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Lake
A '''lake''' (from Latin ''lacus'') is a terrain feature (or physical feature) that is a considerable inland body of water, not part of the ocean, that is larger and deeper than a pond, and may or may not be moving slowly, and is localized to the bottom of basin (another type of landform or terrain feature) and is fed by a river.Meaning and usage of "lake"
There is considerable uncertainty about defining the difference between lakes and ponds. For example, limnologists have defined lakes as waterbodies which are simply a larger version of a pond, or which have wave action on the shoreline, or where wind induced turbulence plays a major role in mixing the water column. None of these definitions completely excludes ponds and all are difficult to measure. For this reason there has been increasing use made of simple size-based definitions to separate ponds and lakes. In the United Kingdom, for example, the charity Pond Conservation - which works to protect all types of freshwater ecosystem - has defined lakes as waterbodies of or more in area.[Williams P, Whitfield M, Biggs J, Bray S, Fox G, Nicolet P and Sear D. (2004). Comparative biodiversity of rivers, streams, ditches and ponds in an agricultural landscape in Southern England. Biological Conservation 115: 329-341.] Elsewhere, other workers have treated lakes as waterbodies of and above, or and above (see definitions of pond). Charles Elton, one of the founders of ecology, regarded lakes as waterbodies of or more, a value somewhat larger than modern studies would suggest appropriate.[Elton, C.S. and Miller, R.S. (1954). The ecological survey of animal communities: with a practical system of classifying habitats by structural characters. Journal of Ecology, 42, 460-496.] The term "lake" is also used to describe a feature such as Lake Eyre, which is a dry basin most of the time but may become filled under seasonal conditions of heavy rainfall.
Further, in common usage, many lakes bear names ending with the word "pond", and a lesser number of names ending with "lake" are in quasi-technical fact, ponds. In short, there is no current internationally accepted definition of either term across scientific disciplines or political boundaries. Within disciplines, authors are careful to define environmental geographic circumstances, and obviates the need for artificially imposed definitions when most of the worlds' people speak different languages.
In ecology the environment of a lake is referred to as ''lacustrine''. Large lakes are occasionally referred to as "inland seas", and small seas are occasionally referred to as lakes. Smaller lakes tend to put the word "lake" after the name, as in Green Lake (Seattle)|Green Lake, while larger lakes often invert the word order, as in Lake Ontario, at least in North America. In some places, the word "lake" does not correctly appear in the name at all (e.g., Windermere (lake)|Windermere in Cumbria).
Only one lake in the English Lake District is actually called a lake; other than Bassenthwaite Lake, the others are all "Mere (lake)|meres" or "waters". Only six bodies of water in Scotland are known as lakes (the others are lochs): the Lake of Menteith, the Lake of the Hirsel, Pressmennan Lake, Cally Lake near Gatehouse of Fleet, the saltwater Manxman's Lake at Kirkcudbright Bay, and The Lake at Fochabers. Of these only the Lake of Menteith and Cally Lake are natural bodies of fresh water.
Distribution of lakes
The vast majority of lakes on Earth are fresh water, and most lie in the Northern Hemisphere at higher latitudes. More than 60% of the world's lakes are in Canada; this is because of the Drainage system (Geomorphology)#Deranged drainage system|deranged drainage system that dominates the country.
Finland is known as ''The Land of the Thousand Lakes'', (actually there are 187,888 lakes in Finland, of which 60,000 are large),[Statistics Finland] and the U.S. state of Minnesota is known as ''The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes''. The license plates of the Canadian province of Manitoba used to claim "100,000 lakes" as one-upmanship on Minnesota, whose license plates boast of its "10,000 lakes."
Most lakes have a natural outflow in the form of a river or stream, but some do not and lose water solely by evaporation or underground seepage or both. They are termed endorheic lakes (see below).
Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for hydro-electric power generation, recreational purposes, Industry|industrial use, agricultural use, or domestic water supply.
Evidence of extraterrestrial lakes exists; "definitive evidence of lakes filled with methane" was announced by NASA as returned by the Cassini–Huygens|Cassini Probe observing the moon Titan (moon)|Titan, which orbits the planet Saturn.
