Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet
Love how clear the water of the Great Lakes is, that's the biggest fresh (or sweet) water reserve on the planet!
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the great lakes are the largest reserve of surface fresh water by surface area, but lake baikal in russia is slightly larger by volume because it's an incredibly large and DEEP lake (over 1 mile deep at its lowest point, making it the deepest lake in the world). the great lakes are quite shallow in comparison to lake baikal (though still pretty deep measured against most other lakes, lake superior is over 1,300 ft. at its deepest point).
either way, together lake Baikal and the great lakes add up to about 40% of the world's surface fresh water (ie. not including ground water or water locked up in ice in the polar regions). it's pretty wild to think that nearly half of the planet's surface freshwater is in just lake baikal and the great lakes of north america.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet
it's even hard to figure there's no salt in there, cause it's as large as a regular sea.
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here's a conversation i had with my british friend's father who was visiting chicago for the first time. i took them up to milwaukee for a little day-trip, milwaukee being roughly 1.5-2 hours north of chicago, depending on traffic. upon arriving at the milwaukee art museum, my friend's dad looked out across the vast blue expanse of lake michigan and remarked:
friend's dad: "my god, another unfathomably large lake just like the one down in chicago. these lakes truly are remarkable, we've nothing like them back in blighty."
me: "oh no, this is still the same lake as the one down in chicago, it's all lake michigan."
friend's dad: "you mean we've just been traveling for a couple of hours on the motorway and we're still along the shore of the same lake?! unbelievable. exactly how large is this lake?"
me: "about 300 miles long in the north-south direction."
friend's dad: "
bloody hell! 300 miles long! that's almost the length of england itself! and you yanks call this vast sea a mere lake?"
me: "
well, it is all freshwater....... and there are 4 more of them to boot."
friend's dad: "unbelievable." <shaking his head in disbelief>
he had some prior awareness that the great lakes were big, but in his mind, when we traveled from chicago to milwaukee, he had assumed that we had traveled from one great lake to another great lake, his mind had come nowhere close to wrapping itself around the true size and scale of the great lakes, because back home in britain, what he knew as "lakes" are simply small puddles in comparison to a body of water like lake michigan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet
And looks even flatter than the Mediterranean.
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the great lakes can be extremely placid and flat at times, and dreadfully violent at others. the notorious lake storms of novemeber have taken hundreds upon hundreds of ships to the bottom of the lakes over the decades.
a november storm on board a great lakes freighter in lake superior:
source:
http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com...s/lakesup1.jpg
Quote:
Originally Posted by mousquet
Any moron for trying surfing over there?  |
it's not hawaii or the pacific coast or anything, but there are places with enough wave action for surfing on the great lakes:
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