Puyehue Lake

Puyehue Lake
Lago Puyehue
Primary inflows Gol-Gol River
Primary outflows Pilmaiquén River
Catchment area 1267 km3
Basin countries Chile
Max. length 23 km
Max. width 11.5 km
Surface area 157 km²[1]
Max. depth 135 m[1]
Water volume 12.6 km3[2]
Surface elevation 212 m[1]
Islands Fresia Island, Cuicui Islands
Settlements Entre Lagos
References [1]

Puyehue Lake (Mapudungun: puye, small fish and hue, place) is an Andean piedmont lake located in the border of Los Lagos Region with Los Ríos Region of Chile. Puyehue is a lake of glacial origins, several times during the pleistocene glaciations the lake depression was occupyed by a large glacier lobe of the Patagonian Ice Sheet forming thus a series of moraines along its western shores. The lake have an east-west elongated shapewith Fresia Island in the middle and two minor peninsulas pointing toward the island, one from the north and one from the south. The lake have remarkbly smooth coastes with only one inlet of significance; the Futacullín Bay on the south.[1]

As most other lakes of southern Chile Pueyehue Lake acts as a sediment trap for material from the Andes. Sediment cores taken from Puyehue Lake in 2001 and 2002 have been intrepreted as supporting the existence of the Little Ice Age in the Southern Hemisphere[3] .

The 2011 Puyehue eruption deposited 50 cm of pyroclastic material over the surface of the lake, polluting the water and killing fish.

External links

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Cuenca del río Bueno
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ Bertrand, Sebastien; Boes Xavier, Castiaux, Julie; Charlet, Francois; Urrutia, Roberto; Espinoza, Cristian; Lepoint, Gilles; Charlier, Bernard; Fagel, Nathalie (2005). Temporal evolution of sediment supply in Lago Puyehue (Southern Chile) during the last 600 yr and its climatic significance. Quaternary Research 64, 163-175