Lake Zirahuén is a small

endorheic lake An endorheic lake (also called a sink lake or terminal lake) is a collection of water within an endorheic basin, or sink, with no evident outlet. Endorheic lakes are generally Saline water, saline as a result of being unable to get rid of solutes ...

in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Santa Clara del Cobre Santa Clara del Cobre () is a Magical town (Pueblo Mágico) and municipalities of Michoacán, municipality located in the center of the state of Michoacán, Mexico, 18 km from Pátzcuaro and 79 km from the state capital of Morelia. While ...

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo, is one of the 31 states which, together with Mexico City, compose the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The stat ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It is a deep mountain lake with a sandy bottom that is partially covered with mud. It covers an area of and has a volume of . At times Lake Zirahuén has been part of an open and continuous hydrological system together with

Lake Cuitzeo Lake Cuitzeo () is a lake in the central part of Mexico, in the state of Michoacán. It has an area of . The lake is astatic, meaning the volume and level of water in the lake fluctuates frequently. It is the second-largest freshwater lake in Mexi ...

and

Lake Pátzcuaro Lake Pátzcuaro (Spanish: ''Lago de Pátzcuaro'') is a lake in the municipality of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico. Lake Pátzcuaro lies in an endorheic basin, which does not drain to the sea. A watershed area of 929 square kilometres drains int ...

, draining into the

Lerma River The Lerma River () is Mexico's second longest river. It is a river in west-central Mexico that begins in Mexican Plateau at an altitude over above sea level, and ends where it empties into Lake Chapala, Mexico's largest lake, near Guadalajara, ...

. Today it is a closed basin like Lakes Cuitzeo and Pátzcuaro, although ecologists consider it a sub-basin of the Lerma- Chapala basin. The Zirahuén allotica ''( Allotoca meeki)'', a Goodeid fish, is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Lake Zirahuén."''Allotoca meeki'', Zirahuen allotica (Alvarez, 1959)", ''Fishbase''. Accessed November 15, 2009

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lake Zirahuen Lakes of Mexico, Zirahuen Zirahuen Landforms of Michoacán