Since 2000, the invasive quagga mussel has smothered the bottom of Lake Michigan almost from shore to shore, and their numbers are estimated at 900trillion. Studies conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency have shown that when the mercury comes in contact with many of the bacteria and compounds in the fresh water, it forms the compound methyl mercury, which has a much greater impact on human health than elemental mercury due to a higher propensity for absorption. [2] When a second fault line, the Saint Lawrence rift, formed approximately 570million years ago,[14] the basis for Lakes Ontario and Erie was created, along with what would become the Saint Lawrence River. And one of the differences is the wave periods and steepness. Several species of crayfish have also been introduced that may contend with native crayfish populations. It connects the Hudson River drainage to Lake Erie (actually the Niagara River upstream of the Falls): Just because the Caspian sea is named "sea" doesn't mean it's considered a sea. Other protective legislation was passed, but enforcement remained difficult. A valley was formed providing a basin that eventually became modern day Lake Superior. Between 2012 and 2019 more than 160 new species have been discovered.[77]. The Black Sea was part of the same ocean, but has a much lower inflow than it loses to evaporation - hence the Black Sea has a salinity much higher than the oceans, while the Caspian Sea has a salinity significantly lower than the oceans. The Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States get pummeled by hurricanes every year, and after California finishes its transformation into a barren, sun-baked hellscape that will make the Dust. Why is the sea salinity high in the Mediterannean and Red Sea and low in Indonesia and Malaysia? A wide range of rock types and deposits are found in the Great Lakes because of their broad area and glacial origin. Many other water sports are practiced on the lakes such as yachting, sea kayaking, diving, kitesurfing, powerboating, and lake surfing. An alternate track is via the Illinois River (from Chicago), to the Mississippi, up the Ohio, and then through the TennesseeTombigbee Waterway (a combination of a series of rivers and lakes and canals), to Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Hundreds of ships have met their end on the lakes. These storms mainly occur during the night, and the systems sometimes have small embedded tornadoes, but more often straight-line winds accompanied by intense lightning. Corrections? The Great Lakes Waterway ( GLW) is a system of natural channels and artificial canals which enable navigation between the North American Great Lakes. From me looking at maps, excluding the Caspian sea and the Great Lakes, I see these in common for seas and lakes: So back to these 2 bodies of water in question. Individually, the lakes rank among the 14 largest in the world (see table). This designation is not universal. Concerns over diversion of Lake water are of concern to both Americans and Canadians. "[90] The commission reported that all urban sewage treatment systems on the U.S. side of the lakes had implemented secondary treatment, as had all on the Canadian side except for five small systems. The goby is considered undesirable for several reasons: it preys upon bottom-feeding fish, overruns optimal habitat, spawns multiple times a season, and can survive poor water quality conditions.[73]. [108] Lake Champlain briefly became the sixth Great Lake of the United States on March 6, 1998, when President Clinton signed Senate Bill 927. MathJax reference. [81] Presque Isle Bay in Pennsylvania is formally listed as in recovery, as is Ontario's Spanish Harbour. In 1884, the New York Fish Commission determined that the dumping of sawmill waste (chips and sawdust) had impacted fish populations. In the post-glacial period, evaporation, and drainage have generally been balanced, making the levels of the lakes relatively constant. They protect against frost during transitional weather and keep the summertime temperatures cooler than further inland. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2019 passed as Public Law 116-294 on January 5, 2021. Yes, tsunamis have been documented on all five of the Great Lakesat least, meteotsunamis, which have the same characteristics as tsunamis created by seismic events such as earthquakes and. From the interior to the outlet at the Saint Lawrence River, water flows from Superior to Huron and Michigan, southward to Erie, and finally northward to Lake Ontario. Word order in a sentence with two clauses, Connected to the rest of the ocean via either an isthmus, strait, river, or [82], Phosphate detergents were historically a major source of nutrient to the Great Lakes algae blooms in particular in the warmer and shallower portions of the system such as Lake Erie, Saginaw Bay, Green Bay, and the southernmost portion of Lake Michigan. Dozens of other Areas of Concern have received partial cleanups such as the Rouge River (Michigan) and Waukegan Harbor (Illinois). Their drainage basin of about 295,710 square miles (which includes the areas of the lakes themselves and their connecting waterways) extends approximately 690 miles from north to south and about 860 miles from Lake Superior in the west to Lake Ontario in the east. So they are in no direct risk of rising sea level. [58] The lakes have a moderating effect on the climate; they can also increase precipitation totals and produce lake effect snowfall.