Palcacocha

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Palcacocha
Lago Palcacocha 2002.jpg
Laguna Palcacocha, 2002
Geographical location Peru
Drain Quebrada Cojup → Río Santa
Data
Coordinates 9 ° 23 '49 "  S , 77 ° 22' 47"  W Coordinates: 9 ° 23 '49 "  S , 77 ° 22' 47"  W
Palcacocha (Peru)
Palcacocha
Altitude above sea level 4562  m
surface 0.48 km 2 (2012)dep1
volume 17,325,206 m³
Maximum depth 72 m
Laguna Palcacocha 1939

Palcacocha ( Quechua palka "valley", qucha "lake") is a glacial edge lake in the Andes high mountains of South America in northwestern Peru .

location

The Laguna Palcacocha is located in the Ancash region in the high mountain range Cordillera Blanca at an altitude of 4566 m above sea level, at the foot of the Palcaraju (6274 m) and the Pucaranca peaks (6156 m). It is located at the upper, eastern end of the Cojup Gorge ( quebrada Cojup in Spanish ). The Río Paria has its origin at the Palcacocha, flows about 23 km southwest through the Cojup Gorge and flows into the Río Quilcay near the end of the valley on the eastern edge of the city of Huaraz . After a good two kilometers, this drains through Huaraz, on the western edge of the city, into the Río Santa .

The lake is fed by glaciers that are located on the flanks of the surrounding mountains. Most recently, during the Little Ice Age , a glacier tongue reached to today's end of the lake and formed moraines . Between 1987 and 2010 the glacier area in the catchment area of the Río Quilcay decreased by about 25%. With the retreat of the glacier, which has accelerated sharply in recent decades, the Palcacocha Lake began to build up behind the moraine as a natural dam. To reduce the risk of a glacier run, two additional artificial dams and a concrete drain were built in 1974.

The lake is one of several that provide water to Huaraz. The Río Paria covers about two thirds of the city's water needs and supplies irrigation areas in the lower area of ​​the Cojup Valley.

  • Aerial photograph November 2001

  • April 2003

1941 flood disaster

In the early morning of December 13, 1941, the moraine wall that borders the lake down into the valley broke. Two possible triggers have been suggested: an ice fall from the adjacent glacier into Lake Palcacocha or the gradual softening of the moraine dam. The tidal wave also broke through the downstream Jiracocha Lake and tumbled down the Cojup Valley, tearing earth and rocks with it. The mudslide reached the city of Huaraz within 15 minutes , 400,000  cubic meters of debris spilled large parts of the city around 6:45 a.m., killing more than 5,000 people, other estimates say 1,800 people.

Of the 8-10 million m 3 of water in the lake, about 0.5 million m 3 remained, its depth had decreased by 47 m. This event and a moraine fracture of Lake Chorabari (India), which partially destroyed the village of Kedarnath and adjacent areas, are considered to be the glacier runs with by far the highest number of fatalities documented up to 2016.

Disaster Warning 2003

In April 2003, NASA scientists discovered a crack in the ice of the glacier on Lake Palcacocha on images from the observation satellite Terra from November 2001. The immediate warnings came just two weeks after the UGRH (Unidad de Glaciología y Recursos Hidricos) employees of the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture had checked the drainage of the lake, after a minor crack in the terminal moraine had led to an uncontrolled runoff, which, however, was due to the protective measures taken after 1941 was caught.

According to scientists from the University of Innsbruck , the subsequent panic among the residents and losses for the local tourism industry could have been prevented. According to their findings, the warnings from NASA were based on a misinterpretation of the satellite data.

Current threat situation

Map with Laguna Palcacocha (top right), Cojup Valley and urban area of ​​Huaraz (left, yellow)

Overall, the threat posed by Lake Palcacocha has only decreased a little. For Huaraz, it continues to represent a high risk of flooding. Compared to 1970, the volume of the lake has increased 34 times; at around 17 million m 3, it now contains more water than before the disaster of 1941. An ice slide could cause a tidal wave plunge over the terminal moraine into the valley. Due to the changed profile of the moraine, the risk of this being accompanied by a dam break like in 1941 is less. A state of emergency has been declared several times recently in Huaraz. At the same time, since the flood disaster in 1941, the population of Huaraz has grown from 25,000 to more than 100,000, many of whom settled on the debris cones left by the tidal wave.

In 2010, the UGRH therefore presented plans to lower the water level of the lake by fifteen meters in order to minimize the risk of the final dam being flooded again. At the same time, however, the national ministry withdrew its responsibility for glacial lakes from the UGRH and transferred it to the regional administrations. Since the administration of the province of Huaraz shied away from the high costs for the measure planned by the UGRH, six drainage pipes with a diameter of 25 centimeters each were installed in 2011, which were able to lower the lake level by three meters by July 2013. Even with a significant reduction in water depth, the lake can still pose a considerable risk. Geologists refer to "Lake 513", which is also located in the Cordillera Blanca, and despite extensive drainage after a massive rock and ice avalanche in 2010, a dangerous one Glacier run ended. According to model calculations, a 30 m reduction in water depth can reduce the urban area affected by the flood by 30%, while areas exposed to high risk would be reduced by less than half.

