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

www.evergladesvillage.net/ sat/everglades/

2nd largest surface area completely within the US (Lake Michigan is 1st)

Lake Okeechobee, FL Surface Area =1,800 km2 Depth = 3 m

http://www.sfwmd.gov/org/wrp/wrp_okee/images/jpgs/okee_ag.jpg

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

malawidrilling.syr.edu/ images/ri12.jpg www.eawag.ch/.../UI/baikal/results/ helium/figures/He.1.GIF

www-geoazur.unice.fr/PERSO/calais/ CEO/618440/baikal_h.gif

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

http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/nam/NAM02-01.gif

http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd1960/lake-tahoe-19.4.jpg

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

http://www.bmsc.washington.edu/people/verlinde/pics/crater-lake.gif

Type 2: Maar crater of explosive origin. Result from magma coming into contact with ground water. Nearly circular, but can be quite deep (>100m)

www.geomar.de/~abelouso/ maar.html

Type 3: Valleys dammed by lava

http://www.frantzen.de/nz/north/S_139-lake-rotoaira.JPG

Lake Bunyoni, Uganda

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=www.visituganda.com/places/lakeBunyoni.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.visituganda.com/places/lakesislands.htm&h=162&w=241&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBunyoni%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8

Lake Rotoaira, New Zealand

Lakes created by recent movement of debris

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/ISS002-ESC-7771_lrg.jpg

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)
http://crevassezone.org/Photos/Graphics/4401L-(Lemon-Lakes).jpg

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)?

http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~mstuding/vostok.html

Lakes formed by past glaciers

Type 4: cirque lake. These occur when the glacier carves out an amphitheater-like area up in the mountains
http://crevassezone.org/Photos/Graphics/4163L-(Cirque).jpg http://www.ship.edu/~cjwolt/geology/slides/jpg/gllab04.jpg

Type 5: lakes formed by morainal damming.

Finger Lakes, NY

http://www.visitithaca.com/images/Ithaca-aerial.jpg

tapestry.usgs.gov/ features/42fingerlakes.html

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

http://www.gac.edu/oncampus/academics/geography/MISS.JPG

Shallow lakes in arid regions formed by wind erosion

espn.go.com/.../ s/2003/0708/1578239.html

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

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/techniques/recreation/images/ontario1.jpg

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

http://www.noeckerbuickpontiac.com/DAM-78.jpg

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
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=www.georgehoward.net/images/ccbay1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.georgehoward.net/cbays.htm&h=319&w=300&prev=/images%3Fq%3DCarolina%2BBay%26start%3D80%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN

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