Lake Hamana

Lake Hamana
A view from Hamanako Service Area
Landsat image
Location	Shizuoka Prefecture
Coordinates	34°44′28″N 137°34′11″E
Primary outflows	Philippine Sea
Basin countries	Japan
Surface area	65.0 km²
Average depth	4.8 meters
Max. depth	16.6 meters
Water volume	0.35 km³
Shore length1	114 kilometers
Surface elevation	0 meters
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Lake Hamana (浜名湖, Hamana-ko) in Shizuoka Prefecture is Japan's tenth largest lake (by area). It spans the boundaries of the cities of Hamamatsu and Kosai.

Data

The lake has an area of 65.0 km² and holds 0.35 km³ of water. Its circumference is 114 km. At its deepest point, the water is 16.6 m deep. The surface is at sea level.

Economic activity

Lake Hamana is a commercial source of cultivated Japanese eel, nori, oysters and Chinese soft-shelled turtles. Fishers take sea bass, whiting, and flounder, among others. The lake has been developed as a resort area, with boating as a feature.

History

In ancient times, Lake Hamana was a fresh-water lake. However, a great earthquake in 1498 altered the topography of the area. As a result, the water in the lake is now brackish.

The old name for this lake is Tohotsu-afumi (遠つ淡海), which means "distant fresh-water lake" and later changed to Tōtōmi (遠江). From the perspective of the capital in the Kinai, Tōtōmi is more distant than the other famous lake, Chikatsu-afumi or Ōmi (now Lake Biwa), the "nearby fresh-water lake." The name Tōtōmi was also used for a former province in which the lake is located (Tōtōmi Province).

Source

This article incorporates material from the article 浜名湖 (Hamanako) in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on December 11, 2007.

External links

Media related to Lake Hamana at Wikimedia Commons

• (Japanese)浜名湖 PDF (260 KiB) (Hamanako), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Japan)
• (Japanese)浜名湖サイクリングロード PDF (719 KiB) (Hamanako Cycling Road), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Japan)