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Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth.[[http://biology.usgs.gov/luhna/chap6.html LUHNA Chapter 6: Historical Landcover Changes in the Great Lakes Region]]
Geography
The Great Lakes region contains not only the five main lakes themselves, but also numerous minor lakes and rivers, as well as approximately 35,000 islands.
Bathymetry
Lake Michigan-Huron
Lakes Michigan and Huron are hydrologically a single lake, sometimes called Lake Michigan-Huron; they have the same surface elevation of
,
Rivers
*The St. Marys River connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron.
*The St. Clair River connects Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair.
*The Detroit River connects Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. Through its middle is the border between Canada and the United States.
*The Niagara River, including Niagara Falls, connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.
*The St. Lawrence River connects Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean.
Other bodies of water
*Georgian Bay is a large bay located within Lake Huron, separated by the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. It contains the majority of the islands of the Great Lakes, with a count of approximately 30,000. The North Channel, a narrower westerly extension of Georgian Bay, separates Manitoulin Island from mainland Northern Ontario.
*The Straits of Mackinac connects Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.
*The Welland Canal connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, bypassing the Niagara River which cannot be fully navigated due to the presence of Niagara Falls.
*Lake St. Clair is the smallest lake in the Great Lake system but due to its relatively small size (compared to the five "Great Lakes"), it is rarely, if ever, considered a Great Lake.
*Lake Nipigon to the north of Lake Superior was formed by an extension or aulacogen of the Midcontinent Rift System which also formed Lake Superior, so the two lake beds are connected by shared geology. Lake Nipigon is sometimes called the sixth Great Lake.
Islands
Dispersed throughout the Great Lakes are approximately 35,000 islands. The largest among them is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, the largest island in any inland body of water in the world. The second-largest island is Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Both of these islands are large enough to contain multiple lakes themselves — Manitoulin Island's Lake Manitou is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest lake located on a freshwater island.
Connection to ocean and open water
The Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway opened the Great Lakes to ocean-going vessels. The move to wider ocean-going container ships — which do not fit through the locks on these routes — has limited shipping on the lakes. Despite their vast size, large sections of the Great Lakes freeze over in winter, interrupting most shipping. Some icebreakers ply the lakes.
The Great Lakes are also connected to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Illinois River (from Chicago) and the Mississippi River. An alternate track is via the Illinois River (from Chicago), to the Mississippi, up the Ohio, and then through the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (combination of a series of rivers and lakes and canals), to Mobile Bay and the Gulf. Commercial tug-and-barge traffic on these waterways is heavy.
Pleasure boats can also enter or exit the Great Lakes by way of the Erie Canal and Hudson River in New York. The Erie Canal connects to the Great Lakes at the east end of Lake Erie (at Buffalo, NY) and at the south side of Lake Ontario (at Oswego, NY).
Boundaries
The lakes are bound by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. However, not all of the lakes border on all of these regions. Four of the five lakes form part of the Canada-United States border; the fifth, Lake Michigan, is contained entirely within the United States. The Saint Lawrence River, which marks the same international border for a portion of its course, is the primary outlet of these interconnected lakes, and flows through Quebec and past the Gaspé Peninsula to the northern Atlantic Ocean.
Great Lakes Circle Tour
The Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.
Name origins
Statistics
The Great Lakes contain roughly 22% of the world’s fresh surface water: , or 6.0×1015 U.S. gallons (2.3×1016 liters). This is enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U.S. states to a uniform depth of . However, only 2% of this volume is replaced each year, causing water levels to fall in recent years as the water undergoes heavy human use . Although the lakes contain a large percent of the world's fresh water, the Great Lakes supply only a small portion of America's drinking water (roughly 4.2%).
The combined surface area of the lakes is approximately —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.
The Great Lakes coast measures approximately ;
Geology
It has been estimated that the foundational geology which created the conditions shaping the present day upper Great Lakes was laid from 1.1 to 1.2 billion years ago,
The Great Lakes are estimated to have been formed at the end of the last ice age (i.e. about 10,000 years ago), when the Laurentide ice sheet receded. The retreat of the ice sheet left behind a large amount of meltwater (see Lake Agassiz) which filled up the basins that the glaciers had carved, thus creating the Great Lakes as we know them today. Because of the uneven nature of glacier erosion, some higher hills became Great Lakes islands. The Niagara Escarpment follows the contour of the Great Lakes between New York and Wisconsin.