Globally, lakes are greatly outnumbered by ponds: of an estimated 304 million standing water bodies worldwide, 91% are or less in area (see definition of ponds) [Downing JA, Prairie YT, Cole JJ, Duarte CM, Tranvick LJ, Striegel RG, McDowell WH, Kortelainen P, Melack JM, Middleburg JJ (2006). The global abundance and size distribution of lakes, ponds and impoundments. Limnology and Oceanography, 51: 2388-2397.]. Small lakes are also much more numerous than big lakes: in terms of area, one third of the world's standing water is represented by lakes and ponds of or less. However, large lakes contribute disproportionately to the area of standing water with 122 large lakes of 1,000 square kilometres (390 sq mi, 100,000 ha, 247,000 acres) or more representing about 29% of the total global area of standing inland water.
Origin of natural lakes
There are a number of natural processes that can form lakes. A recent tectonics|tectonic uplift of a mountain range can create bowl-shaped depressions that accumulate water and form lakes. The advance and retreat of glaciers can scrape depressions in the surface where water accumulates; such lakes are common in Scandinavia, Patagonia, Siberia, and Canada. The most notables examples are probably the Great Lakes of North America.
Lakes can also form by means of landslides or by glacial blockages. An example of the latter occurred during the last ice age in the U.S. state of Washington, when a huge lake formed behind a glacial flow; when the ice retreated, the result was an immense flood that created the Dry Falls at Sun Lakes State Park|Sun Lakes, Washington.
salt lake (geography)|Salt lakes (also called saline lakes) can form where there is no natural outlet or where the water evaporates rapidly and the drainage surface of the water table has a higher-than-normal salt content. Examples of salt lakes include Great Salt Lake, the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and the Dead Sea.
Small, crescent-shaped lakes called oxbow lakes can form in river valleys as a result of meandering. The slow-moving river forms a sinuous shape as the outer side of bends are eroded away more rapidly than the inner side. Eventually a horseshoe bend is formed and the river cuts through the narrow neck. This new passage then forms the main passage for the river and the ends of the bend become silted up, thus forming a bow-shaped lake.
Crater lakes are formed in volcanic calderas which fill up with precipitation more rapidly than they empty via evaporation. An example is Crater Lake in Oregon, located within the caldera of Mount Mazama. The caldera was created in a massive volcanic eruption that led to the subsidence of Mount Mazama around 4860 BC.
Some lakes, such as Lake Jackson (Tallahassee, Florida)|Lake Jackson in Florida, USA, come into existence as a result of sinkhole activity.
Lake Vostok is a subglacial lake in Antarctica, possibly the largest in the world. The pressure from the ice atop it and its internal chemical composition mean that, if the lake were drilled into, a fissure could result that would spray somewhat like a geyser.
Most lakes are geologically young and shrinking since the natural results of erosion will tend to wear away the sides and fill the basin. Exceptions are those such as Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika that lie along continental rift valley|rift zones and are created by the crust's subsidence as two plates are pulled apart. These lakes are the oldest and deepest in the world. Lake Baikal, which is 25-30 million years old, is deepening at a faster rate than it is being filled by erosion and may be destined over millions of years to become attached to the global ocean. The Red Sea, for example, is thought to have originated as a rift valley lake.
Types of lakes
- '''Periglacial''': Part of the lake's margin is formed by an ice sheet, ice cap, or glacier, the ice having obstructed the natural drainage of the land.
- '''Subglacial lake|Subglacial''': A lake which is permanently covered by ice. They can occur under glaciers, ice caps, or ice sheets. There are many such lakes, but Lake Vostok in Antarctica is by far the largest. They are kept liquid because the overlying ice acts as a thermal insulator retaining energy introduced to its underside by friction, by water percolating through crevasses, by the pressure from the mass of the ice sheet above, or by geothermal heating below.
- '''Glacial lake''': a lake with origins in a melted glacier.
- '''Artificial''': A lake created by flooding land behind a dam, called an '''impoundment''' or '''Reservoir (water)|reservoir'''; by deliberate human excavation; or by the flooding of an excavation incident to a mineral-extraction operation such as an open-pit mining|open pit mine or quarry. Some of the world's largest lakes are reservoirs.
- '''Endorheic''', also called '''terminal''' or '''closed''': A lake which has no significant outflow, either through rivers or underground diffusion. Any water within an endorheic basin leaves the system only through evaporation or Seepage#Permeability and seepage|seepage. These lakes, such as Lake Eyre in central Australia or the Aral Sea in central Asia, are most common in desert locations.
- '''Meromictic''': A lake which has layers of water which do not intermix. The deepest layer of water in such a lake does not contain any dissolved oxygen. The layers of sediment at the bottom of a meromictic lake remain relatively undisturbed because there are no living organisms to stir them up.
- '''Fjord|Fjord lake''': A lake in a glacially eroded valley that has been eroded below sea level.
