Lake Fergus, New Zealand

A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger oceans, they do form part of the Earth's water cycle. Lakes are distinct from lagoons, which are generally coastal parts of the ocean. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which also lie on land, though there are no official or scientific definitions. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which usually flow in a channel on land. Most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams.

Natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers, where a river channel has widened into a basin. Some parts of the world have many lakes formed by the chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last ice age. All lakes are temporary over long periods of time, as they will slowly fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them.

Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for industrial or agricultural use, for hydroelectric power generation or domestic water supply, for aesthetic or recreational purposes, or for other activities.

Etymology, meaning, and usage of "lake"

The word ''lake'' comes from Middle English ('lake, pond, waterway'), from Old English ('pond, pool, stream'), from Proto-Germanic ('pond, ditch, slow moving stream'), from the Proto-Indo-European root ('to leak, drain'). Cognates include Dutch ('lake, pond, ditch'), Middle Low German ('water pooled in a riverbed, puddle') as in: :de:Wolfslake, :de:Butterlake, German ('pool, puddle'), and Icelandic ('slow flowing stream'). Also related are the English words ''leak'' and ''leach''.

There is considerable uncertainty about defining the difference between lakes and ponds, and neither term has an internationally accepted definition across scientific disciplines or political boundaries. For example, limnologists have defined lakes as water bodies that are simply a larger version of a pond, which can 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, simple size-based definitions are increasingly used to separate ponds and lakes. Definitions for ''lake'' range in minimum sizes for a body of water from to . Pioneering animal ecologist Charles Elton regarded lakes as waterbodies of or more. 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. 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. One textbook illustrates this point with the following: "In Newfoundland, for example, almost every lake is called a pond, whereas in Wisconsin, almost every pond is called a lake."

One hydrology book proposes to define the term "lake" as a body of water with the following five characteristics:
# It partially or totally fills one or several basins connected by straits;
# It has essentially the same water level in all parts (except for relatively short-lived variations caused by wind, varying ice cover, large inflows, etc.);
# It does not have regular intrusion of seawater;
# A considerable portion of the sediment suspended in the water is captured by the basins (for this to happen they need to have a sufficiently small inflow-to-volume ratio);
# The area measured at the mean water level exceeds an arbitrarily chosen threshold (for instance, one hectare).

With the exception of criterion 3, the others have been accepted or elaborated upon by other hydrology publications.

Distribution

The majority of lakes on Earth are freshwater, and most lie in the Northern Hemisphere at higher latitudes. Canada, with a deranged drainage system, has an estimated 31,752 lakes larger than in surface area. The total number of lakes in Canada is unknown but is estimated to be at least 2 million. Finland has 187,888 lakes of in area, or larger, of which 56,000 are large ( or larger).

Most lakes have at least one natural outflow in the form of a river or stream, which maintain a lake's average level by allowing the drainage of excess water. Some lakes do not have a natural outflow and lose water solely by evaporation or underground seepage, or both. These are termed endorheic lakes.

Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for hydroelectric power generation, aesthetic purposes, recreational purposes, industrial use, agricultural use, or domestic water supply.

The number of lakes on Earth is undetermined because most lakes and ponds are very small and do not appear on maps or satellite imagery. Despite this uncertainty, a large number of studies agree that small ponds are much more abundant than large lakes. For example, one widely cited study estimated that Earth has 304 million lakes and ponds, and that 91% of these are or less in area. Despite the overwhelming abundance of ponds, almost all of Earth's lake water is found in fewer than 100 large lakes; this is because lake volume scales superlinearly with lake area.

Extraterrestrial lakes exist on the moon Titan, which orbits the planet Saturn. The shape of lakes on Titan is very similar to those on Earth. Lakes were formerly present on the surface of Mars, but are now dry lake beds.

