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Great Lakes

April 12, 2024

This article is about the Great Lakes of North America. For the African Great Lakes, see African Great Lakes. For the region, see Great Lakes region. For other uses of this term, see Great Lakes (disambiguation).

The Great Lakes (French: Grands Lacs), also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the east-central interior of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. The five lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, and they are in general on or near the Canada–United States border. Hydrologically, Michigan and Huron are a single body of water joined at the Straits of Mackinac. The Great Lakes Waterway enables modern travel and shipping by water among the lakes.

Great Lakes of North America
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes seen from NASA's Aqua satellite in August 2010. From left to right: Lake Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario
Bathymetry map of the Great Lakes
LocationEastern North America
Coordinates45°N 84°W / 45°N 84°W / 45; -84
Typegroup of interconnected freshwater lakes
Part ofGreat Lakes Basin
Primary inflowsPast: precipitation and meltwater
Now: rivers, precipitation, and groundwater springs
Primary outflowsEvaporation, St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean
Basin countriesCanada, United States
Surface area94,250 square miles (244,106 km2)
Average depth60–480 ft (18–146 m) depending on the lakes
Max. depth210–1,300 ft (64–396 m) depending on the lakes
Water volume5,439 cubic miles (22,671 km3) (lowest)
Frozenaround January to March
Location of the Great Lakes in North America

The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total area and the second-largest by total volume; they contain 21% of the world's surface fresh water by volume.[1][2][3] The total surface is 94,250 square miles (244,106 km2), and the total volume (measured at the low water datum) is 5,439 cubic miles (22,671 km3),[4] slightly less than the volume of Lake Baikal (5,666 cu mi or 23,615 km3, 22–23% of the world's surface fresh water). Because of their sea-like characteristics, such as rolling waves, sustained winds, strong currents, great depths, and distant horizons, the five Great Lakes have long been called inland seas.[5] Depending on how it is measured, by surface area, either Lake Superior or Lake Michigan–Huron is the second-largest lake in the world and the largest freshwater lake. Lake Michigan is the largest lake that is entirely within one country.[6][7][8][9]

The Great Lakes began to form at the end of the Last Glacial Period around 14,000 years ago, as retreating ice sheets exposed the basins they had carved into the land, which then filled with meltwater.[10] The lakes have been a major source for transportation, migration, trade, and fishing, serving as a habitat to many aquatic species in a region with much biodiversity. The surrounding region is called the Great Lakes region, which includes the Great Lakes Megalopolis.[11]

Geography edit

 
A map of the Great Lakes Basin showing the five sub-basins. Left to right they are: Superior (magenta); Michigan (cyan); Huron (green); Erie (yellow); Ontario (red).

Though the five lakes lie in separate basins, they form a single, naturally interconnected body of fresh water, within the Great Lakes Basin. As a chain of lakes and rivers, they connect the east-central interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. From the interior to the outlet at the Saint Lawrence River, water flows from Superior to Huron and Michigan, southward to Erie, and finally northward to Lake Ontario. The lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers and contain approximately 35,000 islands.[12] There are also several thousand smaller lakes, often called "inland lakes", within the basin.[13]

The surface area of the five primary lakes combined is roughly equal to the size of the United Kingdom, while the surface area of the entire basin (the lakes and the land they drain) is about the size of the UK and France combined.[14] Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes that is entirely within the United States; the others form a water boundary between the United States and Canada. The lakes are divided among the jurisdictions of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Both the province of Ontario and the state of Michigan include in their boundaries portions of four of the lakes: The province of Ontario does not border Lake Michigan, and the state of Michigan does not border Lake Ontario. New York and Wisconsin's jurisdictions extend into two lakes, and each of the remaining states into one of the lakes.

Bathymetry edit

Relative elevations, average depths, maximum depths, and volumes of the Great Lakes.
Notes: The area of each rectangle is proportionate to the volume of each lake. All measurements at Low Water Datum.
Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency[15]
Lake Erie Lake Huron Lake Michigan Lake Ontario Lake Superior
Surface area[4] 25,700 km2 (9,910 sq mi) 60,000 km2 (23,000 sq mi) 58,000 km2 (22,300 sq mi) 19,000 km2 (7,340 sq mi) 82,000 km2 (31,700 sq mi)
Water volume[4] 480 km3 (116 cu mi) 3,500 km3 (850 cu mi) 4,900 km3 (1,180 cu mi) 1,640 km3 (393 cu mi) 12,000 km3 (2,900 cu mi)
Elevation[15] 174 m (571 ft) 176 m (577 ft) 176 m (577 ft) 75 m (246 ft) 182.9 m (600.0 ft)
Average depth[14] 19 m (62 ft) 59 m (195 ft) 85 m (279 ft) 86 m (283 ft) 147 m (483 ft)
Maximum depth[16] 64 m (210 ft) 228 m (748 ft) 282 m (925 ft) 245 m (804 ft) 406 m (1,333 ft)
Major settlements[17] Buffalo, NY
Erie, PA
Cleveland, OH
Detroit, MI
Lorain, OH
Toledo, OH
Sandusky, OH 		Alpena, MI
Bay City, MI
Collingwood, ON
Owen Sound, ON
Port Huron, MI
Sarnia, ON 		Chicago, IL
Waukegan, IL
Gary, IN
Green Bay, WI
Sheboygan, WI
Milwaukee, WI
Kenosha, WI
Racine, WI
Muskegon, MI
Traverse City, MI 		Hamilton, ON
Kingston, ON
Mississauga, ON
Oshawa, ON
Rochester, NY
Toronto, ON 		Duluth, MN
Marquette, MI
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Superior, WI
Thunder Bay, ON