[57]. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. [124] The iron ore and much of the stone and coal are used in the steel industry. No, the Saint Lawrence River has. The age of the Great Lakes is still not definitely determined. The lakes contain about 84% of the surface freshwater of North America;[48] if the water were evenly distributed over the entire continent's land area, it would reach a depth of 5 feet (1.5 meters). Published on July 28th, 2015. Commercial tug-and-barge traffic on these waterways is heavy.[33]. The entire crew of 23 drowned, except one, Charles Pitz, who floated on a life raft for almost seven hours. These include the delicate opossum shrimp (order mysida), the deepwater scud (a crustacean of the order amphipoda), two types of copepods, and the deepwater sculpin (a spiny, large-headed fish). The lakes are prone to sudden and severe storms, in particular in the autumn, from late October until early December. Not coincidentally, this status allows neighboring states to apply for additional federal research and education funds allocated to these national resources. @Sean Humans might be able of doing a lot of things, yes. The surrounding region is called the Great Lakes region, which includes the Great Lakes Megalopolis. Overall, this means it's not going to get saltier over time - it keeps pretty much constant salinity, which is pretty much zero compared to the oceans. A large bloom does not necessarily mean the cyanobacteria will produce toxins", said Michael McKay, of the University of Windsor. The sea lampreyan ancient Atlantic fish that wreaked havoc on the Great Lakesmay be America's first destructive invasive species. The lakes are critical components of the regional economies in both the United States and Canada. Do lakes tend to have elliptical shapes more often than circular shapes? The lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers and contain approximately 35,000 islands. Sailing is a great and enjoyable activity on both the ocean and lake. [12] The largest among them is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, the largest island in any inland body of water in the world. Ontario is the most tightly regulated, with its outflow controlled by the Moses-Saunders Power Dam, which explains its consistent historical levels. Water Diversions. Fortunately, at that point, no country was powerful enough to force everyone to go ahead with that plan - and by the time they were, it was far easier (and faster) to just conquer the rest of Europe and start a massive genocide. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Baraka Farrington/Google. Since that time, the eight Great Lakes Governors and the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec have negotiated the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement[129] and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact[130] that would prevent most future diversion proposals and all long-distance ones. [106] With these two canals an all-inland water route was provided between New York City and New Orleans. Because of the location of the coal fields in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the general northeast track of the Appalachian Mountains, railroads naturally developed shipping routes that went due north to ports such as Erie, Pennsylvania and Ashtabula, Ohio. :) Sounds far less interesting. Laws, Robert R. Bidigare, John E. Dore, et al., Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, (1998), Effect of Phytoplankton Cell Geometry on Carbon Isotopic Fractionation, Vol. The unstable West Antarctic ice cap and Greenland ice caps combined would only get us about halfway there. [49] This is enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U.S. states to a uniform depth of 9.5 feet (2.9m). Earth Science Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for those interested in the geology, meteorology, oceanography, and environmental sciences. Because of their sea-like characteristics, such as rolling waves, sustained winds, strong currents, great depths, and distant horizons, the five Great Lakes have long been called inland seas. This causes cooler summers and warmer winters than would otherwise occur in the region. When the sailing ships gave way to steamships, they were called "steamboats"the same term used on the Mississippi. ", Explorer says Griffin shipwreck may be found, "L.R. The Great Lakes DO in fact experience tidal effects, though they are greatly diminished by barometric factors and wind. The North American Great Lakes are unique among the world's large lakes in that their basins are linked together and form one continuous drainage basin. Both the province of Ontario and the state of Michigan include in their boundaries portions of four of the lakes: The province of Ontario does not border Lake Michigan, and the state of Michigan does not border Lake Ontario. The Great Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Erie make up