they have been logged before, changing their composition). [106] With these two canals an all-inland water route was provided between New York City and New Orleans. Chase (Unsplash: Link) Water in the Great Lakes comes from thousands of streams and rivers covering a watershed area of approximately 520,587 square kilometres (or 201,000 square miles). The lakes tend to moderate seasonal temperatures to some degree but not with as large an influence as do large oceans; they absorb heat and cool the air in summer, then slowly radiate that heat in autumn. gulf, Endorheic? The Great Lakes are a stunning feat of nature. So why are the Great Lakes not considered a freshwater sea when other than the freshwater, they are essentially like any other sea? The sea lampreyan ancient Atlantic fish that wreaked havoc on the Great Lakesmay be America's first destructive invasive species. Barges from middle North America were able to reach the Atlantic Ocean from the Great Lakes when the Welland Canal opened in 1824 and the later Erie Canal opened in 1825. The glaciers undoubtedly scoured existing valleys, widening and deepening them and radically changing the drainage of the area. [32] Larger ships are confined to working within the lakes. Then there are endorheic seas? No list of Great Lakes beaches in Wisconsin is complete without mentioning North Beach. [citation needed], Though contrary to federal laws in both countries, those treatment system upgrades have not yet eliminated combined sewer overflow events. For instance, western Michigan has apple orchards, and cherry orchards are cultivated adjacent to the lake shore as far north as the Grand Traverse Bay. At one high-water stage, the waters of the Huron and Michigan basin formed one large lakeLake Algonquin. They played a central role in the European colonization and development of North America and for decades have attracted people and industry; Lakes Erie and Ontario and the southern portion of Lake Michigan are now ringed with large population concentrations. By the mid-1980s, most jurisdictions bordering the Great Lakes had controlled phosphate detergents. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Worldwide, hundreds of marine species have been . Like anything else, sailing in these water bodies have their advantages and disadvantages, so it's advisable to try sailing in both and find which . Water quality testing was underway in August 2019. As a chain of lakes and rivers, they connect the east-central interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. Water Diversions. "Chapter 1:Introduction to Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River", "Movement Would Thrust Greatness on Lake St. Clair", "State of the Great Lakes 2009 Highlights (PDF)", "Lakes Michigan, Huron hit record low water level", "Lake Michigan-Huron Water Levels from Harbor Beach, MI - 9075014 2020 - 2021", "Genesee, Oakland counties adopt historic name for water group", "Ice Volcanoes of the Lake Erie Shore Near Dunkirk, New York, U.S.A.", "Origin and evolution of the Great Lakes", "Lake levels report weighs Great Lakes basin's glacial legacy", "Great Lakes Water Levels Sensitive To Climate Change", "Gobies up, alewives down in Lake Michigan", "Predicting Invasive Species in the Great Lakes", "Briefing Paper: Great Lakes Nonindigenous Invasive Species", "Risk Assessment for Asian Carps in Canada", "Deepwater demersal fish community collapse in Lake Huron", "Minuscule microbes wield enormous power over the Great Lakes. The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, as it's known, is visible from space, stretching like a sea monster across the ocean, with its nose in the Gulf of Mexico and its tail in the mouth of the Congo. The largest Lake Erie bloom to date occurred in 2015, exceeding the severity index at 10.5 and in 2011 at a 10. Lake Superior is the largest of the five Great Lakes of North America. Why do men's bikes have high bars where you can hit your testicles while women's bikes have the bar much lower? The largest postglacial lake, Nipissing, occupied the basins of Huron, Michigan, and Superior. They protect against frost during transitional weather and keep the summertime temperatures cooler than further inland. Several Native American populations (Paleo-indians) inhabited the region around 10,000 BC, after the end of the Wisconsin glaciation. It's clean and clear freshwater with waves and white sand, cold winters and hot summers" In contrast, the Great Lakes have an outflow into the ocean, which carries away a lot of the dissolved salts and sediment. 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. 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! Immigrants often formed their own communities, and some areas have a pronounced ethnicity, such as Dutch, German, Polish, Finnish, and many others. Ocean waves can get square, though, usually in shallower water (less than 50 ft.), and when a new wind direction first picks up. Background Geology of the North Bay area. Recommended Posts. Most lakes support a lot of aquatic life, but not all. To easily remember their names, think of the word HOMES - it is made up of the first letter of each lake. Has the cause of a rocket failure ever been mis-identified, such that another launch failed due to the same problem? Diatoms acquire inorganic carbon through passive diffusion of CO2 and HCO3, and use carbonic anhydrase mediated active transport to speed up this process. The Great Lakes Waterway connects all the lakes; the smaller Saint Lawrence Seaway connects the lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Only barges can access the Illinois Waterway system providing access to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River. Now, let's see how the Great Lakes look under these criteria. Some icebreakers ply the lakes, keeping the shipping lanes open through other periods of ice on the lakes. 