Lake Timiskaming or Lake Temiskaming (french: Lac Témiscamingue) is a large freshwater
lake
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 large ...
on the
provincial boundary between
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
and
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada. The lake, which forms part of the
Ottawa River
The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word 'to trade', as it was the major trade route of Eastern ...
, is in length and covers an area of almost . Its water level ranges between and above
sea-level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
, with a mean annual average of .
The lake is in places up to deep. There are several islands on the lake, notably Mann and du Collège Islands.
The name is from the
Algonquin
Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to:
Languages and peoples
*Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia
**Algonquin la ...
''Temikami'' or ''Temikaming'', meaning "deep body of water with rapid winds”
There are 30 species of fish in Lake Timiskaming, the best known are
northern pike
The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...
,
sturgeon
Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretace ...
,
lake trout
The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...
,
walleye
The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...
,
smallmouth bass,
bullhead,
carp
Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...
,
burbot
The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish
Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...
,
perch
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...
, and
whitefish.
The lake was shaped during the last
ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
when
glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...
s carved into the rock. It is also the remnants of a huge basin called
Lake Ojibway
Lake Ojibway was a prehistoric lake in what is now northern Ontario and Quebec in Canada. Ojibway was the last of the great proglacial lakes of the last ice age. Comparable in size to Lake Agassiz (to which it was likely linked), and north of the ...
, which existed about 9,500 years ago. Between 1976 and 1981 the DuPagne Classic fishing tourney took place at Wells Rock (David's tobogganing hill).
For the trading post and some history see
Fort Témiscamingue
Fort Témiscamingue was a trading post from the 17th century in Duhamel-Ouest, Quebec, near Ville-Marie, Canada, located on the fur trade route on the east shore of Lake Timiskaming. The fort is a National Historic Site, operated as part of ...
.
Timiskaming Graben
Lake Timiskaming is located within an ancient major
rift valley
A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift. Rifts are formed as a result of the pulling apart of the lithosphere due to extensional tectonics. The linear dep ...
that extends several hundred miles to the north-east called the
Timiskaming Graben
The Timiskaming Graben is a long and wide depression straddling the Ontario–Quebec border in Eastern Canada. It is a northwesterly extension of the Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben, a failed arm of the Saint Lawrence rift system which is related to ...
. It is the northern extension of the
Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben
The Ottawa-Bonnechere Graben (also known as the Ottawa Graben) is a geological structure that coincides with a wide topographic depression extending from near Montréal through Ottawa. It is part of the Saint Lawrence rift system that also inclu ...
, which is part of the
Saint Lawrence rift system
The Saint Lawrence rift system is a seismically active zone paralleling the Saint Lawrence River. The rift system trends northeast and southwest and forms a half-graben that links the Ottawa-Bonnechere and the Saguenay grabens. The rift system e ...
. There have been recent
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
s along the rift valley, the most recent being in 2000. There are numerous
faults in the area and has produced
cliff
In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...
s such as
Devil's Rock
Devil's Rock (also known as Devils Rock; Anishinaabe: Mani-doo Aja-bikong or Manidoo Wabikong) is a granite escarpment located south of Temiskaming Shores, Ontario, Canada. The cliffs rise above Lake Timiskaming and extend nearly as far underw ...
, just south of
Haileybury and is dated to be 2.2 billion years old. There are known
kimberlite pipe
Volcanic pipes or volcanic conduits are subterranean geology, geological structures formed by the violent, supersonic eruption of deep-origin volcanoes. They are considered to be a type of ''diatreme''. Volcanic pipes are composed of a deep, narro ...
s within the rift valley that are considered to be
diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
iferous.
See also
*
Mugwump (folklore)
*
1935 Timiskaming earthquake
*
2000 Kipawa earthquake
*
List of earthquakes in Canada
This is a list of earthquakes in Canada.
List
Abbreviations used:
See also
*Hydraulic fracturing in Canada
References
External links
*Natural Resources CanadEarthquakes Canada*Earthquakes CanadRecent earthquakes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Earthquake ...
*
List of lakes in Ontario
This is an incomplete list of lakes in Ontario, a province of Canada. There are over 250,000 lakes in Ontario, constituting around 20% of the world's fresh water supply.
Larger lake statistics
This is a list of lakes of Ontario with an ar ...
References
External links
*
Description on Notre-Dame-du-Nord municipal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timiskaming
Lakes of Abitibi-Témiscamingue
Lakes of Timiskaming District
Lakes of Nipissing District
Valleys of Ontario
Valleys of Quebec
Borders of Ontario
Borders of Quebec