Before-and-After Pictures: Underwater Church Reappears

[n2doc]

Photographs by Diario La Nacion, Reuters (top) and Jorge Silva, Reuters (bottom)

You might call it an act of God. A severe drought in Venezuela has exposed a church—pictured in 2008 (left) and on February 21, 2010—that had been inundated when a hydroelectric dam was built in 1985.
The 82-foot-tall (25-meter-tall) church and the Andean town of Potosi (see map) were flooded to establish the Uribante-Caparo water reservoir to power the plant, which is currently operating at just 7 percent of its capacity, according to the Reuters service. (Get news on the global water crisis.)
The church is now an ominous symbol of energy shortages in the country, which gets around 68 percent of its power from hydroelectricity, Reuters reported. The droughts spurred Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to declare an energy emergency in February.
In a little over a year, the Venezuelan church went from almost fully submerged (pictured in January 2009) to bone dry (February 21, 2010).
The drought that caused the rapid decline has been linked to El Niño, a climate phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years and changes worldwide weather patterns. During an El Niño event—such as the current one, which began in summer 2009—the Pacific Ocean warms up near equatorial South America and disrupts large-scale atmospheric circulation.



http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/photogalleries/100305-church-exposed-drought-venezuela-pictures/

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Fascinating...thanks.

[fl_dem]

2. this is hauntingly beautiful.....thnx

[Shell Beau]

3. Wow! Those are beautiful pictures, and it is quite a beautiful church.

[TwilightGardener]

4. Cool. Wish there was a way to save it permanently.

[ensho]

5. kick

nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Holy crap! (Pun intended)

BTW, good luck blaming THAT on Chavez.

[mdmc]

7. thanks for the pics

[progressoid]

8. Um, I might NOT call it an act of God.

Interesting (and troubling) story though.