we end up being the holders of every goddamn patent and innovation in energy effiency. God forbid after all of our investments in this area that we stumble onto a solar cell that works so efficiently that we can cover all our sunny-day power needs with no coal-powered plants.

No way I want that ;)

P.S. Have a little vision...there are good things to come if we try.

JB

Re:Challenge accepted

[freeweed]

But eventually this expansion will cause a similar fissure to open under an ocean and allow the world's seas to drain, thus eliminating the fabricated risk of rising sea levels

Well of course. Where do YOU think all that water went after the Great Flood? ;)

Re:Challenge accepted

[ravenshrike]

Ah, but we have computer models that can predict, every time, without major error and minimal fudge factor, how those electrons will act in said semiconducting material. Such CANNOT be said of the current anthropogenic global warming theories. Toodles.

Re:Challenge accepted

[sumdumass]

A post like this goes to show how the science is being misled, misused and misinterpreted.

Lets see,

Are you convinced of the bahaviour of electrons in a semiconductor? They theories behind all of that stuff is even weirder but you're not ditching your computer...>

the thing about electrons is you can experiment to see if they behave as you intend. You cannot do this with global warming science. Sure, you ca see the some gases keep more heat then others, but you cannot take a proportional weather system and check to see if the results are the way you think. Currently we use climate models on computers but they never predict anything with accuracy and the input is manipulated in order to get a close ballpark figure. If the computers they sell us had random information altered and didn't produce dependable and reliable results based of the theories that have been tested surrounded electron, we wouldn't be using them. In fact, if the state of computers were similar to the state of global warming, they would just be toys for researchers and not tool to achieve different jobs.

At this point I've given up on asking for some change...I'm thinking it's better to find a nice place away from all the morons if all hell breaks loose - as it will in stages, depending on where the problems exist.

Maybe the problem isn't you asking for change but the logic and evidence supporting the logic you are using. Garbage in and garbage out predicts a lot more then controlled experiments and software concepts. And this isn't a matter of you personally, it is somewhat of a mixed bag with everything we see in global warming arenas everywhere.

Let me argue meanly for second: You might have a neighbour who molests children...are you saying that you're missing out on that too?

I cannot really argue for the parent. But the idea seems to be that China is on the list of countries supporting Kyoto and isn't obligated to do anything to reduce it's own emissions. The idea of the fix isn't being able to molest a child because your neighbor is doing it. It is being able to grow your family and wealth like every one else instead of having some means test placed on you. The situation would be more accurate in saying you want a raise because the worst employee in the office is now making more then you. The pollutions he mentioned center around prosperity and such. Why should you be held back when some other person is allowed to get a promotion and a raise?

We've all recognized that wasted energy is likely a bad thing. However there is a lot of money to be made by energy interests by WASTING energy. Ergo the argument that China is getting ahead by wasting energy, which it is. China and India argue that we went through that phase a hundred years ago. They're right. Why are we suddenly seeing the light after being gluttons when we're already post-industrial anyway? I'm sure you fee so left out of the game when you could live here:

Why are we seeing the light? Well, we have always seen the light. It is just that the light got brighter and brighter over the years. But light can play some interesting optical illusions too. Some people get convince while others need to take yet another look. Now, money doesn't get made by waisting energy. It gets made by using energy. You see, there is a big difference here. Waisting mean I could somehow make money by shoting the poles for the electricity when it comes into my house. Using electricity means I can use electrical tools to make my life easier and have more time to focus on making money.

I know, your going to say not the consumer the energy company. The energy company makes the moeny by you waisting it. Here is the thing. If we lived in a bubble with 100 people using the engergy from one source, then yes, you would be right. But this line if thinking is very shortsighted in the real world. There isn't just 100 people us

"V"

[arthurpaliden]

and you thought it was just a movie........

Ahem

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm tired of the establishment scientific community ignoring the UFOlogist community. We've been warning you about this type of thing for decades!

Re:off the hook? what?

[nwbvt]

Though there are others who are not kidding when they blame earthquakes and tsunamis on global warming.

Actually it said

[geekoid]

"Thanks for the lake, please bring live rats."

Re:Actually it said

[letxa2000]

"Mousey!"

"The humans must never see us eat!"

Second Hand Smoke

[Belial6]

My vote goes to Second Hand SmokeTM.

google maps?

[hibji]

Hey,

Does anyone have a picture of it on google maps?

Re:google maps?

[ZenShadow]

Google might.

Re:google maps?

[tomstdenis]

Win. :-)

Oh come on...

