Colonia_Glacier

Colonia Glacier

Colonia Glacier

Valley glacier in the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile

Colonia Glacier (Spanish: Glaciar Colonia or Ventisquero Colonia) is a valley glacier located in the Northern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile. The glacier spills out to the southeast from an ice plateau north of Cerro Arenales and has its terminus about 4 km (2.5 mi) from Colonia Lake. Colonia Glacier dams two lakes; Cachet II and Arco Lake. The ice dam containing the waters of Cachet II Lake fails regularly, which generates glacial lake outburst floods.

Quick Facts Type, Location ...

On March 31, 2012, for the second time that year, virtually all of the 200 million cubic meters of water in Lake Cachet II were lost in less than 24 hours as a result of perforations in the glacial wall, a consequence of rising temperatures driven by climate change. The lake has drained 11 times since 2008 and experts predict it will increase in frequency.[2]

References

  1. [1]
    Aniya; et al. (1999). "Variations of Patagonian Glaciers, South America, Utilizing RADARSAT Images" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-22. Retrieved 2012-03-19.
  2. [2]
    "Chile's Vanishing Patagonian Lake". May 23, 2012.


Stub icon

This article about a glacier in Chile is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Colonia_Glacier, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.