When a group of researchers set out to study the decline of the the Ventisquero Negro glacierone of the twelve glaciers of Cerro Tronador, noticed the formation of a lake that, today, is already 70 meters deep.
«Since we began to study it in 2012 to the present, the Black Snowdrift retreats by leaps and bounds. The lake will slowly lose contact with the ice. A glacial lake is being formed just like those that surround us,” said Beatriz Modenutti, a researcher at the Institute for Research in Biodiversity and Environment (Inibioma) that depends on Conicet and the National University of Comahue.
That lake, he mentioned, is still in connection with the glacier, although probably in the future, if the trend of glacial retraction continues, it will be disconnected. «All the lakes in the Andean region are of glacial origin. They once had a glacier that originated them and then, they disconnected from those glaciers,” Modenutti told BLACK RIVER newspaper.
He regarded the situation as the “most notable symptom of climate change in mountainous regions: glacial retreat and the formation of new lakes”.
The Black Glacier is a secondary glacier that is formed by the arrival of material from other glaciers that are higher up. Its name is due to the fact that it is covered in sediments. It is not possible to see the white ice, except when there is some detachment.
The team led by Modenutti goes to the place once or twice a month, from spring to April -although they also go when winter conditions allow it-. There, water samples are extracted for analysis and laboratory experiments.
Modenutti explained that lakes are very dynamic structures over timeeither. «In the case we studied, initially the color of the water was very dark because it received a lot of glacial clay. At the moment tends to be more transparent because as time goes bythe glacial clay decants and this situation also has consequences in the Manso River basin and Lake Mascardi”, he stated.
He commented that Lake Mascardi receives waters with glacial clays through the Manso Superior River that is born from Tronador glaciers. “Today this has changed because part of those clays settle in the new lake. So the entire Manso river basin is being affected since the water is much clearer,” he said.
This situation changes the environments completely. Organisms (such as algae) and therefore the entire ecosystem are modified.
«We are losing enormous biodiversity as an entire ecosystem is being lost, that of the ice from the glaciers. There are many organisms, such as fungi and bacteria, that are being lost. Many of these microorganisms subsist in the new lake but end up being lost because the structure where they lived is lost, that is, the ice,” Modenutti pointed out.
He also highlighted that, in the area, there is a change in the landscape that affects the aquatic environments. It happens that when the ice is removed, the soil is quickly colonized by vegetation.
“All these events are accelerated and are due to global climate change with an increase in temperature and changes in precipitation,” he stated.
According to glaciologist Lucas Ruiz, between 2000 and 2012 Mount Tronador lost 0.22 cubic kilometers of ice.