Land below the glaciers "rebounded" as it was uncovered. Because the glaciers covered some areas longer than others, this glacial rebound occurred at different rates. Some researchers believe that differential has contributed to fluctuating water levels throughout the Great Lakes basin.
Climate
Lake effect
The effect of Great Lakes on weather in the region is called the ''lake effect. ''In winter, the moisture picked up by the prevailing winds from the west can produce very heavy snowfall, especially along lake shores to the east such as Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ontario, and New York. The lakes also moderate seasonal temperatures somewhat, by absorbing heat and cooling the air in summer, then slowly radiating that heat in autumn. This temperature buffering produces areas known as "fruit belts", where fruit typically grown farther south can be produced. Western Michigan has apple and cherry orchards, and vineyards adjacent to the lake shore as far north as the Grand Traverse Bay. The eastern shore of Lake Michigan and the southern shore of Lake Erie have many wineries as a result of this, as does the Niagara Peninsula between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. A similar phenomenon occurs in the Finger Lakes region of New York as well as Prince Edward County, Ontario on Lake Ontario's northeast shore. Related to lake effect, is the occurrence of fog over medium-sized areas, particularly along the shorelines of the lakes. This is most noticeable along Lake Superior's shores, due to its maritime climate.''
The Great Lakes have been observed to help strengthen storms, such as Hurricane Hazel in 1954, and a frontal system in 2007 that spawned a few tornadoes in Michigan and Ontario, picking up warmth from the lakes to fuel them. Also observed in 1996, was a rare subtropical cyclone forming in Lake Huron, dubbed the 1996 Lake Huron cyclone.
Economy
The lakes are extensively used for transport, though cargo traffic has decreased considerably in recent years. The Great Lakes Waterway makes each of the lakes accessible.
Historical economy
The brigantine ''Le Griffon'', which was commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was built at Cayuga Creek, near the southern end of the Niagara River, and became the first sailing ship to travel the upper Great Lakes on August 7, 1679.
During settlement, the Great Lakes and its rivers were the only practical means of moving people and freight. Barges from middle North America were able to reach the Atlantic Ocean from the Great Lakes when the Erie Canal opened in 1825. By 1848, with the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal at Chicago, direct access to the Mississippi River was possible from the lakes. With these two canals an all-inland water route was provided between New York City and New Orleans.
The main business of many of the passenger lines in the 1800s was transporting immigrants. 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. After railroads and surface roads developed, the freight and passenger businesses dwindled and, except for ferries and a few foreign cruise ships, has now vanished.
The immigration routes still have an effect today. Immigrants often formed their own communities and some areas have a pronounced ethnicity, such as Dutch, German, Polish, Finnish, and many others. Since many immigrants settled for a time in New England before moving westward, many areas on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes also have a New England feel, especially in home styles and accent.
Since general freight these days is transported by railroads and trucks, domestic ships mostly move bulk cargoes, such as iron ore, coal and limestone for the steel industry. The domestic bulk freight developed because of the nearby mines. It was more economical to transport the ingredients for steel to centralized plants rather than try to make steel on the spot. Ingredients for steel, however, are not the only bulk shipments made. Grain exports are also a major cargo on the lakes.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, iron and other ores such as copper were shipped south on (downbound ships), and supplies, food, and coal were shipped north (upbound). Because of the location of the coal fields in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the general northeast track of the Appalachian Mountains, railroads naturally developed shipping routes that went due north to ports such as Erie, Pennsylvania and Ashtabula, Ohio.
Because the lake maritime community largely developed independently, it has some distinctive vocabulary. Ships, no matter the size, are called ''boats''. When the sailing ships gave way to steamships, they were called ''steamboats''—the same term used on the Mississippi. The ships also have a distinctive design (see Lake freighter). Ships that primarily trade on the lakes are known as ''lakers''. Foreign boats are known as ''salties''.
