Endorheic
An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent and seasonal lakes and swamps that wiktionary:equilibrate, equilibrate through evaporation. Endorheic basins are also called closed basins, terminal basins, and internal drainage systems. Endorheic regions contrast with open and closed lakes, open lakes (exorheic regions), where surface waters eventually drain into the ocean. In general, water basins with subsurface outflows that lead to the ocean are not considered endorheic; but cryptorheic. Endorheic basins constitute local base levels, defining a limit of the erosion and Deposition (geology), deposition processes of nearby areas. Endorheic water bodies include the Caspian Sea, which is the world's largest inland body of water. Etymology The term ''endorheic'' derives from the French ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Drainage Basin
A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the drainage divide, made up of a succession of elevated features, such as ridges and hills. A basin may consist of smaller basins that merge at river confluences, forming a hierarchical pattern. Other terms for a drainage basin are catchment area, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin, water basin, and impluvium. In North America, they are commonly called a watershed, though in other English-speaking places, " watershed" is used only in its original sense, that of the drainage divide line. A drainage basin's boundaries are determined by watershed delineation, a common task in environmental engineering and science. In a closed drainage basin, or endorheic basin, rather than flowing to the ocean, water converges toward the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Open And Closed Lakes
Open and closed lakes refer to the major subdivisions of lakes – bodies of water surrounded by land. Exorheic, or open, lakes drain into a river or other body of water that ultimately drains into the ocean. Endorheic basins fall into the category of endorheic or closed lakes, wherein waters do not drain into the ocean, but are reduced by evaporation, and/or drain into the ground. Open lake An open lake is a lake where water constantly flows out under almost all climatic circumstances. Because water does not remain in an open lake for any length of time, dissolved solids do not accumulate, and such lakes are usually fresh water. Open lakes form in areas where precipitation is greater than evaporation. Because most of the world's water is found in areas of highly effective rainfall, most lakes are open lakes whose water eventually reaches the sea. For instance, the Great Lakes' water flows into the St. Lawrence River and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. Open lakes typicall ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia, south of the fertile plains of Southern Russia in Eastern Europe, and north of the mountainous Iranian Plateau. It covers a surface area of (excluding the highly saline lagoon of Garabogazköl to its east), an area approximately equal to that of Japan, with a volume of . It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12 g/L), about a third of the salinity of average seawater. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the southwest, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. The name of the Caspian Sea is derived from the ancient Iranian peoples, Iranic Caspians, Caspi people. The sea stretches from north to south, with an average width of . Its gr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Salt Lake
A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per liter). In some cases, salt lakes have a higher concentration of salt than sea water; such lakes can also be termed hypersaline lake, and may also be pink lakes on account of their color. An alkalic salt lake that has a high content of carbonate is sometimes termed a soda lake. Salt lakes are classified according to salinity levels. The formation of these lakes is influenced by processes such as evaporation and deposition. Salt lakes face serious conservation challenges due to climate change, pollution and water diversion. Classification The primary method of classification for salt lakes involves assessing the chemical composition of the water within the lakes, specifically its salinity, pH, and the dominant ions present. Subsaline Sub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia (country), Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The Black Sea is Inflow (hydrology), supplied by major rivers, principally the Danube, Dnieper and Dniester. Consequently, while six countries have a coastline on the sea, its drainage basin includes parts of 24 countries in Europe. The Black Sea, not including the Sea of Azov, covers , has a maximum depth of , and a volume of . Most of its coasts ascend rapidly. These rises are the Pontic Mountains to the south, bar the southwest-facing peninsulas, the Caucasus Mountains to the east, and the Crimean Mountains to the mid-north. In the west, the coast is generally small floodplains below foothills such as the Strandzha; Cape Emine, a dwindling of the east end ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the west almost by the Morocco–Spain border. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about , representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar—the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa—is only wide. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccation, desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The sea was an important ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Base Level