[KlomDark]

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?

Thats what I love about environmental science

[patio11]

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.)

Re:Thats what I love about environmental science

[d34thm0nk3y]

The facts always support the hypothesis because the hypothesis changes to fit the facts!

You say that like it means something.

Here is a hint, you make the hypothesis before you design the experiment.

What the article didn't mention...

[Anonymous Coward]

The entrance to dungeon seven was found at the bottom.

No, no, it hast to be!

[Quila]

Whenever something goes wrong we have to find a way to blame it on Global Warming. Research grants must continue flowing!

And when good stuff happens we just ignore it, hope people don't notice until the next bad stuff happens.

It's all Bugs Bunny's fault

[Allnighterking]

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!

IIS marketers

[weighn]

Uhmmmmmmmmm.... yeah, its a bit ambiguous. im trying to summarise one of the age-old excuses used by MS zealots to explain why Apache is top of the pile in statistics for website hosts. The IIS folk usually say that IIS is installed on more physical servers.

Re:IIS marketers

[Urusai]

Yeah, and MS Write is the number one word processor if you go by number of installs.

Re:IIS marketers

[PitaBred]

You mean Wordpad?

Goddamn overclockers

[syousef]

....and their water cooling requirements.

LOL

[Soiden]

I live very near to that lake, and it's funny how the world is more cared for this event than Chile itself.

True

[ChePibe]

I'd agree that mankind probably isn't having a big effect on it, but the primary source of fresh water in that area (if I'm not mistaken - I grew up there, so this could be embarassing if I am) is water from the aquifer. The more people use that water, the more likely sink holes are to open, or so goes my very basic understanding of the process.

In all seriousness please correct me if I'm way off.

Obligatory.....

[IHC Navistar]

"All your lake are belong to us."

There, I got it out. Mod me down.

Re:Obligatory.....

[Guppy]

Mod me down. ...and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine! *ducks and runs*

Meanwhile... 7-11 just sold their first petagulp

[amchugh]

Meanwhile... 7-11 just sold their first petagulp.
Coincidence? I think not.

Now you are wrong!

[Anonymous Coward]

new mod submission: +1 chuck norris

after all, it can't be modded funny. there is nothing funny about chuck norris. only business. serious business.

There is no such thing as a +1 chuck norris. Every post that is moderated will be returned to the poster in an open window, with a statement that the post will be moderated "chuck norris" if said highlighter is met with correction. There are no numbers, only "chuck norris." +1? Heh. Even if there was a +2 or +5 chuck norris, the +1 chuck norris would still make more sense because chuck norris cannot be divided. There is only chuck norris, and I wear chuck norris underwear. I initial my name with CN. I go to the soda vending machine to buy some more Chuck Norris every day. And the only way to get away from whiping your ass without a handful of Chuck Norris in your hand is to stick your ass in the sun for a couple days for the Chuck Norris to dry and cake-off your asscrack. Even then, Chuck Norris in the sky would approve whether or not his rays may dry that post-digested brown Chuck Norris to fall from your bum.

Well it was easier...

[vikstar]

to drain the lake with tourists than to hijak their bus.

perhaps they are

[kingtonm]

no, seriously

Re:off the hook? what?

[mike2R]

That's mis-interpreting that article I think - they start off talking about losses due to all natural disasters, and then goes on to talk about most of them being climate related. Nowhere does it hypothesis that earthquakes are climate related.

SEP Field

[Seahawk]

Clearly someone just put up a SEP field!

On the plus side

[sa1lnr]

The old bedstead and bicycle wheel monsters hideout has been found. Also, links to the boot and shoe monster were discovered.

Heh

[Moraelin]

Yes, because obviously plate tectonics are totally caused by global warming, and we didn't have earthquakes or volcanoes before the 19'th century industrialization. Heck, seein' as the current theory is that plate tectonics are a very important part of the Earth's dynamo, we probably didn't even have a magnetic field before and solar radiation blew all hydrogen into space like on Venus. Plus, it makes me respect the age of exploration sailors a lot more if they managed to use a compass without a magnetic field ;)

Re:Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

No, they navigated by the stars back then. Remember, when you could actually see the stars instead of the thick smog layer we have floating over the ocean now?

The compass was just for the show.

A Hogwarts' prank

[Anonymous Coward]

"Lakeus buggeroffus!

Cheeze it, guys!"

Lake disappears suddenly in Chile

[bl8n8r]

It's still there, it probably just sank underneath the beans.