- '''Oxbow lake|Oxbow''': A lake which is formed when a wide meander from a stream or a river is cut off to form a lake. They are called "oxbow" lakes due to the distinctive curved shape that results from this process.
- '''Rift lake''': A lake which forms as a result of subsidence along a geological fault in the Earth's tectonic plates. Examples include the Rift Valley lakes of eastern Africa and Lake Baikal in Siberia.
- '''Underground lake|Underground''': A lake which is formed under the surface of the Earth's crust. Such a lake may be associated with caves, aquifers, or spring (hydrosphere)|springs.
- '''Crater lake|Crater''': A lake which forms in a volcanic caldera or crater after the volcano has been inactive for some time. Water in this type of lake may be fresh water|fresh or highly acidic and may contain various dissolved mineral water|minerals. Some also have Geothermal (geology)|geothermal activity, especially if the volcano is merely dormant rather than extinct.
- '''Lava lake|Lava''': A pool of molten lava contained in a volcanic crater or other depression. Lava lakes that have partly or completely solidified are also referred to as lava lakes.
- ''':Category:Former lakes|Former''': A lake which is no longer in existence. Such lakes include prehistoric lakes and lakes which have permanently dried up through evaporation or human intervention. Owens Lake in California, USA, is an example of a former lake. Former lakes are a common feature of the Basin and Range area of southwestern North America.
- '''Seasonal lake''': A lake that exists as a Bodies of water|body of water during only part of the year.
- ''':Category:Shrunken lakes|Shrunken''': Closely related to ''former'' lakes, a shrunken lake is one which has drastically decreased in size over geological time. Lake Agassiz, which once covered much of central North America, is a good example of a shrunken lake. Two notable remnants of this lake are Lake Winnipeg and Lake Winnipegosis.
- '''Eolic''': A lake which forms in a depression created by the activity of the winds.
Characteristics
Lakes have numerous features in addition to lake type, such as drainage basin (also known as catchment area), inflow and outflow, nutrient content, dissolved oxygen, water pollution|pollutants, pH, and sedimentation.
Changes in the level of a lake are controlled by the difference between the input and output compared to the total volume of the lake. Significant input sources are precipitation onto the lake, runoff carried by streams and channels from the lake's drainage basin|catchment area, groundwater channels and aquifers, and artificial sources from outside the catchment area. Output sources are evaporation from the lake, surface and groundwater flows, and any extraction of lake water by humans. As climate conditions and human water requirements vary, these will create fluctuations in the lake level.
Lakes can be also categorized on the basis of their richness in nutrients, which typically affects plant growth. Nutrient-poor lakes are said to be ''oligotrophic'' and are generally clear, having a low concentration of plant life. ''Mesotrophic lakes'' have good clarity and an average level of nutrients. ''Eutrophic'' lakes are enriched with nutrients, resulting in good plant growth and possible algal blooms. ''Hypertrophic'' lakes are bodies of water that have been excessively enriched with nutrients. These lakes typically have poor clarity and are subject to devastating algal blooms. Lakes typically reach this condition due to human activities, such as heavy use of fertilizers in the lake catchment area. Such lakes are of little use to humans and have a poor ecosystem due to decreased dissolved oxygen.
Due to the unusual relationship between water's temperature and its density, lakes form layers called thermoclines, layers of drastically varying temperature relative to depth. Fresh water is most dense at about 4 degrees Celsius (39.2 °F) at sea level. When the temperature of the water at the surface of a lake reaches the same temperature as deeper water, as it does during the cooler months in temperate climates, the water in the lake can mix, bringing oxygen-starved water up from the depths and bringing oxygen down to decomposing sediments. Deep temperate lakes can maintain a reservoir of cold water year-round, which allows some cities to tap that reservoir for deep lake water cooling.
Since the surface water of deep tropical lakes never reaches the temperature of maximum density, there is no process that makes the water mix. The deeper layer becomes oxygen starved and can become saturated with carbon dioxide, or other gases such as sulfur dioxide if there is even a trace of volcano|volcanic activity. Exceptional events, such as earthquakes or landslides, can cause mixing, which rapidly brings up the deep layers and can release a vast cloud of toxic gases which lay trapped in solution in the colder water at the bottom of the lake. This is called a limnic eruption. An example of such a release is Lake Nyos#The 1986 disaster|the disaster at Lake Nyos in Cameroon. The amount of gas that can be dissolved in water is directly related to pressure. As the previously deep water surfaces, the pressure drops, and a vast amount of gas comes out of solution. Under these circumstances even carbon dioxide is toxic because it is heavier than air and displaces it, so it may flow down a river valley to human settlements and cause mass asphyxiation.
