Must have been a slow news day at the Guardian. This sort of thing happens regularly when a glacier lies over a continental divide. It blocks the flow of the river, and when the glacier recedes, the old channel opens up.
The Minnesota River is not particularly large, but has some pretty substantial palisade. The land in northern MN and NE ND normally drains into Hudson Bay, but that was blocked by glaciers during the last Ice Age, so a huge lake formed, that eventually overflowed the continental divide and drained down the Minnesota River. That's what cut that big river valley and palisades.
Meanwhile, the glaciers receded, and Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg are what's left of glacial Lake Agassiz.
I believe Yellowstone Lake has also changed drainage basins in the geologic past, going down the Snake River to the Pacific. In Utah, the Weber River and Provo River, which go through Ogden and Provo respectively, start literally a stone's throw apart in the Uintahs. When there were glaciers up there, it is almost certain that the headwaters of one of those rivers flowed into the other river for a time.
This sort of thing happens totally separate and apart from climate change. This particular glacier is likely receding more rapidly because of climate change, but that just affects the timing of when the river would flow to a different drainage basin. Both glaciers and earthquakes near continental divides can switch the flow of rivers from one drainage basin to another.
Oh, and the river in the article didn't vanish. It changed course. Even The Guardian is not above resorting to click bait headlines.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2017 09:03AM by Brother Of Jerry.
I was up at Glacier last year and they are worried that with the rise in temperatures more moss is going to grow on the rocks and kill the fish? But global warming is more unsubstantiated fears from the left. It's on everyday on public radio international. 91.9 FM. Putting a hault on progress throwing people out of work. Let's be glad for a new administration that want's prosperity for Americans instead of environmental bans on everything.