Strawman: not "ALL"

[Anonymous Coward]

If I said that terrorists killed 38 people last year would you say "Huh, yeah, sure, terrorists killed all the people last year!"?

Re:off the hook? what?

[nwbvt]

This was written right after the tsunami hit. It is clearly implied that it, like most other disasters, are in no way natural and all our fault for messing up the climate. The same thing happens with all disasters, like the Darfur quote in the ggp or the claims that global warming caused Katrina (despite virtually every meteorologists insistence that it was part of a natural cycle of powerful hurricane seasons). Environmentalists exploit the massive killings for their own political purposes, even when they are obviously unrelated. And the result is that left wing environmentalists are ruining the credibility of legitimate scientists.

Was sucked off by the evil martians

[DollyTheSheep]

into this http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space. com/images/070605_mars_pit_02.jpg

The lake was heard saying just before it vanished.

[An anonymous reader]

"So long, and thanks for all the fish!"

the secert truth

[TheeBlueRoom]

extraterrial belly flop contest... I was on the Nazca Lines...

Not so fast on dismissing GW

[MobileDude]

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...

You call that a lake?!!

[avtchillsboro]

Five acres?!!? Hell, where I come from thats a puddle--not *even* a pond!

No;Black Crows re Dieing Off Due To Global Warming

[JrOldPhart]

Thus they need to be put on the endangered species list and all of you other folks need to be taxed more.

Here it goes...

[eXFeLoN]

I for one welcome our lake stealing fissure creating overlords.

Re:Here it goes...

[waltmarkers]

Maybe it was the parent to this post.

I'm not paranoid, I'm just very, very absorbant!

There's a perfectly scientific explanation...

[Drengur]

...Chuck Norris was thirsty!

Was NORAD sleeping?

[HikingStick]

No one saw that giant straw enter our atmosphere?

Now, really, how long before one of the major networks presents a series centered around "disappearing water" events around the globe--"Dehydration" anyone?

Flock of ducks

[aasmodeus]

I bet a flock of about forty or fifty ducks landed smack in the middle of it, then the temperature dropped so fast that the whole lake froze in three seconds flat, and they got so scared they just flew off and took the whole lake with them. It's probably somewhere over in Georgia now. --Buddy

It's the end of the world as we know it...

[Sabathius]

I for one welcome our new...lake swallowing Overlords?

Global Warming *is* at fault

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like global warming is off the hook this time around.

Bull. Global warming /caused/ the fissure, which drained the lake.

Re:Lake Disappears into Andes

[Anne_Nonymous]

I take it you're Ande?

Global Warming?

[cheesekeeper]

How does this say "global warming" to you? It's tectonic!

This one does it every year

[freeweed]

Medicine Lake in Alberta, Canada, fills up every year and usually drains by the fall.

I've watched it cycle throughout a season, it's pretty creepy. This lake is 7km long, it ain't just a puddle in the ground.

I know how they feel

[elrous0]

Missing lake and the only evidence is a giant fissure? A similar thing happened to me today. When I left the house this morning, my bathtub was full of water. When I came back it was empty. The only clue was a drainpipe at the bottom of the tub.

Funny.. /.'ers keep saying earthquakes

[AnswerIs42]

Yet.. the articles I read said that there were no reported earthquakes in the time period to explain the crack opening. THAT is what the mystery is.

Re:Funny.. /.'ers keep saying earthquakes

[dmnic]

funny, considering the linked BBC article says there WAS a earthquake in April in a nearby province (?Ayness?)

Re:Funny.. /.'ers keep saying earthquakes

[Anonymous Coward]

shhhhhhhh. Don't point out obvious explanations to the global warming crowd. They take it personally.

**BELCH**

[Warg! The Orcs!!]

woops, sorry 'bout that. I was thirsty.... (p.s. I, for one, welcome our new lake-swallowing underlords)

Finally got rid of the buggar

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Rumor has it that it was the Master's Tardis leaving.

So I guess...

[BenSchuarmer]

we don't need a bigger boat after all.

"V"

[SnarfQuest]

To understand what's happening, you just need to go back to that documentary series "V".

It's obviously been stolen by giant lizards wearing people suits.

Update!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, the current theory is that, as this lake was formed by a glacier, it had a naturally formed dam (called "terminal moraine") at one end. This dam simply gave up (think of "Superman I" kind of event). So water just went to the ocean (this is a very isolated place, so nobody was affected). There are no records of earthquakes in the vincinity, at least not big enough to crack the bottom of the lake that way.