A local farmer's lawsuit

In March 2015, one of the affected citizens of Huaraz, Saúl Luciano Lliuya, directed the global public's interest to the threat situation on Lake Palcacocha by making the German energy company RWE jointly responsible for the situation in an open letter : RWE alone has had one since its inception half a percent contributed to global climate change, so RWE should also pay half a percent of the necessary protective measures. Lliuya claimed an amount of 17,000 euros as compensation. The group denied that there was a legal basis for the lawsuit and denied responsibility for the facts described.

The Essen Regional Court dismissed the lawsuit in December 2016. In the course of the appeal , the Hamm Higher Regional Court decided, following a previous legal discussion and hearing from RWE, that the claim was admissible and conclusively justified and therefore ordered the taking of evidence on November 30, 2017 . In consultation with the plaintiff and defendant, the court appoints an expert ; the plaintiff has to pay an advance payment of 20,000 €.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Palcacocha  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Marcelo Somos-Valenzuela, Rachel E. Chisolm, Denny S. Rivas, Cesar Portocarrero and Daene C. McKinney: Modeling a glacial lake outburst flood process chain: the case of Lake Palcacocha and Huaraz, Peru . In: Hydrology and Earth-System Sciences . tape 20 , 2016, doi : 10.5194 / hess-20-2519-2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c United States Agency for International Development (USAID): The Glacial Lake Handbook. Reducing Risk from Dangerous Glacial Lakes in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru
  3. ↑ a b c d Adam Emmer: Glacier Retreat and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) . In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science . 2017, doi : 10.1093 / acrefore / 9780199389407.013.275 .
  4. ↑ Marcelo A. Somos-Valenzuela: Inundation Modeling of a Potential Glacial Lake Outburst Flood in Huaraz, Peru (=  CRWR Online Reports . No. 14-01 ). March 2014 ( handle.net ).
  5. ↑ A. Juricova and S. Fratianni: Climate change and its relation to the fluctuation in glacier mass balance in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru: a review . In: AUC Geographica . tape 53 , no. 1 , June 2018, doi : 10.14712 / 23361980.2018.10 .
  6. ^ Adam Emmer, Vít Vilímek, Jan Klimeš and Alejo Cochachin: Glacier Retreat, Lakes Development and Associated Natural Hazards in Cordillera Blanca, Peru . In: Wei Shan u. a. (Ed.): Landslides in Cold Regions in the Context of Climate Change . Springer, 2013.
  7. ^ Adam Emmer: Dynamic of Evolution and Hazardousness of Lakes in the Cordillera Blanca (Peru) . Prague 2017, p. 49-51 (Doctoral Thesis).
  8. ↑ Amanda Cuellar, Gonzalo Espinoza, Carlos Galdeano and Denny Rivas: Quilcay Watershed Management Model: Water Resources Planning and Management . 2013 ( utexas.edu [PDF; 1.4 MB ]).
  9. ↑ Denny Rivas. Term report: Glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). Palcacocha Lake, Peru. University of Texas, Austin (2012) (English)
  10. ^ JL Carrivick and FS Tweed: A global assessment of the societal impacts of glacier outburst floods . In: Global and Planetary Change . No. 144th , 2016, doi : 10.1016 / j.gloplacha.2016.07.001 .
  11. ↑ Adam Emmer, Jan Klime, Martin Mergili, Vít Vilímek and Alejo Cochachin: 882 lakes of the Cordillera Blanca: An inventory, classification, evolution and assessment of susceptibility to outburst floods . In: Catena . No. 147 , 2016, doi : 10.1016 / j.catena.2016.07.032 .
  12. ↑ Animations and images on the concrete threat situation on a scientific basis from the University of Texas at Austin
  13. ↑ Mark Carey et al. A .: Integrated Approaches to Adaption and Disaster Risk Reduction in Dynamic Socio-cryospheric Systems . In: Wilfried Haeberli and Colin Whiteman (eds.): Snow and Ice-Related Hazards, Risks, and Disasters . Elsevier, 2015, ISBN 978-0-12-396473-1 , pp. 223-227 .
  14. ↑ Peruvian farmer demands climate compensation from German company In: The Guardian, March 16, 2015
  15. ↑ Peruano reclama a empresa alemana por desglaciación en Huaraz In: La Republica, March 16, 2015
  16. ↑ Damage caused by climate change Peruvian farmer threatens to take legal action against RWE In: Handelsblatt, March 16, 2015
  17. ↑ Christoph Seidler: Lawsuit against German energy company - Now pay, RWE. In: Spiegel-Online. Retrieved May 18, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Climate change: Peruvian farmer takes RWE to court . In: The time . November 30, 2017, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed December 3, 2017]).
  19. ↑ Press release OLG Hamm ( Memento of the original dated December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.olg-hamm.nrw.de
  20. ↑ Peruvian farmer achieves partial success against RWE. In: Zeit-Online. November 13, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2018 .
  21. ↑ CO2 lawsuit against energy company: Peruvian farmer celebrates stage victory against RWE. In: RP Online. November 14, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2018 .
  22. ↑ CO2 lawsuit - Peruvian farmer achieves partial success against RWE . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed November 30, 2017]).