Origins of Lake Basins
1. Why is it important to understand a lakes morphometry?
2. What are the 10 major ways to create a basin?
3. Where in the world are lakes most common? Why?
pp. 277-287 in Dodson
There must be some process that forms a basin
The lake must be in a region where climatic conditions allow standing water
Inland waters cover less than 2% of Earths surface
Most of the worlds fresh water occurs in about 20 extremely deep lakes (> 400 m)
Morphometry the size and shape of a lake basin. It reflects a lakes mode of origin. It is best described by a bathymetric map. 2nd lab will focus on many basic morphometric parameters
Basin morphometry has a strong effect on nearly all physical, chemical and biological processes
Introduction to Bathymetric Maps
Hutchinson (1957) details 76 types of lakes
We will cut it down to 10 (plus subcategories)
Depressions formed by movements of deeper portions of the Earths crust.
THERE ARE 2 MAIN TYPES
Type 1: Uplifted areas of Earths crust
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2nd largest surface area completely within the US (Lake Michigan is 1st)
Lake Okeechobee, FL Surface Area =1,800 km2 Depth = 3 m
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Type 2: Faults
These are some of the deepest, oldest lakes in the world
2 Types of fault-formed basins
Single fault displacement Often associated with mountain rages Long and narrow Downfaulted troughcalled a graben Very deep, very steep sided lakes Long and narrow
Examples of grabens
Lake Baikal, Siberia
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Surface Area = 31,500 km2 zmax=1,741 m
20% of Earths fresh water (deepest lake in the world)
25 million years old
Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada
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African Great Lakes
Uplift Lake Victoria
Fault
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Malawi Other rift lakes
Tanganyika zmax = 1,435 m
Basins created in volcanic regions
THERE ARE 3 MAIN TYPES
Type1: Caldera lake formed in cone of extinct volcano
Crater Lake, OR
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Type 2: Maar crater of explosive origin. Result from magma coming into contact with ground water. Nearly circular, but can be quite deep (>100m)
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Type 3: Valleys dammed by lava
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Lake Bunyoni, Uganda
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Lake Rotoaira, New Zealand
Lakes created by recent movement of debris
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Lake Sarez, Tajikistan Created in 1911 when a strong earthquake triggered a massive landslide, now called the Usoi Dam. Zmax = 500 m
Can form fairly large lakes, but are often temporary because the dam erodes
Basins created by the movement of ice sheets THERE ARE 6 MAIN TYPES 3 from existing glaciers 3 from past glaciers
Lakes formed by existing glaciers
(Greenland, Antarctica, Mountains)
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Type 1: Lakes can form on the surface of glaciers. They are small and shallow.
Hutchinson 1957
Type 2: Lakes can form when either the glacier or the moraine forms a dam
Type 3: Subglacial lakes. Lakes formed beneath glaciers in basins scoured by glacial activity More than 70 such lakes found in Antarctica. One of the largest and most famous is Lake Vostok
Analog for Europa (a moon of Jupiter)?
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Lakes formed by past glaciers
Type 4: cirque lake. These occur when the glacier carves out an amphitheater-like area up in the mountains
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Type 5: lakes formed by morainal damming.
Finger Lakes, NY
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Type 6: kettle lakes. These lakes were formed when an ice block was caught in glacial drift or outwash.
It may have taken several hundred years to melt completely.
Wetzel 2001
Many relatively small lakes of irregular shape
Typically less than 50 m deep
Kettle ponds are 1 -2 m deep
Lakes created through a chemical reaction between water and limestone (also called sinkhole lakes)
Most often in regions of limestone (CaCO3) where there is slightly acidic ground water (CO2)
Common in Florida, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, Mexico Regions of the Adriatic, Balkan Peninsula and the Alps Also in Caves
Basins created by flowing water
THERE ARE 2 MAIN TYPES
a. Plunge pool formed at the base of former waterfalls. Very specific shape to the basin
b. Oxbow ponds formed when a river meanders and eventually cuts off a bend
Kalff 2002
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Shallow lakes in arid regions formed by wind erosion
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These are sometimes call deflation basins or playas. Often found in arid regions and are temporary
Lakes formed in close proximity to the shoreline of a large lake or ocean
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When the ocean or a large lake has an irregular shoreline, a bar may develop and cut off the new, smaller lake.
Basins formed when people or animals create them
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Reservoirsformed for recreation, barge traffic, cooling for power plants, water control, hydroelectric power
Characteristic shape, dam at one end
Richland Co., IL
Borrow pits and old strip mines
Champaign, IL
Vermilion Co., IL
Rare, but spectacular
Hutchison 1967
Chubb Lake, Quebec Zm = 251 m
Laurentian Great LakesIce scour (glacial) followed by rebound of Earths crust (tectonic).
Largest continuous mass of fresh water on Earth (24,620 km3)
Lakes of Unknown Origin Carolina Bays Found mostly in the Carolinas, but all over south east US. Up to 500,000 small, oval basin going mostly northwest-southeast. Some say they were formed in a meteor shower, others say they are deflation basins
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Why is it important to know how a lake was created?
To have a permanent lake, inflows must exceed outflows Inflows 1. Runoff from the drainage basin (watershed)
2. Direct precipitation
3. Ground water, either as seepage or as springs
The size of the lake determines which of these is most important
Outflows
1. At the effluent, which is the lowest point on the rim. Some lakes are just wide and deep spots in the stream or river.
2. Evaporation and evapotranspiration (water transported up through vegetation and lost through the leaves). Evapotranspiration is very important in temporary ponds
3. Seepage through the floor of the lake
If a lake has an open basin, it means it has an effluent
If a lake has a closed basin it means it does not have an effluent
Obviously, the relative importance of the three outflows depends on whether a lake is an open or closed basin.
do you find lakes?
Already talked about where you find basins The location of standing water on Earth is influenced by global weather patterns. Water evaporates from the oceans, and is returned to the land via rain, snow, sleet, hail, dewbut not evenly
Kalff 2002
Processes such as trade winds, El Nio Southern Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation affect where the precipitation falls
Global weather patterns are also influenced by local geography
There must be some process that forms a basin
The climate must allow standing water
Terms to Know
morphometry bathymetric graben caldera maar moraine cirque subglacial kettle sinkhole
Important Lake Names: African Great Lakes Malawi Tanganyika plunge pool Victoria oxbow Baikal deflation basin Chubb Lake playa Crater Lake reservoir Finger Lakes Laurentian Great Lakes borrow pit Huron Carolina Bay Ontario effluent Michigan evapotranspiration Erie open basin Superior Tahoe closed basin Okeechobee Vostok