The material at the bottom of a lake, or ''lake bed'', may be composed of a wide variety of inorganics, such as silt or sand, and organic material, such as decaying plant or animal matter. The composition of the lake bed has a significant impact on the flora and fauna found within the lake's environs by contributing to the amounts and the types of nutrients available.
Limnology
Limnology is the study of inland bodies of water and related ecosystems. Limnology divides lakes into three zones: the ''littoral zone'', a sloped area close to land; the ''photic zone|photic'' or ''open-water zone'', where sunlight is abundant; and the deep-water ''profundal zone|profundal'' or ''benthic zone'', where little sunlight can reach. The depth to which light can reach in lakes depends on turbidity, determined by the density and size of suspended Particle (ecology)|particles. A particle is in Suspension (chemistry)|suspension if its weight is less than the random turbidity forces acting upon it. These particles can be sedimentary or Biotic material|biological in origin and are responsible for the color of the water. Decaying plant matter, for instance, may be responsible for a yellow or brown color, while algae may cause greenish water. In very shallow water bodies, iron oxides make water reddish brown. Biological particles include algae and detritus. Bottom-dwelling detritivorous fish can be responsible for turbid waters, because they stir the mud in search of food. Piscivorous fish contribute to turbidity by eating plant-eating (planktonivorous) fish, thus increasing the amount of algae (see aquatic trophic cascade). The light depth or transparency is measured by using a ''Secchi disk'', a 20-centimeter (8 in) disk with alternating white and black quadrants. The depth at which the disk is no longer visible is the ''Secchi depth'', a measure of transparency. The Secchi disk is commonly used to test for eutrophication. For a detailed look at these processes, see Lentic System Ecology|lentic system ecology.
A lake moderates the surrounding region's temperature and climate because water has a very high specific heat capacity (4,186 J·kg−1·K−1). In the daytime, a lake can cool the land beside it with local winds, resulting in a sea breeze; in the night, it can warm it with a land breeze.
How lakes disappear
A lake may be infilled with deposited sediment and gradually become a wetland such as a swamp or marsh. Large water plants, typically Phragmites|reeds, accelerate this closing process significantly because they partially decompose to form peat soils that fill the shallows. Conversely, peat soils in a marsh can naturally burn and reverse this process to recreate a shallow lake. Turbid lakes and lakes with many plant-eating fish tend to disappear more slowly. A "disappearing" lake (barely noticeable on a human timescale) typically has extensive plant mats at the water's edge. These become a new habitat for other plants, like Sphagnum|peat moss when conditions are right, and animals, many of which are very rare. Gradually the lake closes, and young peat may form, forming a fen. In lowland river valleys, where a river can meander, the presence of peat is explained by the infilling of historical oxbow lakes. In the very last stages of succession, trees can grow in, eventually turning the wetland into a forest.
Some lakes can disappear seasonally. These are called intermittent lakes and are typically found in Karst|karstic terrain. A prime example of an intermittent lake is Lake Cerknica in Slovenia.
Sometimes a lake will disappear quickly. On 3 June, 2005, in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, a lake called Lake Beloye (Nizhny Novgorod Oblast)|Lake Beloye vanished in a matter of minutes. News sources reported that government officials theorized that this strange phenomenon may have been caused by a shift in the soil underneath the lake that allowed its water to drain through channels leading to the Oka River.[:: The Montana Standard ::]
The presence of ground permafrost is important to the persistence of some lakes. According to research published in the journal ''Science'' ("Disappearing Arctic Lakes," June 2005), thawing permafrost may explain the shrinking or disappearance of hundreds of large Arctic lakes across western Siberia. The idea here is that rising air and soil temperatures thaw permafrost, allowing the lakes to drain away into the ground.
Neusiedler See, located in Austria and Hungary, has dried up many times over the millennia. As of 2005, it is again rapidly losing water, giving rise to the fear that it will be completely dry by 2010.
Some lakes disappear because of human development factors. The shrinking Aral Sea is described as being "murdered" by the diversion for irrigation of the rivers feeding it.
Extraterrestrial lakes
At present the surface of the planet Mars (planet)|Mars is too cold and has too little atmospheric pressure to permit the pooling of liquid water on the surface. Geologic evidence appears to confirm, however, that ancient lakes once formed on the surface. It is also possible that volcanic activity on Mars will occasionally melt subsurface ice creating large lakes. Under current conditions this water would quickly freeze and evaporate unless insulated in some manner, such as by a coating of volcanic ash.
