What are some basic facts about lakes?

What are some basic facts about lakes? There are 117 million lakes on Earth, covering 3.7 percent of the continental land surface. Most lakes are relatively small – 90 million lakes are less than two football fields in size. Most lakes lie low — 85 percent are at elevations less than 1,600 feet (500 meters) above sea level.

What is the biggest lake facts?

The largest lake in the world by a long shot is the Caspian Sea – a name that hints at a past when it was contiguous with the ocean around 11 million years ago. This massive saline lake, which is nearly the same size as Japan, borders five countries: Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Iran.

What describes a lake?

A lake is a body of water that is surrounded by land. There are millions of lakes in the world. They are found on every continent and in every kind of environment—in mountains and deserts, on plains, and near seashores. Lakes vary greatly in size.

What is a lake facts for kids?

A lake (from Latin lacus) is a large body of water (larger and deeper than a pond) within a body of land. As a lake is separated from the ocean, it is not a sea. Some lakes are very big, and people in the past sometimes called them seas. Lakes do not flow like rivers, but many have rivers flowing into and out of them.

What is a 5 sentence about a lake?

The lake was placid. The lake glowed like it was radioactive. She touched the water of the lake and groaned. The bottom of the lake glowed with souls.

What are 3 characteristics of a lake?

How do lakes get water?

Inflows to these water bodies will be from precipitation, overland runoff, groundwater seepage, and tributary inflows. Outflows from lakes and rivers include evaporation, movement of water into groundwater, and withdrawals by people.

What are man made lakes called?

A reservoir is an artificial lake where water is stored. Most reservoirs are formed by constructing dams across rivers.

What keeps water in a lake?

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.

What are the 3 types of lakes?

What are 2 characteristics of lakes and ponds?

Lakes are normally much deeper than ponds and have a larger surface area. All the water in a pond is in the photic zone, meaning ponds are shallow enough to allow sunlight to reach the bottom. This causes plants (sometimes too many) to grow at the bottom of ponds as well as on their surface.

What is unique about lakes?

Salty or fresh, lakes are some of the only freely available water sources on land. Aside from rivers and streams, the rest of the world's freshwater is locked up in ice or trapped underground.

What are the basic characteristics of a lake?

lake, Relatively large body of slow-moving or standing water that occupies an inland basin. Lakes are most abundant in high northern latitudes and in mountain regions, particularly those that were covered by glaciers in recent geologic times.

What are 5 interesting facts about lake Superior?

What state has the most lakes?

What are the 3 main factors that affect lakes?

The following are some of the most important basic factors that give unique character to each lake ecosystem. Climate: Temperature, wind, precipitation, and solar radiation all critically affect the lake's hydrologic and chemical characteristics, and indirectly affect the composition of the biological community.

How deep are lakes usually?

A small pond is usually 4 to 20 feet deep, while lakes are typically any depth beyond 20 feet. In most lakes, the deepest spot is known as the “last drop” or “end of the lake.” The water in a small pond or a natural spring will not have any depth to it.

How do lakes clean themselves?

Turnover is a natural way the lake cleans up harmful bacteria and algae. It carries dead algae down into the depths of the lake where there is less sunlight, helping to prevent algae growth. You can think of it as an escalator, moving the algae cells from the top of the lake to the bottom.