"Melting causes lake in Chile to empty"
(Source: AP, 4/10/08)

Melting ice in southern Chile caused a glacial lake to swell and then
empty suddenly, sending a "tsunami" rolling through a river, a
scientist said Thursday. No one was injured in the remote region.

Glacier scientist Gino Casassa said the melting of the Colonia
glacier, which he blamed on rising world temperatures, filled the
Cachet Lake and increased pressure on the ice sheet.

The water bored a 5-mile tunnel through the glacier and finally
emptied into the Baker River on April 6.

"The remarkable thing is that the mass of water moved against the
current of the river," Casassa told The Associated Press by telephone
from the Center for Scientific Studies in the southern city of
Valdivia. "It was a real river tsunami."

The lake was nearly full again by late Wednesday, he said.

Casassa said temperatures were unusually high during the recent
Southern Hemisphere summer.