Researchers Explain Why 'Lost-Lake' In Oregon Disappears In Winter
There's a lake in Oregon's Mount Hood National Forest that disappears in winter and researchers now know why.
The lake, dubbed 'Lost-Lake' has a hole through which it slowly drains each spring.
The lake "fills up in the winter, when input exceeds the rate of draining, and then it goes dry [as the spring turns to summer] and it becomes a meadow," Jude McHugh, a spokeswoman for the national forest, told the Bend, Ore.-based newspaper. If anyone were to plug the hole it would cause flooding, McHugh noted.
In an explanation reported by The Huffington Post, McHugh said it turns out that the hole is an old collapsed lava tube. Streams of lava that pour onto our planet's surface from Earth's interior form these natural conduits. The surface and outer regions of the streams cool and solidify, forming a tunnel through which still-molten lava continues to flow and drain away.
She added that the Lost Lake's water seeps into Earth's porous subsurface through the lava tube and refills the underground water supple that feeds in other areas of the forest. It even provides drinking water for the community.
A relevant video was also released by The Bulletin journalist Ryan Brennecke, displaying that the scientists have identified as a lava tube, a two-meter-wide channel that acts like a giant drain.
"It takes seven to ten years for water to travel through the porous rock out into the valley floor. It's a pretty amazing process," McHugh said. "This is one place where you can dramatically see that water is going into the Earth."
