Geography 2011A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Great Lakes, Great Lakes Basin, Lake Huron
5 May 2018
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Great Lakes Introduction
Water in the Great Lakes
- water = ery oo...e lose sight of it’s alue e alue lad uh ore tha ater
- water = common property (something that is held jointly nobody takes responsibility of it, so its
quality declines)
- water = ignored (except for floods or drought)
Great Lakes
- great lake = lake over 500 m2
- 250 great lakes worldwide
- 1/3 of great lakes in Canada
- 5 Laurentian Great Lakes:
1. Huron
2. Ontario
3. Michigan
4. Erie - outlier (shallowest, closest to us...brings pollutants into immediate area)
5. Superior
- HOMES
- Great Lakes Basin/Watershed = Great Lakes + Land around it (note: each lake has its own basin).
- Great Lakes Basin drains from West East (Superior Huron + Michigan St. Clair Erie
Ontario St. Lawrence Atlantic Ocean)
- the smaller, warmer, shallower, and closer to human activity a lake is, the more vulnerable the lake is
to pollution
- Canada/US agreement...no export of water outside basin...we use the water then return it to basin
- Great Lake contain 23, 000 km3 of water, area of 244, 000 km2
*Great Lakes = largest system of fresh, surface water on Earth 18% of orld’s fresh ater supply *
- Outflows out of the basin are less than 1% per year...therefore, pollutants that enter the system are
retained in the basin for a long time.
97.5% salt water
Surface Water 69% of fresh water in polar regions (melts into salt water)
2.5% fresh water 30% of fresh water is ground water
0.12% of fresh water is in rivers
18%-20% of this is in the Great Lakes
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Water = (cid:448)ery (cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:373)o(cid:374)(cid:449)e lose sight of it"s (cid:448)alue (cid:894)(cid:449)e (cid:448)alue la(cid:374)d (cid:373)u(cid:272)h (cid:373)ore tha(cid:374) (cid:449)ater(cid:895) Water = common property (something that is held jointly nobody takes responsibility of it, so its quality declines) Water = ignored (except for floods or drought) Great lake = lake over 500 m2. 5 laurentian great lakes: huron, ontario, michigan, erie - outlier (shallowest, closest to usbrings pollutants into immediate area, superior. Great lakes basin/watershed = great lakes + land around it (note: each lake has its own basin). Great lakes basin drains from west east (superior huron + michigan st. clair erie . The smaller, warmer, shallower, and closer to human activity a lake is, the more vulnerable the lake is to pollution. Canada/us agreementno export of water outside basinwe use the water then return it to basin. Great lake contain 23, 000 km3 of water, area of 244, 000 km2.
