In the passel of Oregon , there ’s a shallow lake just off the highway that vanish once a twelvemonth during the dry summertime months , then reappear during the surface-active agent seasons . It ’s called Lost Lake , and its magical vanishing act is thanks to alava tube .
These geographic feature form when well out lava cools and hardens at the top while the red-hot insides beneath the surface continue to menstruate downhill . The burrow that ’s left behind may open up up a hollow after an bam or through wearing away . Lava tubes range from rubbish - can - sized short guys to underpass - tunnel - sized ones you’re able to walk through are scattered across the volcanic terrain of Central Oregon and the Cascade Range .
Several modest streams flow into the 0.34 - straight - kilometer ( 0.13 - solid - mile ) Lost Lake , and they all drain into one ( possibly two ) of these large holes on the N side of the lake . Water starts pour in during the previous fall , and it continues throughout the rain and blizzard . “ It fills up in the wintertime , when input exceed the rate of draining , and then it pass dry and it ’s a meadow,”Willamette National ForestspokeswomanJude McHugh state The Bulletinof Bend , Oregon . The hole has been there as long as anyone can remember .
Here ’s a very coolvideo from The Bulletinof Lost Lake funnel down the lava tube-shaped structure drain hole , the lake ’s only bed outlet :
Lost Lake probably form about 3,000 years ago , when lava feed from a volcanic vent blocked a river channel to make a lake , McHugh tells Live Science . It sits atop 12,000 - year - old volcanic rock that was make full with bubble back when it was forming . When the petrol escaped into the atmosphere , it give behind pores alongside various cracks and fissures throughout landscape .
We do n’t cognize if the water hang into the fix trip to an outlet , thoughMcHugh thinksthat it likely seeps into the porous subsurface below — recharging the aquifer that feeds the springs on either side of the Cascades . It can take a decade for the water to filter out down through all those holes and cracks .
" Here in western Oregon , it down out at the vale storey and provision drinking water and crucial habitat for humans , Pisces and all sort of species,“she adds . " That water that shine today , there ’s some nipper that ’s exit to be turn out tomorrow that ’s kick the bucket to be drink it when he ’s 10 . " [ ViaLive Science , The Bulletin ]