In geology and geomorphology a base level is the lower limit for the vertical position of an erosion, erosion process. The modern term was introduced by John Wesley Powell in 1875. The term was subsequently appropriated by William Morris Davis who used it in his cycle of erosion theory. The "ultimate base level" is the surface that results from horizontal projection of the sea level under landmasses (the geoid). It is to this base level that topography tends to approach due to erosion, eventually forming a peneplain close to the end of a cycle of erosion.Phillips, Jonathan D. (2002)"Erosion, isostatic response, and the missing peneplains" ''Geomorphology (journal), Geomorphology'', Vol. 45, No. 3-4Elsevier, 15 June 2002, pp. 225-241. . There are also lesser structural geology, structural base levels where erosion is delayed by resistant rocks. Examples of this include karst regions underlain by insoluble rock. Base levels may be local when large landmasses are far from the sea or ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lake Bonneville
Lake Bonneville was the largest Late Pleistocene paleolake in the Great Basin of western North America. It was a pluvial lake that formed in response to an increase in precipitation and a decrease in evaporation as a result of cooler temperatures. The lake covered much of what is now western Utah and at its highest level extended into present-day Idaho and Nevada. Many other hydrographically closed basins in the Great Basin contained expanded lakes during the Late Pleistocene, including Lake Lahontan in northwestern Nevada. Geologic description Shorelines of Lake Bonneville are visible above Salt Lake City along the western front of the Wasatch Mountains and on other mountains throughout the Bonneville basin.Gilbert, G.K., 1890. Lake Bonneville. U.S. Geological Survey Monograph 1. 438 pp. These shorelines appear as shelves or benches that protrude from the mountainside above the valley floor, are visible on the ground from long distances and on satellite images, and have both ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Malheur Lake
Malheur Lake ( ) is one of the lakes in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, Harney County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Located about southeast of Burns, Oregon, Burns, the lake is marsh fed by the Donner und Blitzen River from the south and the Silvies River from the north. Malheur Lake periodically overflows into Mud Lake to the west and thence to Harney Lake, the Sink (geography), sink of Harney Basin. The western area of Malheur Lake consists of ponds separated by small islands and peninsulas. The lake's central and eastern sections are more open. The generally shallow water is suitable habitat for migratory birds, waterfowl, and aquatic plants. As is typical of Great Basin lakes, Malheur Lake's surface area changes dramatically with the local weather, climate, and season because the lake is in a very flat basin. A large influence on the water volume is local snow melt, especially from Steens Mountain, south of the lake. For example, large snowpa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bonneville Flood
The Bonneville flood was a catastrophic flooding event in the last ice age, which involved massive amounts of water inundating parts of southern Idaho and eastern Washington along the course of the Snake River. Unlike the Missoula Floods, which also occurred during the same period in the Pacific Northwest, the Bonneville flood happened only once. Cause and events About 14,500 years ago (radiocarbon dating, 17,400 years ago calendar, "calibrated" dating), pluvial Lake Bonneville in northern Utah reached its highest water level since its formation. The lake occupied the present-day basin of the Great Salt Lake, and was far larger, covering about . As it rose the lake level caused seepage at, then breached, the ancient level of Red Rock Pass, a mountain pass at the headwaters of the Portneuf River, a tributary of the Snake River above present-day American Falls Reservoir. Ancient Red Rock Pass was the site of two alluvial fans descending from opposite sides of the notch, form ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harney Lake
Harney Lake is a shallow alkali lake basin located in southeast Oregon, United States, approximately south of the city of Burns, Oregon, Burns. The lake lies within the boundary of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and is the lowest point in the Donner und Blitzen River, Blitzen Valley drainage. History The lake has been known by several names, including Salt Lake in 1838, Tonowama, and Lake Harney. Despite a history of 9,000 years of human inhabitation on Harney Lake by the Northern Paiute, Northern Paiute Indians primarily as nomadic wintering camps, little sign of modern human habitation is evident on Harney Lake. The nearest residents live in the community of Narrows, Oregon, Narrows. Water level During wet years, the lake receives water from Malheur Lake, located approximately to the east. The depth of Harney Lake is less than during normal water years and has dried up completely during times of drought. As typical to other alkali lake beds in the western ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |