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Geological Formations

Colonia Glacier

Erosional and Karst Formations

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Colonia Glacier, called Glaciar Colonia or Ventisquero Colonia in Spanish, is a valley glacier of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field in Chile, covering about 437 square kilometers (169 square miles). It flows southeast from an ice plateau near Cerro Arenales, terminating about 4 kilometers from Colonia Lake, and dams two lakes, Cachet II and Arco Lake, along its margin. The ice dam holding back Lake Cachet II has failed repeatedly, draining it in glacial lake outburst floods eleven times since 2008; in the most dramatic event, on March 31, 2012, virtually all of the roughly 200 million cubic meters of water held in that lake drained in less than a day through perforations in the glacier wall.

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