Scientists solved the mystery of the disappearing Arctic reservoir

Scientists of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AANI) have found explanations for the discharge of water in Lake Spartak on the Bolshevik Island of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, which is located north of the Taimyr Peninsula in the Krasnoyarsk Territory on the border of the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea.
Every 8-10 years, the reservoir can lose up to 250 million cubic meters of water per day. In August 2021, the water from the lake almost completely disappeared in 117 hours (about five days), this has never happened before.
The length of the Spartakovsky is almost five kilometers, the width is up to 900 meters, the depth at the glacier dam is 100 meters.
As explained by the AANI scientists, the accumulation of water in Spartakovsky is due to the melting of the Semenov-Tyan-Shansky and Wojciechowski glaciers and depends on the amount of heat in summer.
The water in the lake accumulates unevenly. After reaching the maximum level part of the glacier, which blocks the path of water to the sea, floats under the action of water. The glacier collapses and pops up in the lake in the form of icebergs, ice channels open and the descent of water into the sea begins.
"The surfaced and destroyed icebergs in the form of rings and channels showed that there are tunnels in the body of the glacier, through which water flows from the lake. When the water level drops, many channels are closed again, in winter the water in the channels freezes again, and the lake lives for several years waiting for the next critical rise in the water level," the university explained.
Scientists believe that fluctuations in the water level in Spartakovsky and a full descent in 2021 may indicate that the reservoir will completely disappear, like other glacial lakes, as a result of climate warming. But it is impossible to exclude the revival of the lake due to new phases of glaciation development in the Arctic, ttelegraf.ru writes.

Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished