Vanishing Lake, page 1

I think an underground base has sprung a leak in its ceiling ...

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Los Angeles Times

Lake Pulls a Disappearing Act in Russia
By Kim Murphy Times Staff Writer Fri May 27, 7:55 AM ET

BOLOTNIKOVO, Russia — For as long as anyone can remember, White Lake had been the local swimming and fishing hole. Deep, cold, fed by underwater springs, the lake regularly gave up carp as fat as birch trees. A kid could cannonball into its depths from the overhanging willows and never hit bottom.
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And then one recent morning, the lake was simply gone.

Fyodor Dobryakov was the first to see it — or not see it, as it were. The 74-year-old headed down to the lake early one morning two weeks ago, expecting to see the first fish emerging after the spring melt. Instead, all he saw was a narrow crust of ice clinging to the shore. Everything else was gone, or almost gone.

"The ice was just hanging over an empty lake. I heard a noise, and when I looked right, I saw there was an abyss, and the water was rushing into the abyss like mad. The trees were falling into the lake and getting sucked in too," Dobryakov said at his home in this small village of pensioners, about 240 miles east of Moscow near the Oka River.

Within minutes, all that was left of the 48-foot-deep lake was a silent expanse of mud a quarter of a mile wide. Small fish were flapping their death throes near the small, deep pool into which the water had disappeared.

Dobryakov rushed back to the village and grabbed a friend. "I told him, 'The lake's collapsed, the water's gone.' My friend said, 'You're lying.' I said, 'Of course I'm a liar, but not this time.' "

The authorities were called, then th
e television stations. All braved clouds of black flies and mosquitoes to troop through the forest and investigate the case of the disappearing lake. Where Bolotnikovo residents once picnicked and swam, there was now only a huge crater, caked mud sprouting shoots of new grass.

"I've never seen anything like it. Never," said Dmitry Zaytsev, an officer with the federal Emergency Situations Ministry sent to investigate the case.

"Pretty much all the water went down that hole, and that's it," he said. "Everything — fish, water, everything — got sucked into that hole. And judging by the size of the crater, it must have happened pretty quickly, in a matter of a few hours."

news.yahoo.com...
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There are a few places where the water was to supposedly has went; however, there has been a rash of stories on PBS, BBC and other sites in regards to either water running out,

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BBC News

World's water supply 'running low'
Last Updated: Thursday, 5 June, 2003, 16:11 GMT 17:11 UK

Dried out Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh in northern India
Parts of rural India rely heavily on underground water sources
The world's natural supply of underground water, on which two billion people depend, is being run down, according to the United Nations.

Water tables are falling by about three metres a year across much of the developing world, according to a study by the UN Environment Programme (Unep).

Launching its report on World Environment Day, the UN said governments must take immediate action to reverse the decline.

"I hope this report will serve as a wake-up call concerning the human, social and economic consequences of squandering our vital underground water supplies," said Klaus Toepfer, Unep's executive director.

Growing populations, industrialisation and more intensive farming are all contributing to a dramatic increase in the use of water.

news.bbc.co.uk...
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glaciers melting,

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CBS News

Alaskan Glaciers Melting Faster
WASHINGTON, July 19, 2002

An estimated 37 cubic miles of ice are disappearing annually from Alaskan glaciers, turning some imposing ice mountains into minor hills and adding to the steady rise in global sea level. (Photo: AP)

"From the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s, the glaciers lost about 13 cubic miles a year. In the last five years, that rate has almost doubled."
Scientist Anthony Arendt

Alaskan Glaciers Melting Faster

WASHINGTON, July 19, 2002

(AP) Alaska's major glaciers are eroding so rapidly that researchers estimate they are losing 24 cubic miles of ice each year, adding to the steady rise in global sea level.

In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, University of Alaska researchers said a survey of 67 major glaciers using an airborne laser system found that the rate of melting has hastened over the past five years.

"From the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s, the glaciers lost about 13 cubic miles a year," said Anthony A. Arendt, first author of the study. "In the last five years, that rate has almost doubled."

www.cbsnews.com...
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or in this case, water totally vanished. I'm wondering, are all of these events connected and what does it mean for the future of water on this planet and/or has this always been the case of water and convection for 1000's of years?

[edit on 28-5-2005 by pfunkarocka]