the largest body of fresh water on Earth, accounting for one-fifth of the freshwater surface on the planet at 6. The largest Lake Erie bloom to date occurred in 2015, exceeding the severity index at 10.5 and in 2011 at a 10. [68][69] According to the Inland Seas Education Association, on average a new species enters the Great Lakes every eight months. Several Native American populations (Paleo-indians) inhabited the region around 10,000 BC, after the end of the Wisconsin glaciation. [83] Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria blooms,[84] have been problematic on Lake Erie since 2011. The ancient rocks of the Canadian Shield cover part of the Superior and Huron basins, while Paleozoic sedimentary rocks make up the remainder of the basins. The weight of the ice sheet exerted enormous pressures on the Earths crust. The present configuration of the Great Lakes basin is the result of the movement of massive glaciers through North America, a process that began about one million years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch. Those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as "the lower lakes", because they are farther south. To easily remember their names, think of the word HOMES - it is made up of the first letter of each lake. @Dan Neely: As I said, barring serious changes in human behavior (and assuming it's not already too late for those changes to have effects), sea level rise will eventually join the Caspian to the Black Sea. In 2010, L.R. Land below the glaciers "rebounded" as it was uncovered. Together, they constitute the greatest freshwater system on Earth, covering an area larger than Texas and about half the size of Alaska. [80] Discharge of toxic substances has been sharply reduced. An international ferry across Lake Ontario from Rochester, New York, to Toronto ran during 2004 and 2005 but is no longer in operation. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. The Great Salt Lake, in the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest saline lake in North America. Thanks for contributing an answer to Earth Science Stack Exchange! Photosynthesis carried out by diatoms constitutes about one fifth of the total photosynthesis.[where?] Posted Monday at 11:11 PM. Moreover, between 1879 and 1899, reported whitefish harvests declined from some 24.3million pounds (11millionkg) to just over 9million pounds (4millionkg). The eastern shore of Lake Michigan and the southern shore of Lake Erie have many successful wineries because of the lakes' moderating effects, as do the large commercial fruit and wine growing areas of the Niagara Peninsula located between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The Dead Sea in the Middle East isn't called "Dead" for nothing it is too salty for aquatic life! Selected by USA Today as one of the "51 Great American Beaches," North Beach is located on the Lake Michigan waterfront. International treaties regulate large diversions. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. More vessels have been lost in the Whitefish Point area than any other part of Lake Superior. Although the lakes contain a large percentage of the world's fresh water, the Great Lakes supply only a small portion of U.S. drinking water on a national basis. As the ice sheet retreated, low-lying, glacially depressed areas, such as the region to the east of Georgian Bay, were exposed. The rasping mouth of the sea lamprey, an infamous Great Lakes invader. The Caspian Sea is thought to be the remnant of an ocean that got cut off from the ocean system (similar to how the Mediterranean might have been periodically cut off and re-connected to the oceans) due to tectonic uplift and a drop in sea levels. For the African Great Lakes, see, Large bays and related significant bodies of water, "Evolution of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement", Paul Muldoon and Lee Botts, Michigan State University Press, 2005, Burkhardt Steffen, Amoroso Gabi, Riebesell Ulf, Sltemeyer Dieter, (2001), CO. Brian N. Popp, Edward A. https://www.britannica.com/place/Great-Lakes, National Wildlife Federation - Great Lakes, North America, LiveScience - Great Facts About the Five Great Lakes, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Great Lakes, Great Lakes - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Great Lakes - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Risk of severe storms persists from Texas to Great Lakes. Unsurprisingly, the glacier-sourced melt water wasn't very salty. Ultimately, the difference is not an oceanographic or hydrological one, but a semantic and cultural one. It is also one of the worlds largest bodies of fresh water. The large lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. In 2007, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced that it had found the wreckage of Cyprus, a 420-foot (130m) long, century-old ore carrier. In fact, some lakes, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah, are saltier than the oceans. [102][103] The peoples of the Great Lakes traded with the Hopewell culture from around 1000 AD, as copper nuggets have been extracted from the region and fashioned into ornaments and weapons in the mounds of Southern Ohio. How Lakes Are Formed All lakes fill bowl-shaped depressions in the Earth 's surface, called . The area of each rectangle is proportionate to the volume of each lake. In fact, two major suppliers of fish in the 1830s were the fur trading companies Hudson's Bay Company and the American Fur Company. