Tag: lake

Water levels on Italy’s Lake Garda drop to 15-year low

SIRMIONE, Italy (AFP) – The pedalos lie far from the water’s edge and the flat stone slabs around the Sirmione peninsula are exposed after drought reduced the level of Italy’s Lake Garda to a 15-year low. Italy’s largest lake, a major tourist destination nestled among mountains in the north of the country, is suffering like many others from months without rain. “We are currently at 30 centimetres (12 inches) above the (benchmark) hydrographic level,” compared […]

Ohrid Lake region avoids UNESCO ‘in danger’ list

SKOPJE, Republic of North Macedonia (AFP) — The Lake Ohrid region, shared by North Macedonia and Albania, avoided being listed as an endangered world heritage site by UN’s culture agency UNESCO on Sunday, despite concerns about urbanisation and pollution. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee gave the two Balkan nations two more years to implement recommendations to improve the region’s conservation and welcomed efforts undertaken so far. Albania and North Macedonia should by February 2023 submit a report […]

Climate change turning US mountain lakes green with algae

by Phineas RUECKERT PARIS, France (AFP) — Global warming is turning clear mountain lakes green in the western United States because of an increase in algae blooms “without historical precedent”, researchers reported on Tuesday. The concentration of algae in two remote mountain lakes more than doubled in the past 70 years, researchers at Colorado State University found. Their results, published in the British Royal Society journal Proceedings B, highlight the potentially harmful effects of climate […]

Capsized Indonesian ferry spotted at bottom of lake: officials

SIMALUNGUN, Indonesia (AFP) — An Indonesian ferry that capsized and sunk with scores of people aboard has been found by search teams combing the depths of one of the world’s deepest lakes, authorities said Friday. The vessel was believed to be operating illegally with no manifest and an insufficient number of life jackets when it went down on Lake Toba, a picturesque tourist destination in Sumatra. Authorities have struggled to pinpoint the exact number onboard […]

5.7-magnitude quake strikes Lake Tanganyika region: USGS

JOHANNESBERG, South Africa (AFP) — A 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit near Africa’s Lake Tanganyika early Friday, the US Geological Survey said, with the epicenter in northern Zambia. The quake, which was 10 kilometres (six miles) deep, struck at 00:32 GMT about 45 kilometres from the Zambian town of Kaputa, which lies near the borders of Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In December 2005, a powerful earthquake struck the Lake Tanganyika region of East Africa. […]

Nearly 2,000 set Guinness floating record in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AFP) — Nearly 2,000 people joined hands in a salty lake in Argentina on Monday, setting a new Guinness world record for the most people floating while connected. Experts from the Guinness Book of Records certified that 1,941 people free-floated in a line simultaneously for 30 seconds in Lake Epecuen, southeast of Buenos Aires, according to a video published by local authorities. The previous record was set in 2014 in Sun Moon […]

14 children drown in Russia lake tragedy

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — At least 14 children on a summer camp in northeast Russia drowned when their boats capsized in a storm on a lake, investigators said Sunday. The accident happened overnight on Lake Syamozero, close to the border with Finland, according to Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s investigative committee. “The investigators have finished examining the bodies of the 14 victims. They said that they were all born between 2002 and 2004. There […]

Artist Christo’s latest installation, ‘Floating Piers’, set to open on Italy’s Lake Iseo

SULZANO, Italy (Reuters) — After under two years of planning but a personal cost of 15 million euros ($17 million), Bulgarian-born artist Christo, is set to inaugurate his latest art installation, this time in Italy. The project is entitled ‘The Floating Piers’, and it will allow people to literally walk on water. With a bird’s-eye view from the mountains overlooking Lake Iseo, 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of Milan, the concept of the 81-year-old’s latest […]