Jupiter (planet)|Jupiter's small moon Io (moon)|Io is volcanically active due to tidal stresses, and as a result sulfur deposits have accumulated on the surface. Some photographs taken during the Galileo spacecraft|Galileo mission appear to show lakes of liquid sulfur on the surface.[
]
There are dark basaltic plains on the Moon, similar to lunar mare|lunar maria but smaller, that are called ''lacus'' (singular ''lacus'', Latin for "lake") because they were thought by early astronomers to be lakes of water.
Photographs taken by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft on July 24, 2006, give strong evidence for the existence of methane or ethene lakes on Saturn's largest moon, Titan (moon)|Titan.
Notable lakes
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- The '''largest''' lake in the world by surface area is the Caspian Sea. With a surface area of 394,299 km² (152,240 mi²), it has a surface area greater than the next six largest lakes combined.
- The '''deepest''' lake is Lake Baikal in Siberia, with a bottom at 1,637 m (5,371 ft). Its '''mean depth''' is also the highest in the world (749 m)
It is the world's '''largest freshwater lake by volume''' (23,000 km³), and the second longest (about 630 km from tip to tip).
- The '''longest''' freshwater lake is Lake Tanganyika, with a length of about 660 km (measured along the lake's center line).
It is also the second deepest in the world (1,470 m) after lake Baikal.
- The world's '''oldest''' lake is Lake Baikal, followed by Lake Tanganyika (Tanzania).
- The world's '''highest''' lake is an unnamed pool on Ojos del Salado at .[Andes Website - Information about Ojos del Salado volcano, a high mountain in South America and the World's highest volcano] The Lhagba Pool in Tibet at comes second.[Highest Lake]
- The world's '''highest''' commercially navigable lake is Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia at . It is also the largest freshwater (and second largest overall) lake in South America.
- The world's '''lowest''' lake is the Dead Sea, bordering Israel, Jordan at 418 m (1,371 ft) below sea level. It is also one of the lakes with highest salt concentration.
- Lake Superior is the '''largest freshwater lake by surface area''' (82,414 km²). It is also the third largest by water volume. However, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan form a single hydrological system with surface area 117,350 km², sometimes designated Lake Michigan-Huron. All these are part of the Great Lakes of North America.
- Lake Huron has the '''longest lake coastline''' in the world: about 2980 km, excluding the coastline of its many inner islands.
- The largest island in a freshwater lake is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, with a surface area of 2,766 km². Lake Manitou, located on Manitoulin Island, is the largest lake on an island in a freshwater lake.
- The largest lake located on an island is Nettilling Lake on Baffin Island.
- The largest lake in the world that drains naturally in two directions is Wollaston Lake.
- Lake Toba on the island of Sumatra is located in what is probably the largest resurgent caldera on Earth.
- The largest lake located completely within the boundaries of a single city is Lake Wanapitei in the city of Greater Sudbury|Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Before the current city boundaries came into effect in 2001, this status was held by Lake Ramsey, also in Sudbury.
- Lake Enriquillo in Dominican Republic is the only saltwater lake in the world inhabited by crocodiles.
- Lake of the Ozarks is one of the United States largest man made lakes, created by the Bagnell Dam [Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, the premier vacation spot in the Midwest]
Largest by continent
The largest lakes (surface area) by continent are:
- '''Africa''' - Lake Victoria, also the second largest freshwater lake on Earth. It is one of the Great Lakes of Africa.
- '''Antarctica''' - Lake Vostok (subglacial)
- '''Asia''' - Caspian Sea, also the largest on Earth. However, Europe-Asia border is conventionally drawn through it - the largest entirely in Asia is Lake Baikal.
- '''Australia''' - Lake Eyre
- '''Europe''' - Lake Ladoga, followed by Lake Onega, both located in northwestern Russia.
- '''North America''' - Lake Michigan-Huron
- '''South America''' - Lake Titicaca, which is also the highest navigable body of water on Earth at 3,821 m above sea level.
Note: Lake Maracaibo is considered by far the largest lake in South America. It, however, lies at sea level with a relatively wide opening to sea, so it is better described as a bay.
See also
References
External links
- Lakes Database
- Lake Classification Systems
- UKLakes Database
- LV Lakes Database
- Midwest Lakes Policy Center
- Kashmir lakes
- Ponds and Lakes : definitions
- Some interesting Islands and Lakes
Category:Lakes|*
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Related Images- Io exhibits extraordinary variations in color and brightness as shown in this color-enhanced image.
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