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Studies in the Lake Superior region indicate that a river system and valleys formed by water erosion existed before the Ice Age. Great Lakes, chain of deep freshwater lakes in east-central North America comprising Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. But many species remain a mystery", Recovery of Lake Erie Walleye a Success Story, Historical Perspecivie Of The Phosphate Detergent Conflict, "Large Lake Erie algal bloom nearing Colchester tested for toxicity", "Lake Erie Water Quality Past Present and Future", "14th Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality", New Report: Solving Region's Sewage Crisis Will Create Jobs, Restore Great Lakes, "Antidepressants are finding their way into fish brains", "U of T researchers discover microplastics in all samples of Great Lakes fish", "Industrial plastic is spilling into Great Lakes, and no one's regulating it, experts warn", "How a fleet of robots could help solve the Great Lakes plastic pollution problem", "Monitoring algal blooms in the Great Lakes Basin", "Evidence for early hunters beneath the Great Lakes", "Great Lakes Fleet Page Vessel Feature Burns Harbor", Lake Champlain, The Sixth Great Lake? There are five Great Lakes in North America: Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Erie. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. While enormous public investments such as the Deep Tunnel projects in Chicago and Milwaukee have greatly reduced the frequency and volume of these events, they have not been eliminated. It is a source of pride for both countries that there are no fortifications or warships along the boundary. [28] The second-largest island is Isle Royale in Lake Superior. The Great Lakes receive their water supply from precipitation, which increases from west to east and from north to south. It is estimated that nearly 40 million people in the region rely on drinking water from the Great Lakes. As a chain of lakes and rivers, they connect the east-central interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. By taking CO2 out of the water to photosynthesize, diatoms help to stabilize the pH of the water, as CO2 would react with water to produce carbonic acid. [12] There are also several thousand smaller lakes, often called "inland lakes", within the basin.[13]. The Great Lakes are undoubtedly our state's most famous bodies of water, but Michigan is home to plenty of great rivers and inland lakes, too! This massive saline lake, which is nearly the same size as Japan, borders five countries: Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Iran. Drainage through the Ottawa River valley ceased, and outflow from the upper lakes was established by way of the St. Clair and Detroit rivers into Lake Erie. Many of the larger cities owe their existence to their position on the lakes as a freight destination as well as for being a magnet for immigrants. [66] The mollusks are efficient filter feeders, competing with native mussels and reducing available food and spawning grounds for fish. The five Great Lakes, as seen from left to right in a springtime satellite image, are Lakes . A similar phenomenon allows wineries to flourish in the Finger Lakes region of New York, as well as in Prince Edward County, Ontario, on Lake Ontario's northeast shore. This temperature buffering produces areas known as "fruit belts", where fruit can be produced that is typically grown much farther south. Lake Superior, bordered by Ontario, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, is the northernmost and . Foreign boats are known as "salties". The Erie Canal did not connect them to the St. Lawrence River (which was and is the natural outlet of the lakes to the sea). [100] There is a positive correlation between the surface area and the chlorophyll concentration of diatom cells.[101]. Local sewage treatment authorities then must release untreated effluent, a mix of rainwater and sewage, into local water bodies. [52] Traversing the shoreline of all the lakes would cover a distance roughly equivalent to travelling half-way around the world at the equator. This is similar to the effect of warmer air dropping snow as it passes over mountain ranges. [89] The International Joint Commission in 2009 summarized the change: "Since the early 1970s, the level of treatment to reduce pollution from waste water discharges to the Great Lakes has improved considerably. [71] The ruffe, a small percid fish from Eurasia, became the most abundant fish species in Lake Superior's Saint Louis River within five years of its detection in 1986. The Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River.[126]. [35] The surface area of the five primary lakes combined is roughly equal to the size of the United Kingdom, while the surface area of the entire basin (the lakes and the land they drain) is about the size of the UK and France combined.
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