Portal:Lakes
The Lakes Portal
A portal dedicated to Lakes
Introduction
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A lake is an often naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers, such as Lake Ontario. Most lakes are freshwater and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume.
Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars at coastal regions of oceans or large lakes. Most lakes are fed by springs, and both fed and drained by creeks and rivers, but some lakes are endorheic without any outflow, while volcanic lakes are filled directly by precipitation runoffs and do not have any inflow streams.
Natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas (i.e. alpine lakes), dormant volcanic craters, rift zones and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in depressed landforms or along the courses of mature rivers, where a river channel has widened over a basin formed by eroded floodplains and wetlands. Some parts of the world have many lakes formed by the chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last ice age. All lakes are temporary over long periods of time, as they will slowly fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them. (Full article...)
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Lake Maracaibo (Spanish: Lago de Maracaibo) is a brackish lake located in northwestern Venezuela, between the states of Zulia, Trujillo, and Mérida. Hydrologically, it is a semi-enclosed bay off the coast of the Gulf of Venezuela. Lake Maracaibo is commonly considered a lake, though due to its current geological characteristics, it should not be considered as such. With a surface area of 13,512 km2 (5,217 sq mi), it is the largest lake in South America and one of the oldest on Earth, having formed disputably as a lake 36 million years ago in the Andes Mountains.
The lake is connected to the Gulf of Venezuela to the north by a narrow spit. It is fed by numerous rivers, the biggest being the Catatumbo River. The fault in the northern section has collapsed and is rich in oil and gas resources. It is Venezuela's main oil producing area and an important fishing and agricultural producing area. Eutrophication caused by oil pollution is a major environmental problem facing the lagoon. The area around the lagoon is inhabited by a quarter of the country's population and is also the place with the most frequent lightning on earth. The famous Catatumbo lightning can illuminate nighttime navigation. (Full article...)General topics
Lake zones |
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Lake stratification |
Lake types |
See also |
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External media
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- World Lake Database. International Lake Environment Committee Foundation. – provides a searchable database
- Global Lakes and Wetlands Database. World Wide Fund for Nature. – available for free download