Lake Wanapitei (also known as Lake Wahnapitae) occupies a meteorite crater in Sudbury,

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 C ...

, Canada. It is located near the much larger Sudbury meteorite crater but they are not related. Sudbury Wanapitei WorldWind

The crater is in diameter and the age is estimated to be 37.2 ± 1.2 million years, placing it in the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

. It was evident by the mid-1970s that Wanapitei Lake was an impact crater. Remarkably, it lies on the eastern edge of the much older, larger Sudbury structure. Cobbles of

suevite Suevite is a rock consisting partly of melted material, typically forming a breccia containing glass and crystal or lithic fragments, formed during an impact event. It forms part of a group of rock types and structures that are known as im ...

, crumbly impact

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...

cobbles containing bits of dark glass, are found surrounding the lake. Some contain

coesite Coesite is a form ( polymorph) of silicon dioxide Si O2 that is formed when very high pressure (2–3 gigapascals), and moderately high temperature (), are applied to quartz. Coesite was first synthesized by Loring Coes Jr., a chemist at the ...

, a high pressure mineral diagnostic of impact structures. The suevite is very close in appearance and composition to that described from the Ries impact crater. In the 1960s, half a dozen RCMP officers accidentally drowned in the lake during a training exercise. The lake is a popular recreational and residential area in Sudbury, with the neighborhoods of Skead and Boland's Bay located on its shores. With the municipal amalgamation of Greater Sudbury in 2001, it became the largest lake in the world completely contained within the boundaries of a single city. It inherited this status from

Lake Ramsey Ramsey Lake (french: Lac Ramsey) is a lake in Sudbury, Ontario, located near the city's downtown core. Until 2001, Ramsey Lake was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest lake located entirely within the boundaries of ...

, also in Sudbury. The

Wanapitei River The Wanapitei River (French: ''Rivière Wanapitei'') is a river in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Great Lakes Basin and is a right tributary of the French River. The river's source is Scotia Lake, a small lake east of Halfway Lake ...

flows through the lake. Wanapitei Provincial Park is located on the north shore of Lake Wanapitei — this is a non-operating park so there are no facilities. The lake has a number of small islands within it. Named islands include Blueberry, Howie, Pirate Island, Wanapitei, MacLennan, and Bonanza. Some of the islands are unpopulated, although a few have recreational cottages located on them. The small Wahnapitae

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

is also located on the lake's northwestern shore. The lake's name comes from the Ojibwa word ''waanabidebiing'', or "concave-tooth hapedwater", which describes its shape. A nearby community which takes its name from the river is spelled Wahnapitae. However, the Wanapitei spelling is correct for both the lake and the river.

References

External links

Aerial Exploration of the Wanapitei StructureWanapitei Provincial Park
{{Impact cratering on Earth Wanapitei Eocene impact craters Bartonian Stage Wanapitei, Lake Geology of Greater Sudbury Impact crater lakes

See also

References

External links