Fortunately, at that point, no country was powerful enough to force everyone to go ahead with that plan - and by the time they were, it was far easier (and faster) to just conquer the rest of Europe and start a massive genocide. The lakes tend to moderate seasonal temperatures to some degree but not with as large an influence as do large oceans; they absorb heat and cool the air in summer, then slowly radiate that heat in autumn. The Great Lakes have a humid continental climate, The glaciers undoubtedly scoured existing valleys, widening and deepening them and radically changing the drainage of the area. International treaties regulate large diversions. Among the most primitive of all vertebrate species, the sea lamprey is a . [14] At least two human water use activities have been identified as having the potential to affect the lakes' levels: diversion (the transfer of water to other watersheds) and consumption (substantially done today by the use of lake water to power and cool electric generation plants, resulting in evaporation). The Great Lakes are connected by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to the Gulf of Mexico via the Illinois River (from the Chicago River) and the Mississippi River. The average annual rainfall in the Lake Superior basin is 30 inches (760 millimeters), 31 inches in Lakes Huron and Michigan, and 34 and 36 inches in Lakes Erie and Ontario, respectively. As of 2007, four car ferry services cross the Great Lakes, two on Lake Michigan: a steamer from Ludington, Michigan, to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and a high speed catamaran from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Michigan, one on Lake Erie: a boat from Kingsville, Ontario, or Leamington, Ontario, to Pelee Island, Ontario, then onto Sandusky, Ohio, and one on Lake Huron: the MS Chi-Cheemaun[115] runs between Tobermory and South Baymouth, Manitoulin Island, operated by the Owen Sound Transportation Company. Mercury compounds have been used in paper mills to prevent slime from forming during their production, and chemical companies have used mercury to separate chlorine from brine solutions. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. Unsurprisingly, the glacier-sourced melt water wasn't very salty. The sea lampreyan ancient Atlantic fish that wreaked havoc on the Great Lakesmay be America's first destructive invasive species. It is generally accepted that Lake Erie reached its present level about 10,000 years ago, Lake Ontario about 7,000 years ago, and Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior some 3,000 years ago. Their drainage basin of about 295,710 square miles (which includes the areas of the lakes themselves and their connecting waterways) extends approximately 690 miles from north to south and about 860 miles from Lake Superior in the west to Lake Ontario in the east. Eventually, drainage to the east and into the Atlantic Ocean was established, at one time down the valleys of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers and then along the course of the upper St. Lawrence River. Some lake freighters are too large to use the Seaway and operate only on the Waterway and lakes. [104] During settlement, the Great Lakes and its rivers were the only practical means of moving people and freight. The Great Salt Lake, in the U.S. state of Utah, is the largest saline lake in North America. The influx of parasitic lamprey populations after the development of the Erie Canal and the much later Welland Canal led to the two federal governments of the U.S. and Canada working on joint proposals to control it. The Great Lakes Waterway ( GLW) is a system of natural channels and artificial canals which enable navigation between the North American Great Lakes. [36] The water level of Lake MichiganHuron had remained fairly constant over the 20th century[37] Recent lake levels include record low levels in 2013 in Lakes Superior, Erie, and Michigan-Huron,[38] followed by record high levels in 2020[39] in the same lakes. In 1998, the Canadian company Nova Group won approval from the Province of Ontario to withdraw 158,000,000 U.S. gallons (600,000m3) of Lake Superior water annually to ship by tanker to Asian countries. This is a laker with a conveyor belt system that can unload itself by swinging a crane over the side. But many species remain a mystery", Recovery of Lake Erie Walleye a Success Story, Historical Perspecivie Of The Phosphate Detergent Conflict, "Large Lake Erie algal bloom nearing Colchester tested for toxicity", "Lake Erie Water Quality Past Present and Future", "14th Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality", New Report: Solving Region's Sewage Crisis Will Create Jobs, Restore Great Lakes, "Antidepressants are finding their way into fish brains", "U of T researchers discover microplastics in all samples of Great Lakes fish", "Industrial plastic is spilling into Great Lakes, and no one's regulating it, experts warn", "How a fleet of robots could help solve the Great Lakes plastic pollution problem", "Monitoring algal blooms in the Great Lakes Basin", "Evidence for early hunters beneath the Great Lakes", "Great Lakes Fleet Page Vessel Feature Burns Harbor", Lake Champlain, The Sixth Great Lake? Most Great Lakes trade is of bulk material, and bulk freighters of Seawaymax-size or less can move throughout the entire lakes and out to the Atlantic. The unstable West Antarctic ice cap and Greenland ice caps combined would only get us about halfway there. Major ports on the Great Lakes include Duluth-Superior, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Twin Harbors, Hamilton and Thunder Bay. A large bloom does not necessarily mean the cyanobacteria will produce toxins", said Michael McKay, of the University of Windsor. For this voyage, the sailboat takes the adventurer to the Atlantic Ocean. [40], The Great Lakes contain 21% of the world's surface fresh water: 5,472 cubic miles (22,810km3), or 6.01015 U.S.gallons, that is 6quadrillion U.S gallons, (2.31016 liters). Possible schemes for bottled water plants and diversion to dry regions of the continent raise concerns. Except for Lake Michigan, the lakes provide a natural