Blåhaj PieFedQuebec’s Lake Rouge vanished – but was it a freak natural event or caused by human actions?
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www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/10/quebecs-l…
A massive mud plain cutting north-east made it clear where the water had gone. It had travelled almost 10km overland into a bigger lake. Amazingly, no one had been hurt in this gigantic – was it a mudslide? A flood? Nobody was sure what to call it.
Decrease in vegetation by wildfire and logging caused higher melt flows and weakening of soils, eventually leading to soil failure during a spring melt, allowing the lake to drain. Government says it was natural (surprise), locals and scientists disagree.
Sounds like the soil failure taking place was natural under those conditions, but the conditions themselves were not entirely natural. Situations like that make weasel-wording easy.
Spoiler: It was natural.