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). If they were in fact seas, wouldn't they then become Small Seas rather than Great Lakes? [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. The Great Lakes system includes five large lakes, one small lake, four connecting channels, and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Ocean Connections is fortunate to be located in Milwaukee, WI near one of the world's great freshwater resources, Lake Michigan. The RushBagot Treaty signed in 1818, after the War of 1812 and the later Treaty of Washington eventually led to a complete disarmament of naval vessels in the Great Lakes. North Beach. No matter your sailing style, these water bodies are excellent if you want to spend a day, a weekend, or even months sailing. Estimates range from 7,000 to 32,000 years of age. The Great LakesSuperior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontarioform the largest surface of freshwater in the world, comprising more than 94,250 square miles (244,106 square kilometers) of east-central North America. 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. Image credit: Ted Lawrence/Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Tourism and recreation are major industries on the Great Lakes. 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. On whose turn does the fright from a terror dive end? Mercury has been known for health related problems such as birth defects in humans and animals, and the near extinction of eagles in the Great Lakes region. Unsurprisingly, the glacier-sourced melt water wasn't very salty. [120] In 2008, deep sea divers in Lake Ontario found the wreck of the 1780 Royal Navy warship HMSOntario in what has been described as an "archaeological miracle". Did the Golden Gate Bridge 'flatten' under the weight of 300,000 people in 1987? Another operation cropped up in Georgian Bay, Canadian waters plentiful with trout as well as whitefish. "Sea" versus "lake" versus "just part of the ocean" is a bit fuzzy, but there are two things that are universal about seas: Now, let's see how the Great Lakes look under these criteria. Native habitats and ecoregions in the Great Lakes region include: Logging of the extensive forests in the Great Lakes region removed riparian and adjacent tree cover over rivers and streams, which provide shade, moderating water temperatures in fish spawning grounds. Not surprising that the Great Lakes are considered lakes, not seas. [70][needs update], The alewife first entered the system west of Lake Ontario via 19th-century canals. Vessels sailing north on Lake Michigan are considered "upbound" even though they are sailing toward its effluent current.[18]. The Great Lakes have been observed to help intensify storms, such as Hurricane Hazel in 1954, and the 2011 Goderich, Ontario tornado, which moved onshore as a tornadic waterspout. How Lakes Are Formed All lakes fill bowl-shaped depressions in the Earth 's surface, called . No, the Saint Lawrence River has. Nonetheless, both nations maintained coast guard vessels in the Great Lakes. Do lakes tend to have elliptical shapes more often than circular shapes? There are five Great Lakes in North America: Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Erie. The surrounding region is called the Great Lakes region, which includes the Great Lakes Megalopolis. Under customary international law as reflected in the 1982 Law o Rather large severe thunderstorms covering wide areas are well known in the Great Lakes during mid-summer; these Mesoscale convective complexes or MCCs[59] can cause damage to wide swaths of forest and shatter glass in city buildings. Caught in a 1679 storm while trading furs between Green Bay and Michilimacinac, she was lost with all hands aboard. The area of each rectangle is proportionate to the volume of each lake. I have no idea how this would rank up to other seas like the Mediterranean Sea in area but it would be one of the world's few freshwater seas (Joining the Sea of Galilee). The large depressions got filled with melt water (at the end of the last ice age) and rainwater over time, as is typical of many other large/deep lakes. the Black Sea, this will not increase the salinity, since the salts are lost through the outflow, rather than being concentrated by evaporation. The prevailing winds from the west pick up the air and moisture from the lake surface, which is slightly warmer in relation to the cold surface winds above. [99] Large diatoms require more carbon uptake than smaller diatoms. In 1998, the Canadian company Nova Group won approval from the Province of Ontario to withdraw 158,000,000 U.S. gallons (600,000m3) of Lake Superior water annually to ship by tanker to Asian countries. Several rivers, tributaries, and manmade canals connect the lakes and provide a major transportation route that links the inland areas with the Atlantic Ocean.It is estimated that more than 85 million people reside in the Great Lakes Megalopolis region, including