Types

In 1957, G. Evelyn Hutchinson published a monograph titled ''A Treatise on Limnology'', which is regarded as a landmark discussion and classification of all major lake types, their origin, morphometric characteristics, and distribution. Hutchinson presented in his publication a comprehensive analysis of the origin of lakes and proposed what is a widely accepted classification of lakes according to their origin. This classification recognizes 11 major lake types that are divided into 76 subtypes. The 11 major lake types are:

* tectonic lakes
* volcanic lakes
* glacial lakes
* fluvial lakes
* solution lakes
* landslide lakes
* aeolian lakes
* shoreline lakes
* organic lakes
* anthropogenic lakes
* meteorite (extraterrestrial impact) lakes

Tectonic lakes

Tectonic lakes are lakes formed by the deformation and resulting lateral and vertical movements of the Earth's crust. These movements include faulting, tilting, folding, and warping. Some of the largest lakes on Earth are rift lakes occupying rift valleys, e.g. Central African Rift lakes and Lake Baikal. Other well-known tectonic lakes, Caspian Sea, the Sea of Aral, and other lakes from the Pontocaspian occupy basins that have been separated from the sea by the tectonic uplift of the sea floor above the ocean level.

Often, the tectonic action of crustal extension has created an alternating series of parallel grabens and horsts that form elongate basins alternating with mountain ranges. Not only does this promote the creation of lakes by the disruption of preexisting drainage networks, it also creates within arid regions endorheic basins that contain salt lakes (also called saline lakes). They form where there is no natural outlet, a high evaporation rate and the drainage surface of the water table has a higher-than-normal salt content. Examples of these salt lakes include Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea. Another type of tectonic lake caused by faulting is sag ponds.

Volcanic lakes

Volcanic lakes are lakes that occupy either local depressions, e.g. craters and maars, or larger basins, e.g. calderas, created by volcanism. Crater lakes are formed in volcanic craters and calderas, which fill up with precipitation more rapidly than they empty via either evaporation, groundwater discharge, or a combination of both. Sometimes the latter are called caldera lakes, although often no distinction is made. An example is Crater Lake in Oregon, in the caldera of Mount Mazama. The caldera was created in a massive volcanic eruption that led to the subsidence of Mount Mazama around 4860 BCE. Other volcanic lakes are created when either rivers or streams are dammed by lava flows or volcanic lahars. The basin which is now Malheur Lake, Oregon was created when a lava flow dammed the Malheur River. Among all lake types, volcanic crater lakes most closely approximate a circular shape.

Glacial lakes

Glacial lakes are lakes created by the direct action of glaciers and continental ice sheets. A wide variety of glacial processes create enclosed basins. As a result, there are a wide variety of different types of glacial lakes and it is often difficult to define clear-cut distinctions between different types of glacial lakes and lakes influenced by other activities. The general types of glacial lakes that have been recognized are lakes in direct contact with ice, glacially carved rock basins and depressions, morainic and outwash lakes, and glacial drift basins. Glacial lakes are the most numerous lakes in the world. Most lakes in northern Europe and North America have been either influenced or created by the latest, but not last, glaciation, to have covered the region. Glacial lakes include proglacial lakes, subglacial lakes, finger lakes, and epishelf lakes. Epishelf lakes are highly stratified lakes in which a layer of freshwater, derived from ice and snow melt, is dammed behind an ice shelf that is attached to the coastline. They are mostly found in Antarctica.

Fluvial lakes

Fluvial (or riverine) lakes are lakes produced by running water. These lakes include plunge pool lakes, fluviatile dams and meander lakes.

Oxbow lakes

The most common type of fluvial lake is a crescent-shaped lake called an ''oxbow lake'' due to the distinctive curved shape. They 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. Their crescent shape gives oxbow lakes a higher perimeter to area ratio than other lake types.

Fluviatile dams

These form where sediment from a tributary blocks the main river.

Lateral lakes

These form where sediment from the main river blocks a tributary, usually in the form of a levee.

Floodplain lakes

Lakes formed by other processes responsible for floodplain basin creation. During high floods they are flushed with river water. There are four types: 1. Confluent floodplain lake, 2. Contrafluent-confluent floodplain lake, 3. Contrafluent floodplain lake, 4. Profundal floodplain lake.