--nothing more to report from Chile ;-)

speaking of movies

[Brigadier]

This just might be a media stunt for the silver surfer, et al themes river ......

6 possible explanations

[jorgeleon]

6 possible explanations:

1. Somebody drop a [insert name of disposable diaper/feminine pad/paper towel/toilet paper brand] on it
2. Bruce almighty stop practicing with tomato soup and now it went for lakes for the sequel, or the water was needed for Evans Almighty.
3. The lake was only 30 years old... The lake overlords left it there while going on vacation, better welcome them
4. The builders in Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy are not done with the planet!!!
5. Yo mama is so big that when she gets thirsty she drinks lakes
6. If you are Chilean: The Argentineans took it!!!!!

Anyone Else Find it Coincidental

[Evil W1zard]

That this occurred just around the time that that FF4 Rise of the Silver Surfer was released???? Or maybe it disappeared because Chuck Norris was thirsty.

In another news story a reporter asked Chuck Norris what he thought of the lake disappearing. His response was "I was thirsty."

+3 Mod for Chuck reference

Carmen Sandiego?

[gorehog]

C'mon folks. We're not all stupid, just the elected people. Lakes dont mysteriously go missing. They evaporate or drain. When they drain there's usually evidence, like a river or a flood.

Re:Carmen Sandiego?

[Random832]

C'mon folks. We're not all stupid, just the elected people. Lakes dont mysteriously go missing. They evaporate or drain. When they drain there's usually evidence, like a river or a flood.

Or a hole in the ground.

Ice Age? What Ice Age?

[mangu]

Strangely enough, there aren't all that many accurate temperature readings for the globe over 1,000 year old, and so all that can conceivably be claimed is that the current temperature fluctuations are the fastest in recorded history.

By your logic, how do you know that any ice age ever occurred? We don't have anything that *you* would ever accept as a "temperature reading" from the times when those alleged "ice ages" happened. All we have are things like ice cores.

From what I have researched, these records come from ice cores. However, a minor problem with ice is that it has a habit of melting above a certain temperature. Given that there may be 800,000 years covered by the samples, that does not prove that the earlies sample is 800,000 years old. how are we to know if it is not in fact 8,000,000 years old, but due to natural climate variations, a large proportion of the sample has melted in this time.

Apparently your research haven't been enough for you to understand how those cores are dated. The age of the ice is determined by the radioactive decay of isotopes in the ice and in small bubbles in the ice. Some of those isotopes are formed by cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere, as the gas gets trapped in the snow it starts decaying at a fixed and (extremely) well known rate. Also, as you mention, ice starts melting above a certain temperature. Has it ever occurred to you that such a high temperature is never reached near the poles where those ice samples have been collected?

Additionally, ALL the research being done that shows CO2 is the cause of global warming is started under the premise that this is what is the cause, relies entirely on almost identical computer models, includes large "fudge factors"

So, you have read ALL the papers published that show CO2 is the cause of global warming, and you have analyzed the computer models used on each of them? Boy, I'm impressed!!! I wish I was as intelligent as you seem to be...

If their research was accurate and valid, they should be able to take their model and based on the same data (ie, CO2 levels, solar output, etc.) for ANY year be able to produce an accurate measurement for the average global temperature for the year...even going back 800,000 years perhaps?

They have done that, and gone much further than 800k years. Computer models considering CO2 levels and many other factors have been tested and found to be accurate according to known geological evidence for the whole of Earth's geologic history. Such models also accurately reflect conditions happening on Venus and Mars as well.

Just goes to show...

[JurassicPizza]

You can be a big fish in a small pond, but only until the small pond gets sucked into a huge gaping hole.

In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

A group of scientists sent to investigate reports of a missing Chilean lake are overdue. A search party is being dispatched in an attempt to locate them.

Who tags these things?

[Orig_Club_Soda]

The tags on this story are completely useless.

Mystery solved!

[sloth jr]

Marshall, Will, and Holly on a routine expedition
Met the greatest earthquake ever known.
High on the rapids it struck their tiny raft,
And plunged them down a thousand feet below.
To the Land of the Lost.

Saw this same thing in a movie

[Anonymous Coward]

Large fissure opened up and a lake was gone. Japanenes film called "Rodan" I believe. If anyone see's a gigantic flying reptile terrorizing downtown Buenas Aires then we know where it came from.

Re:off the hook? what?

[Anonymous Coward]

It might be worth noting that you, Nick, you are among those who ignore those same legitimate researchers when they call attention to the problems we face from global warming, except that you wouldn't likely let the point penetrate your thick skull, would you?
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