One of the more common sights on the lakes is the 1,000‑by‑105 foot (305-by-32 m), self-unloader. This is a laker with a conveyor belt system that can unload itself by swinging a crane over the side.[http://www.boatnerd.com/pictures/fleet/burnsharbor.htm] Today, the Great Lakes fleet is much smaller in numbers than it once was because of the increased use of overland freight, and a few larger ships replacing many small ones.
Modern economy
The Great Lakes are today used as a major mode of transport for bulk goods. In 2002, 162 million net tons of dry bulk cargo were moved on the Lakes. This was, in order of volume: iron ore, grain, and potash. The iron ore and much of the stone and coal are used in the steel industry. There is also some shipping of liquid and containerized cargo but most container ships cannot pass the locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway because the ships are too wide. The total amount of shipping on the lakes has been on a downward trend for several years.
The Great Lakes are used to supply drinking water to tens of millions of people in bordering areas. This valuable resource is collectively administered by the state and provincial governments adjacent to the lakes.
Recreational boating and tourism are major industries on the Great Lakes. A few small cruise ships operate on the Great Lakes including a couple of sailing ships. Sport fishing, commercial fishing, and Native American fishing represent a US$4 billion a year industry with salmon, whitefish, smelt, lake trout, and walleye being major catches. In addition, all kinds of water sports can be found on the lakes. An unusual activity on the Great Lake not found in other inland waters is that because of possible strong storm and wave, it is possible to surf, an activity that is associated to open ocean, in the Great Lakes.
Great Lakes Passenger Steamers
From 1844 through 1857, palace steamers carried passengers and cargo around the Great Lakes. Throughout the 20th century, large luxurious passenger steamers sailed from Chicago all the way to Detroit and Cleveland. These were primarily operated by the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company. Several ferries currently operate on the Great Lakes to carry passengers to various islands, including Isle Royale, Pelee Island, Mackinac Island, Beaver Island, both Bois Blanc Islands, Kelleys Island, South Bass Island, North Manitou Island, South Manitou Island, Harsens Island, Manitoulin Island, and the Toronto Islands. As of 2007, three 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, and one on Lake Erie: a boat from Kingsville, Ontario, or Leamington, Ontario to Pelee Island, Ontario then onto Sandusky, Ohio. An international ferry across Lake Ontario from Rochester, New York to Toronto ran during 2004 and 2005, but is no longer in operation.
Some Passenger Steamers
Shipwrecks
The large size of the Great Lakes increases the risk of water travel; storms and reefs are common threats. The lakes are prone to sudden and severe storms, particularly in the autumn, from late October until early December. Hundreds of ships have met their end on the lakes. The greatest concentration of shipwrecks lies near Thunder Bay (Michigan), beneath Lake Huron, near the point where eastbound and westbound shipping lanes converge.
The Lake Superior shipwreck coast from Grand Marais, Michigan to Whitefish Point became known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes". More vessels have been lost in the Whitefish Point area than any other part of Lake Superior. The Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve serves as an underwater museum to protect the many shipwrecks in this area.
The last major freighter wrecked on the lakes was the SS ''Edmund Fitzgerald'', which sank on November 10, 1975, just over offshore from Whitefish Point. The largest loss of life in a shipwreck out on the lakes may have been that of the ''Lady Elgin'', wrecked in 1860 with the loss of around 400 lives. In an incident at a Chicago dock in 1915, the SS ''Eastland'' rolled over while loading passengers, killing 841.
In August 2007, the [http://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/society.phtml Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society] announced that it had found the wreckage of ''Cyprus'', a long, century-old ore carrier. ''Cyprus'' sank during a Lake Superior storm on October 11, 1907, during its second voyage while hauling iron ore from Superior, Wisconsin, to Buffalo, New York. The entire crew of 23 drowned, except one, a man named Charles Pitz, who floated on a life raft for almost seven hours.
In June 2008 deep sea divers in Lake Ontario found the wreck of the 1780 Royal Navy warship HMS ''Ontario'' in what has been described as an "archaeological miracle". There are no plans to raise her as the site is being treated as a war grave.
==Great_Lakes
Source: Wikipedia