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A moraine-dammed lake, occurs when the terminal moraine has prevented some meltwater from leaving the valley. When a glacier retreats, there is a space left over between the retreating glacier and the piece that stayed intact which holds leftover debris (moraine). Meltwater from both glaciers seep into this space creating a ribbon-shaped lake due to the pattern of ice melt. This ice melt may cause a glacier lake outburst flood, leading to severe damage to the environment and communities nearby. Examples of moraine-dammed lakes include:
- Argentina/Chile: General Carrera/Buenos Aires Lake
- Chile: Calafquén Lake, Panguipulli Lake
- Ireland: Lough Dan
- Nepal: Tsho Rolpa
- New Zealand: Lake Hawea, Lake Ohau, Lake Pukaki, Lake Tekapo, Lake Wakatipu, and Lake Wanaka (i.e., almost all large lakes in the South Island)
- Switzerland: Lake Zurich
- United States: Donner Lake in California, Flathead Lake in Montana, Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota, Wallowa Lake in Oregon, Lake Chelan[1]
- Wales: Llyn Peris and its twin Llyn Padarn.
- Poland: Morskie Oko in Zakopane
- Slovakia: Strbske pleso, Velke Hincovo pleso
- Central Mongolia: Lake Khagiin Khar
- Scientists are looking closely at lake Khagiin Khar in Mongolia because they want to know whether moraine-dammed lakes' evolution relate to past glacier movements. The study they are conducting focuses on reconstructing paleo-shoreline changes and seeing how climate change is impacting the lake's water level. This is important for them to understand because climate change is an issue that is present and doesn't seem to be slowly down. The final results of the study, it seems, is that there was a decrease in the paleolake level due to a spillover. The spillover could have been caused by a multitude of reasons, but sense it was a study based on the effect of climate change, the only possible interpretation is that climate change caused this increase in water level due to glaciers melting quicker. However, other reasons such as excessive rain, global warming, and ice jam can all cause glaciers to melt and, therefore, cause floods.[2]
- ^ Kendra, Will; Singleton, Lynn (1987). Morphometry of Lake Chelan. Olympia, Washington: Washington State Department of Ecology. p. 8.
- ^ Harrison, Stephan; Kargel, Jeffrey S.; Huggel, Christian; Reynolds, John; Shugar, Dan H.; Betts, Richard A.; Emmer, Adam; Glasser, Neil; Haritashya, Umesh K.; Klimeš, Jan; Reinhardt, Liam; Schaub, Yvonne; Wiltshire, Andy; Regmi, Dhananjay; Vilímek, Vít (2018-04-09). "Climate change and the global pattern of moraine-dammed glacial lake outburst floods". The Cryosphere. 12 (4): 1195–1209. Bibcode:2018TCry...12.1195H. doi:10.5194/tc-12-1195-2018. hdl:10150/627657. ISSN 1994-0424.