Documenting 35 years of land cover change: Lago Cachet Dos drainage, Chile

Scientific Investigations Map 3332
By: , and 

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Abstract

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Special Applications Science Center is monitoring temporal changes at the Colonia Glacier and Lago Cachet Dos, Northern Patagonia Icefield of southern Chile. This location is one of the newest international sites in the USGS Global Fiducial Program (GFP)—a program which provides systematic monitoring of dynamic and environmentally critical areas with high-resolution imagery (http://gfp.usgs.gov/). In 2008, Lago Cachet Dos began experiencing glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) during which the entire pool of water (about 200 million cubic meters) rapidly drains from the lake and flows south-southeast through the Colonia Glacier. These catastrophic events cause massive erosion of valley-fill deposits and consequent upstream expansion of Lago Cachet Dos towards Lago Cachet Uno.  Panchromatic and multispectral images for 1979, 2007, and 2014 highlight the dramatic changes that have occurred at this site over a 35-year period. The lake was smallest in 1979, when the Colonia Glacier was at its maximum extent during the study period. Between 1979 and 2007, the glacier shrank causing an increase in the surface area of the lake. The size of the lake increased substantially, from 2.98 square kilometers (km2) in 1979 to 4.41 km2 in 2014, primarily due to erosion of valley-fill deposits upstream of its northern edge by the 15 GLOFs that occurred between April 2008 and February 2014. Ongoing studies of the Colonia Glacier and Lago Cachet Dos are focused on providing real-time monitoring of Lago Cachet Dos lake levels, understanding the history of advances and retreats of the Colonia Glacier, and determining the physical mechanisms and hazards associated with the GLOFs that come from Lago Cachet Dos.

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Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Documenting 35 years of land cover change: Lago Cachet Dos drainage, Chile
Series title Scientific Investigations Map
Series number 3332
DOI 10.3133/sim3332
Year Published 2015
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Special Applications Science Center
Description 1 Sheet: 51.39 x 33.4 inches
Country Chile
Other Geospatial Lago Cachet Dos
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
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