The world's most dangerous lake is finally getting a warning system
Science
This could be the most dangerous lake in the world.They talk to coaches sits at the foot of 220 thousand foot ice caps in the Peruvian Andes and high above a major city.A hunk of ice slid into this lake in 1941, killing nearly 2000 people.
Other slides have triggered catastrophic floods nearby, including when the entire city of human guy was buried following an earthquake in 1970.
Now, thanks to climate change, melting the glaciers, Lake paga coaching is 34 times larger than when these small dams were built in the 19.
1970s, that's bad news for the tens of thousands of people who live below in the city of Huaraz.
They could be in the path of a massive flood triggered from the lake.
A new webcam installed at Lake Palcacocha captures small avalanches frequently roiling the waters, but not quite spilling over the top of the old dams.
So here I am at Lake [UNKNOWN].
I did see a small snow slide a short time ago coming off that glacier towards the lake.
It feels a little precarious being up here.
After years of delays, the government here is finally building a new high tech early warning system at the lake.
The hope is it will save lives by buying people in what us time to get out of the way of the next big mudslide
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But this is the first flood early warning system installed in these mountains.
Not far from Lake Pacojet is more remote Laguna 513 at the base of the wall con ice cap after a hunk of ice fell on the lake causing a flood in 2010.
Peru's first glacial flood warning system was installed here.
And evacuation routes were established for the town of Qatar was below.
But in 2016, rumors spread that the new equipment at the lake was controlling the weather and an angry mob destroyed the early warning system.
That's I'm up here at Lake 513 above Kairos.
And you can see the glacier behind me that about nine years ago huge chunk of the capped off into the lake sending a wall of water over right about where I'm standing right now and down into the valley below.
And I've hiked up here this morning and there's nobody on duty.
Nobody watching.
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There are no plans to replace the early warning system at Laguna 513, and while some worry that the same thing might happen to the system being installed at lake Ok Atocha, work is still going ahead.
Officials say it is now about half complete.
Meanwhile, warming temperatures continue to make cruise glaciers less stable.
And increase the threat of a tragic flood for the thousands living in their shadows
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