Talk:O'Higgins/San Martín Lake

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[edit] Verification needed about the maximum and average depth of Lake O'Higgins/San Martin

I believe that some independent verification is needed about the reported maximum depth of Lake O'Higgins/San Martin at 836m. The current source citations for the maximum depth of the lake appear to be press releases in Spanish. I noticed that the Spanish language version of this page includes no entry about the maximum depth If this value can be confirmed, then Lake O'Higgins is indeed the 5th deepest in the world and first in the Western Hemisphere. An estimate of the lake's average depth and volume would also be of interest.--Pkrnger (talk) 21:55, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

It appears there was a scientific expedition to study the lake in 2003 involving the Dresden University of Technology and Chile's Centro de Estudios Científicos de Valdivia. There are some references to the depth finding here [1] and here [2], but a full report would be nice.

"During 2003 the Laboratory of Glaciology and Climate Change consolidated in Valdivia with a nucleus of resident glaciologists and several international collaborators. Projects included data analysis of the 2002 airborne survey to Antarctic and Patagonian glaciers with an Orion P3 aircraft; paleoclimatic studies in the central Andes by means of firn and ice cores; glacier variations in Patagonia using field data and satellite image analysis; bathymetric survey of the glacial basin of Lago O’Higgins, Patagonia; study of crevasses in Adelaide Island, Antarctic Peninsula; mass balance of Volcán Mocho-Choshuenco glacier and glaciological and GPS studies on Volcán Villarrica glacier."

Rupert Clayton (talk) 02:31, 27 November 2007 (UTC)
OK, the reference in the article [3] is a PhD thesis. On page 109 of that thesis (p130 in the PDF) there is a reference to a joint Chilean and German team measuring an average water depth of 700 m and a maximum depth of 836 m in the middle of the lake. It is attributed to "(Casassa personal communication)", and G. Casassa appears to be a long-term glaciological researcher in this area. I can't find a published paper for this bathymetry. Perhaps it's in Spanish? Rupert Clayton (talk) 21:04, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Given the glacial origin of Lake O'Higgins basin and it's highly complex shoreline, I believe that more detailed information is needed to confirm the average and maximum depths reported, before Wikipedia lists this lake as the 5th deepest in the world and first in the Americas. The lack of any information within the Spanish Language version of Wikipedia regarding the lake's depth is curious, if not indicative of the need for further confirmation of the measurement of the lake's depth. There is surprisingly little information on this lake in the ILEC data base which can be found through http://www.worldlakes.org.--Pkrnger (talk) 16:21, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

The information about the deep arose in the context of an investigation related to the retreating of O'Higgins Glacier. This is the reason of the lack of more information about the lake. Only the portion of the lake that during the last decades was occupied by the glacier was surveyed. Jespinos (talk) 19:56, 19 December 2007 (UTC)
Hi Jespinos, do you have any references in English or Spanish that report the research findings? All I can find are PR and newspaper accounts and the one PhD thesis listed above. I would have thought that some paper would have published these results since 2003. Rupert Clayton (talk) 19:14, 20 December 2007 (UTC)
I have no more information about this. Any interested in more about this issue should contact to Gino Casassa or Reinhard Dietrich, they are both mentioned here (Seminar: Ice Induced Crustal Deformation and Bathymetric Studies in Lago O´Higgins). Jespinos (talk) 21:34, 20 December 2007 (UTC)