some human settlements along the St . The fishing industry expanded particularly in the waters associated with the fur trade that connect Lake Erie and Lake Huron. Under the U.S. "Water Resources Development Act",[128] diversion of water from the Great Lakes Basin requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors through the Great Lakes Commission, which rarely occurs. The Great Lakes are connected by close to 5,000 tributaries: a series of smaller lakes, rivers, streams, and straits flowing into larger bodies of water. A large bloom does not necessarily mean the cyanobacteria will produce toxins", said Michael McKay, of the University of Windsor. The Niagara Escarpment follows the contour of the Great Lakes between New York and Wisconsin. Great Lakes-St Lawrence River Basin Water Resources, "Great Lakes Restoration Initiative home page", The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book, Estimate of Ground Water in Storage in the Great Lakes Basin, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Binational website of USEPA and Environment Canada for Great Lakes Water Quality, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory website, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Great Lakes Echo, a publication covering Great Lakes environmental issues, Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers, Great Lakes Basin Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Program, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Great LakesSaint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Lakes&oldid=1151681390, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, Articles using infobox body of water without pushpin map, Articles using infobox body of water without alt bathymetry, Articles with text in Iroquoian languages, Articles containing Wyandot-language text, Articles needing additional references from February 2021, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from September 2012, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from September 2021, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2012, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2013, Vague or ambiguous geographic scope from February 2021, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the New International Encyclopedia, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from Popular Science Monthly, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 60480ft (18146m) depending on the lakes, 2101,300ft (64396m) depending on the lakes. Except for Lake Michigan, the lakes provide a natural border between Canada and the United States, a frontier that was stabilized by a boundary-waters treaty of 1909. Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Dispersed throughout the Great Lakes are approximately 35,000 islands. But from Duluth to Chicago to Cleveland to Buffalo, leaders are reeling from untold billions in damage and the prospect that climate change will make things worse in the . As the anti-depressant drugs pass out of human bodies and through sanitation systems into the Great Lakes, this has resulted in fish in the Great Lakes with twenty times the level of anti-depressants in their brains than what is in the water, leading to the fish being exceedingly happy and hence less risk-averse, to the extent of damaging the fish populations. Lots of square waves. "Meer"). "[62] Water quality improvements realized during the 1970s and 1980s, combined with successful salmonid stocking programs, have enabled the growth of a large recreational fishery. [clarification needed][64], Overfishing has been cited as a possible reason for a decrease in population of various whitefish, important because of their culinary desirability and, hence, economic consequence. The Great Lakes are a series of interconnected freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada-United States border, which connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. 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. It is also one of the worlds largest bodies of fresh water. ", Explorer says Griffin shipwreck may be found, "L.R. 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. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Located on Lake Michigan, this beach was named one of the 51 Great American Beaches by USA Today - and it's definitely deserving of the recognition. Photosynthesis carried out by diatoms constitutes about one fifth of the total photosynthesis.[where?] Hydrologically, lakes Michigan and Huron are a single body joined at the Straits of Mackinac. In 1884, the New York Fish Commission determined that the dumping of sawmill waste (chips and sawdust) had impacted fish populations. The Wisconsin Fisheries Commission noted a reduction of roughly 25% in general fish harvests by 1875. As of 2007, four car ferry services cross the Great Lakes, two on Lake Michigan: a steamer from Ludington, Michigan, to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and a high speed catamaran from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Michigan, one on Lake Erie: a boat from Kingsville, Ontario, or Leamington, Ontario, to Pelee Island, Ontario, then onto Sandusky, Ohio, and one on Lake Huron: the MS Chi-Cheemaun[115] runs between Tobermory and South Baymouth, Manitoulin Island, operated by the Owen Sound Transportation Company. Mercury compounds have been used in paper mills to prevent slime from forming during their production, and chemical companies have used mercury to separate chlorine from brine solutions. Viking Ocean ; Great Lakes Collection excursions Announcing Our 2023 Cruisers' Choice Award Winners! Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. Sailing is a great and enjoyable activity on both the ocean and lake. The Great Lakes have a humid continental climate, By the 1960s, the small silver fish had become a familiar nuisance to beach goers across Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Futuristic/dystopian short story about a man living in a hive society trying to meet his dying mother. In the early 19th century, the government of Upper Canada found it necessary to introduce similar legislation prohibiting the use of weirs and nets at the mouths of Lake Ontario's tributaries. Doty was found in Lake Michigan by an exploration diving team led by dive boat Captain Jitka Hanakova from her boat Molly V.[122] The ship sank in October 1898, probably attempting to rescue a small schooner, Olive Jeanette, during a terrible storm. While the organisms living on the bottom of shallow waters are similar to those found in smaller lakes, the deep waters contain organisms found only in deep, cold lakes of the northern latitudes. The glaciers undoubtedly scoured these valleys, widening and deepening them and radically changing the drainage of the area. However, unlike e.g. The ongoing disaster striking the coastal communities of the Great Lakes hasn't captured national attention like hurricanes and wildfires in other parts of the country. Great Lakes, chain of deep freshwater lakes in east-central North America comprising Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Since general freight these days is transported by railroads and trucks, domestic ships mostly move bulk cargoes, such as iron ore, coal and limestone for the steel industry. @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. Public outcry forced the company to abandon the plan before it began. The Greatest Lakes The largest lake in the world by a long shot is the Caspian Sea - a name that hints at a past when it was contiguous with the ocean around 11 million years ago. Through the program a coalition of federal agencies is making grants to local and state entities for toxics cleanups, wetlands and coastline restoration projects, and invasive species-related projects. In the late 1960s, the various state and federal governments began stocking several species of salmonids, including the native lake trout as well as non-native chinook and coho salmon; by the 1980s, alewife populations had dropped drastically. Re: Stupid question about Great Lakes vs Ocean. There is also some shipping of liquid and containerized cargo. [10] The retreat of the ice sheet left behind a large amount of meltwater (Lake Algonquin, Lake Chicago, Glacial Lake Iroquois, and Champlain Sea) that filled up the basins that the glaciers had carved, thus creating the Great Lakes as we know them today. 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. The Great Lakes form the western portion of the larger St. Lawrence hydrographic system. The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. Many other water sports are practiced on the lakes such as yachting, sea kayaking, diving, kitesurfing, powerboating, and lake surfing. Even late in winter, the lakes often have no icepack in the middle. In modern times, only about 1% of volume per year is "new" water, originating from rivers, precipitation, and groundwater springs. [36] The water level of Lake MichiganHuron had remained fairly constant over the 20th century[37] Recent lake levels include record low levels in 2013 in Lakes Superior, Erie, and Michigan-Huron,[38] followed by record high levels in 2020[39] in the same lakes. [65] By 1900, commercial fishermen on Lake Michigan were hauling in an average of 41million pounds of fish annually. About 10,000 years ago, the upper lakes evidently discharged through this area via the Ottawa River valley, and their levels were substantially reduced. It is estimated that nearly 40 million people in the region rely on drinking water from the Great Lakes. The five Great Lakes, as seen from left to right in a springtime satellite image, are Lakes . As the surfaces of Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Erie are all approximately the same elevation above sea level, while Lake Ontario is significantly lower, and because the Niagara Escarpment precludes all natural navigation, the four upper lakes are commonly called the "upper great lakes". Commercial tug-and-barge traffic on these waterways is heavy.[33]. Baraka Farrington/Google. People in Craven and Jones counties are under a Code Purple air quality alert toda y, the highest . The number of American adults who take anti-depressant drugs rose from 7.7% of all American adults in 19992002 to 12.7% in 20112014. In 1996, a rare tropical or subtropical storm was observed forming in Lake Huron, dubbed the 1996 Lake Huron cyclone. [61], The Great Lakes are an important source of fishing. 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. As part of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan provides families and the community with fresh drinking water, recreation and a beautiful landscape to enjoy. The first ship to sink in Lake Michigan was Le Griffon, also the first ship to sail the Great Lakes.
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