border between Canada and the United States, a frontier that was stabilized by a boundary-waters treaty of 1909. By the 1960s, the small silver fish had become a familiar nuisance to beach goers across Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Federal and state regulations control substances like PCBs. Those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as "the lower lakes", because they are farther south. [19] The straits are five miles (8km) wide[14] and 120 feet (37m) deep; the water levels rise and fall together,[20] and the flow between Michigan and Huron frequently reverses direction. As the ice sheet retreated, low-lying, glacially depressed areas, such as the region to the east of Georgian Bay, were exposed. How to combine several legends in one frame? In fact, two major suppliers of fish in the 1830s were the fur trading companies Hudson's Bay Company and the American Fur Company. Lake Superior emerges, well, superior in terms of total surface area, water volume, and both average and . The water level in Lake Ontario has remained relatively constant in the same time period, hovering around the historical average level. Are the Great Lakes Really Inland Seas? - Atlas Obscura When a second fault line, the Saint Lawrence rift, formed approximately 570million years ago,[14] the basis for Lakes Ontario and Erie was created, along with what would become the Saint Lawrence River. Where does water in the Great Lakes originate? Barges from middle North America were able to reach the Atlantic Ocean from the Great Lakes when the Welland Canal opened in 1824 and the later Erie Canal opened in 1825. [69] Introductions into the Great Lakes include the zebra mussel, which was first discovered in 1988, and quagga mussel in 1989. Several Native American populations (Paleo-indians) inhabited the region around 10,000 BC, after the end of the Wisconsin glaciation. Moreover, between 1879 and 1899, reported whitefish harvests declined from some 24.3million pounds (11millionkg) to just over 9million pounds (4millionkg). The Great Lakes could be considered a failed ocean. [98] The changes in the size or in the function of the primary producers may have a direct or an indirect impact on the food web. Implementation of secondary treatment of municipal sewage by major cities greatly reduced the routine discharge of untreated sewage during the 1970s and 1980s. [50], The total surface area of the lakes is approximately 94,250 square miles (244,100km2)nearly the same size as the United Kingdom, and larger than the U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire combined. A similar phenomenon allows wineries to flourish in the Finger Lakes region of New York, as well as in Prince Edward County, Ontario, on Lake Ontario's northeast shore. ", Explorer says Griffin shipwreck may be found, "L.R. Partnering for the planet: An NGO success story | McKinsey Some water is diverted through the Chicago River to operate the Illinois Waterway, but the flow is limited by treaty. The Black Sea was part of the same ocean, but has a much lower inflow than it loses to evaporation - hence the Black Sea has a salinity much higher than the oceans, while the Caspian Sea has a salinity significantly lower than the oceans. By the mid-1980s, most jurisdictions bordering the Great Lakes had controlled phosphate detergents. Except for Lakes Michigan and Huron, which are hydrologically one lake, their altitudes drop with each lake, usually causing a progressively increasing rate of flow. Hundreds of ships have met their end on the lakes. The Great Lakes contain about 20% of the world's freshwater. Since that time, the eight Great Lakes Governors and the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec have negotiated the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement[129] and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact[130] that would prevent most future diversion proposals and all long-distance ones. When the sailing ships gave way to steamships, they were called "steamboats"the same term used on the Mississippi. In fact, some lakes, such as the Great Salt Lake in Utah, are saltier than the oceans. During freezing weather with high winds, the "snowbelts" receive regular snow fall from this localized weather pattern, especially along the eastern shores of the lakes. According to the bi-national (U.S. and Canadian) resource book, The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book: "The largest Great Lakes fish harvests were recorded in 1889 and 1899 at some 67,000 tonnes (66,000 long tons; 74,000 short tons) [147million pounds]. "@mswann82 @gavinbena Have you ever actually been to the great lakes? Correction is in order here. Updates? This visualization compares the size of the Great Lakes | World The production, consumption, and throwing away of plastics seems to remain the core of Great Lakes trash problem.[96]. About 50million pounds (23kt) of fish is harvested each year from Great Lakes which has raised concerns on how this might affect human health. It is also one of the worlds largest bodies of fresh water. While the influx of fresh water has driven the salinity relatively low compared to the oceans, the sea now only loses water through evaporation - so there's no way for the (tiny amounts) of incoming salts and (relatively large amounts) of sediment to go. The project captured 74,000 pieces of trash using this technology between 2020 and 2021, however it does not claim to catch up with 22million pounds (10.0kt) of plastic that ends up in Great Lakes every year. However, unlike e.g. The East Antarctic Ice cap OTOH has about 60m of sea level rise in it; roughtly double what'd be needed to flood the Caspian basin. [66] The mollusks are efficient filter feeders, competing with native mussels and reducing available food and spawning grounds for fish. To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. the Black Sea, this will not increase the salinity, since the salts are lost through the outflow, rather than being concentrated by evaporation. The Great Lakes - WorldAtlas The Great Lakes are undoubtedly our state's most famous bodies of water, but Michigan is home to plenty of great rivers and inland lakes, too! The large size of the Great Lakes increases the risk of water travel; storms and reefs are common threats. [116] The Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve serves as an underwater museum to protect the many shipwrecks in this area. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, described as "the largest investment in the Great Lakes in two decades",[132] was funded at $475million in the U.S. federal government's Fiscal Year 2011 budget, and $300million in the Fiscal Year 2012 budget. Some icebreakers ply the lakes, keeping the shipping lanes open through other periods of ice on the lakes. The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. Sailors of bulk freighters transferring cargoes from Lake Superior and northern Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to ports on Lake Erie or Ontario commonly refer to the latter as the lower lakes and Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior as the upper lakes. [83] Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria blooms,[84] have been problematic on Lake Erie since 2011. [1][2][3] The total surface is 94,250 square miles (244,106km2), and the total volume (measured at the low water datum) is 5,439 cubic miles (22,671km3),[4] slightly less than the volume of Lake Baikal (5,666cumi or 23,615km3, 2223% of the world's surface fresh water). Several rivers, tributaries, and manmade canals connect the lakes and provide a major transportation route that links the inland areas with the Atlantic Ocean.It is estimated that more than 85 million people reside in the Great Lakes Megalopolis region, including some human settlements along the St . The Great Lakes also have several peninsulas between them, including the Door Peninsula, the Peninsulas of Michigan, and the Ontario Peninsula. It is estimated that nearly 40 million people in the region rely on drinking water from the Great Lakes. The fishing industry expanded particularly in the waters associated with the fur trade that connect Lake Erie and Lake Huron. Because the lake maritime community largely developed independently, it has some distinctive vocabulary. How They Were Made | Wisconsin Sea Grant 62, Iss. The North American Great Lakes are unique among the world's large lakes in that their basins are linked together and form one continuous drainage basin. The ancient rocks of the Canadian Shield cover part of the Superior and Huron basins, while Paleozoic sedimentary rocks make up the remainder of the basins. The poor fools didn't quite consider the ecological and economical impact of that, and just imagined all the new land that would open to settlement. [51] The Great Lakes coast measures approximately 10,500 miles (16,900km);,[14] but the length of a coastline is impossible to measure exactly and is not a well-defined measure. Water quality testing was underway in August 2019. On December 13, 2005, the Governors and Premiers signed these two agreements, the first of which is between all ten jurisdictions. Corrections? Are there any inland lakes in Michigan with ocean vibes? [28] The second-largest island is Isle Royale in Lake Superior. The lakes are divided among the jurisdictions of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. MathJax reference. [119] The largest and last major freighter wrecked on the lakes was the SSEdmund Fitzgerald, which sank on November 10, 1975, just over 17 miles (30km) offshore from Whitefish Point on Lake Superior. Although the region was sparsely populated until the 1830s, so there was not much local demand and transporting fish was prohibitively costly, there were economic and infrastructure developments that were promising for the future of the fishing industry going into the 1830s. Baraka Farrington/Google. Anyone who completes the journey is then named an official ' Looper .' Re: Stupid question about Great Lakes vs Ocean. Fresh water is different from salt. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. While the organisms living on the bottom of shallow waters are similar to those found in smaller lakes, the deep waters contain organisms found only in deep, cold lakes of the northern latitudes. [72] Five years after first being observed in the St. Clair River, the round goby can now be found in all of the Great Lakes. Sailing On A Lake Vs Ocean: 6 Differences | Life of Sailing Dozens of other Areas of Concern have received partial cleanups such as the Rouge River (Michigan) and Waukegan Harbor (Illinois). Sure, the Great Lakes are a lot cleaner than they were back in the 1960s, when a Cleveland newspaper pronounced Lake Erie dead due to the huge amount of industrial and agricultural pollution and . Why did US v. Assange skip the court of appeal? This massive saline lake, which is nearly the same size as Japan, borders five countries: Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Iran. Many of the larger cities owe their existence to their position on the lakes as a freight destination as well as for being a magnet for immigrants. Many other water sports are practiced on the lakes such as yachting, sea kayaking, diving, kitesurfing, powerboating, and lake surfing. In contrast, the Great Lakes have an outflow into the ocean, which carries away a lot of the dissolved salts and sediment. I have no idea how this would rank up to other seas like the Mediterranean Sea in area but it would be one of the world's few freshwater seas (Joining the Sea of Galilee). These include the delicate opossum shrimp (order mysida), the deepwater scud (a crustacean of the order amphipoda), two types of copepods, and the deepwater sculpin (a spiny, large-headed fish). ADVERTISEMENT No list of Great Lakes beaches in Wisconsin is complete without mentioning North Beach. The immigration routes still have an effect today. In the 21st century, mercury has become more apparent in water tests. Roads closed because of Croatan National Forest fire The lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers and contain approximately 35,000 islands. The Erie Canal connects to the Great Lakes at the east end of Lake Erie (at Buffalo, New York) and at the south side of Lake Ontario (at Oswego, New York).