Solution lakes

A solution lake is a lake occupying a basin formed by surface dissolution of bedrock. In areas underlain by soluble bedrock, its solution by precipitation and percolating water commonly produce cavities. These cavities frequently collapse to form sinkholes that form part of the local karst topography. Where groundwater lies near the grounds surface, a sinkhole will be filled water as a solution lake. If such a lake consists of a large area of standing water that occupies an extensive closed depression in limestone, it is also called a karst lake. Smaller solution lakes that consist of a body of standing water in a closed depression within a karst region are known as ''karst ponds.''Neuendorf, K.K.E., Mehl Jr., J.P., and Jackson, J.A. (2005). ''Glossary of Geology,'' 5th revised and enlarged ed. Berlin: Springer. Approx. . Limestone caves often contain pools of standing water, which are known as ''underground lakes.'' Classic examples of solution lakes are abundant in the karst regions at the Dalmatian coast of Croatia and within large parts of Florida.

Landslide lakes

A landslide lake is created by the blockage of a river valley by either mudflows, rockslides, or screes. Such lakes are most common in mountainous regions. Although landslide lakes may be large and quite deep, they are typically short-lived. An example of a landslide lake is Quake Lake, which formed as a result of the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake.

Most landslide lakes disappear in the first few months after formation, but a landslide dam can burst suddenly at a later stage and threaten the population downstream when the lake water drains out. In 1911, an earthquake triggered a landslide that blocked a deep valley in the Pamir Mountains region of Tajikistan, forming the Sarez Lake. The Usoi Dam at the base of the valley has remained in place for more than 100 years but the terrain below the lake is in danger of a catastrophic flood if the dam were to fail during a future earthquake.

Tal-y-llyn Lake in north Wales is a landslide lake dating back to the last glaciation in Wales some 20000 years ago.

Aeolian lakes

Aeolian lakes are produced by wind action. These lakes are found mainly in arid environments, although some aeolian lakes are relict landforms indicative of arid paleoclimates. Aeolian lakes consist of lake basins dammed by wind-blown sand; interdunal lakes that lie between well-oriented sand dunes; and deflation basins formed by wind action under previously arid paleoenvironments. Moses Lake in Washington, United States, was originally a shallow natural lake and an example of a lake basin dammed by wind-blown sand.

China's Badain Jaran Desert is a unique landscape of megadunes and elongated interdunal aeolian lakes, particularly concentrated in the southeastern margin of the desert.

Shoreline lakes

Shoreline lakes are generally lakes created by blockage of estuaries or by the uneven accretion of beach ridges by longshore and other currents. They include maritime coastal lakes, ordinarily in drowned estuaries; lakes enclosed by two tombolos or spits connecting an island to the mainland; lakes cut off from larger lakes by a bar; or lakes divided by the meeting of two spits.

Organic lakes

Organic lakes are lakes created by the actions of plants and animals. On the whole they are relatively rare in occurrence and quite small in size. In addition, they typically ephemeral features relative to the other types of lakes. The basins in which organic lakes occur are associated with beaver dams, coral lakes, or dams formed by vegetation.

Peat lakes

Peat lakes are a form of organic lake. They form where a buildup of partly decomposed plant material in a wet environment leaves the vegetated surface below the water table for a sustained period of time. They are often low in nutrients and mildly acidic, with bottom waters low in dissolved oxygen.

Anthropogenic lakes

Anthropogenic lakes are artificially created as a result of human activity. They can be formed by the intentional damming of rivers and streams or the subsequent filling of abandoned excavations by either ground water, precipitation, or a combination of both.

The Upper Silesian region of Southern Poland contains an anthropogenic lake district consisting of more than 4,000 water bodies created by human activity. The diverse origins of these lakes include: reservoirs retained by dams, flooded mines, water bodies formed in subsidence basins and hollows, levee ponds, and residual water bodies following river regulation.

Meteorite (extraterrestrial impact) lakes

Meteorite lakes, also known as ''crater lakes'' (not to be confused with volcanic crater lakes), are created by catastrophic impacts with the Earth by extraterrestrial objects (either meteorites or asteroids). Examples of meteorite lakes are Lonar Lake

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases