The Case of the Disappearing Lake

Peter: 28th Jun 2006 - 13:09 GMT

uberfascinating. ahh, florida and sinkholes!

Catherine Penfold-Waxman: 28th Jun 2006 - 13:09 GMT

Maybe it's twined with the Dead Sea.

sine: 28th Jun 2006 - 13:12 GMT

if the dead sea starts filling back up, let me know.

EvilGentleman: 28th Jun 2006 - 21:06 GMT

I find the quote from the landscaper near the lake of, "We can't afford to let this nature go." to be quite hilarious. The sinkhole is nature, not the artificial preservation of the lake. But then again, landscapers tend to have a funny idea as to exactly what constitutes "nature".

Unless you want to take the extremely extended view, that since human beings are part of nature themselves, any constructs made by humans are part of nature, the same way as anthills, beehives, bird nests and beaver dams. If you view things in this extended manner, then bubble wrap, CFC's, cellphones, Voyager satellites and nuclear warheads are part of nature, too. But I think this goes outside the context of what most people consider to be nature.

I have more to say, specifically about lakes draining in the Arctic, but I'm using my cellphone at the moment (Bell screwed up my cell bill, now I'm fighting with them to get my original calling plan reinstated), so I will have to make that comment later, if I ever get off hold.

EvilGentleman: 28th Jun 2006 - 21:12 GMT

The State of Utah is trafficking in salty water. They have had help from alien intelligence to build giant drains in the bottom of the Dead Sea and the Aral Sea and siphon the water through the Earth into the Great Salt Lake. Apparently, they have smaller drains in Florida, as well, and in the Arctic, too. But since these bodies of water are fresh water, not salty, they must also be siphoning salt from somewhere. Keep an eye out for disappearing salt mines.

EvilGentleman: 28th Jun 2006 - 23:45 GMT

Yeeesh, the things I do when I am on hold. I must first correct my first comment in this article. The Voyagers are space probes, not satellites. Sorry about that. Now, on to the serious stuff.

In the Canadian Arctic, there has been a great problem with disappearing lakes. When I lived in Coral Harbour, Nunavut, in the 1990's, one-third of the lakes on Southampton Island (see map) dried up. These lakes were mostly all shallow ones of less than 6 feet in depth. Unfortunately, these events predate my digital camera days, so I do not have any pictures.

The reason for the loss of the shallow lakes is very simple. Global warming has caused the permafrost to melt, and the lakes are now draining into the local aquifer, which was previously permanently frozen. I remember I used to look at the lakes and even in summer, I would be able to see ice at the bottom of the lake, about 4 to 6 feet down. This was the permafrost layer, and in the fall, the lakes would freeze up from the bottom at the sime time they froze down from the surface. But no more.

I had figured this out in 1996, but it appears the scientists have only started realizing what is happening in the last year or two. If I had only known that this phenomenon was unknown to science, I could have alerted somebody to it, and maybe the true extent of the damage of global warming could have been brought to the world almost a decade sooner.

A view of Southampton Island for orientation purposes. All 3 pictures are from Google Earth.

The island itself.

A closeup of the area where I first noticed lakes disappearing. I cannot recall which exact lakes dried up, but about one-third of the lakes near the road heading west towards the river on the left had disappeared by 1998. Some of the dry lake beds are visible in this shot, if you look closely, especiall to the south of the road, and by the big bend that looks like an upside-down "V".

sine: 29th Jun 2006 - 13:08 GMT

sally: there is probably some family connection somewhere.

evilgentleman: can you grab some google earth pics of Scott Lake? I would LOVE to come up to your neck of the woods sometime. I have never been to Canadia-land, and considering NYC is not that far, we should make a road trip. Peter, what say you?

sine: 29th Jun 2006 - 13:10 GMT

EvilGentleman: What happend on Opposite Island? Do people mean "no" when they say "yes"? Is red actually green?

EvilGentleman: 29th Jun 2006 - 13:19 GMT

I'm off to look for the pics now, but I warn you, Google Earth shots can be up to 5 or 6 years old, so do not be surprised if it shows the lake full of water.

And as far as going across the border goes, be advised that the oil tycoon sitting in his office at 1600 Pennsyvania Avenue has decided in his eternal wisdom to allow his lackeys to set into motion a new series of border controls that are slowly being phased in by 2008, that shall require all persons crossing the Canada-US border to present passports. So it is best to come ASAP, before he lets some other idiot slam the border to punish us. Because he's gonna be majorly pissed at Canada when we don't jump on board to invade Iran or North Korea in a few months.

EvilGentleman: 29th Jun 2006 - 13:25 GMT

Luckily, Opposite Island is uninhabited. But in the old days, the people on Opposite island always told lies, and the people on Sanderson Island always told the truth. And to make matters worse, they both called their islands just "the island", so you never knew which island you were on. Further still, they always intermingled between the two islands. Early explorers found the only way to tell which island they were on was to ask "Is this your island?" If everybody said "no", then you were on Opposite Island. If everyone said "yes", then you were on Sanderson Island. Later on, the navy showed up, and they found an even easier solution. They killed everybody.

EvilGentleman: 29th Jun 2006 - 13:46 GMT

Here you go, as per your request, compliments of the good folks at Google Earth. Seems to be relatively current, but before the sinkhole situation arose. But the resolution is shit, for some reason Google Earth has random areas of poor to terrible resolution, and other areas of incredible quality, like Manhattan and London.

Peter: 29th Jun 2006 - 13:49 GMT

sine: im always up for a road-trip!

eg: you put alot of thought into some of your comments, and i always feel like i learned something after reading them. nice... the other night, sine and i were looking at a map, and i saw nunavut, and pointed it out. i smiled because id have never heard of it otherwise, but thanks to you, i feel like i know it and have seen enough of it here that its sort of familiar. the same goes for the above lakes and opposite island.

killswitch: 30th Jun 2006 - 19:46 GMT

happy b day peter,scott lake drained 750mil. to 1billion gal. of water

sine: 9th Jul 2006 - 05:40 GMT

the lake is still dry, and stinking like a dead gerbil in mel gibson's asshole.

John: 19th Jul 2006 - 22:32 GMT

It makes me sad, but what really ticks me off is that those bastards around the lake want the county to pay for it to be fixed. These are the same people who told the county to screw off when the county asked for a public entrance to the lake.

Lee: 5th Sep 2006 - 16:32 GMT

I am interested in whether Scott Lake had an augmentation well and whether the sinkholes may have been caused by pumping water from underground aquifers to keep the lake levels up.