As the surfaces of Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Erie are all approximately the same elevation above sea level, while Lake Ontario is significantly lower, and because the Niagara Escarpment precludes all natural navigation, the four upper lakes are commonly called the "upper great lakes". This designation is not universal. Those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as "the lower lakes", because they are farther south. Sailors of bulk freighters transferring cargoes from Lake Superior and northern Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to ports on Lake Erie or Ontario commonly refer to the latter as the lower lakes and Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior as the upper lakes. This corresponds to thinking of lakes Erie and Ontario as "down south" and the others as "up north". Vessels sailing north on Lake Michigan are considered "upbound" even though they are sailing toward its effluent current.[18]

 
System profile of the Great Lakes

Primary connecting waterways edit

 
Chicago on Lake Michigan is in the western part of the lakes megalopolis and the site of the waterway linking the lakes to the Mississippi River valley
 
Detroit on the Detroit River links the region's central metropolitan areas

Lake Michigan–Huron edit

Main article: Lake Michigan–Huron
 
Lake Michigan–Huron with north oriented to the right; taken on April 14, 2022, during Expedition 67 of the International Space Station. Green Bay is at the upper right and Saginaw Bay is on the left.

Lakes Huron and Michigan are sometimes considered a single lake, called Lake Michigan–Huron, because they are one hydrological body of water connected by the Straits of Mackinac.[19] The straits are five miles (8 km) wide[14] and 120 feet (37 m) deep; the water levels rise and fall together,[20] and the flow between Michigan and Huron frequently reverses direction.

Large bays and related significant bodies of water edit

Islands edit

 
South Bass Island in Lake Erie

Dispersed throughout the Great Lakes are approximately 35,000 islands.[12] The largest among them is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, the largest island in any inland body of water in the world.[27] The second-largest island is Isle Royale in Lake Superior.[28] Both of these islands are large enough to contain multiple lakes themselves—for instance, Manitoulin Island's Lake Manitou is the world's largest lake on a freshwater island.[29] Some of these lakes even have their own islands, like Treasure Island in Lake Mindemoya in Manitoulin Island.

Peninsulas edit

 
Toronto on Lake Ontario is in the eastern section of the Great Lakes Megalopolis

The Great Lakes also have several peninsulas between them, including the Door Peninsula, the Peninsulas of Michigan, and the Ontario Peninsula. Some of these peninsulas even contain smaller peninsulas, such as the Bruce, Keweenaw, Leelanau, Niagara, and Thumb peninsulas. Population centers on the peninsulas include Grand Rapids, Flint, and Detroit in Michigan along with London, Hamilton, Brantford, and Toronto in Ontario.

Shipping connection to the ocean edit

Although the Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway make the Great Lakes accessible to ocean-going vessels,[30] shifts in shipping to wider ocean-going container ships—which do not fit through the locks on these routes—have limited container shipping on the lakes. Most Great Lakes trade is of bulk material, and bulk freighters of Seawaymax-size or less can move throughout the entire lakes and out to the Atlantic.[31] Larger ships are confined to working within the lakes. Only barges can access the Illinois Waterway system providing access to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River. Despite their vast size, large sections of the Great Lakes freeze over in winter, interrupting most shipping from January to March. Some icebreakers ply the lakes, keeping the shipping lanes open through other periods of ice on the lakes.

The Great Lakes are connected by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to the Gulf of Mexico via the Illinois River (from the Chicago River) 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 (a combination of a series of rivers and lakes and canals), to Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Commercial tug-and-barge traffic on these waterways is heavy.[32]

Pleasure boats can 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, New York) and at the south side of Lake Ontario (at Oswego, New York).

Water levels edit

The lakes were originally fed by both precipitation and meltwater from glaciers which are no longer present. In modern times, only about 1% of volume per year is "new" water, originating from rivers, precipitation, and groundwater springs. In the post-glacial period, evaporation, and drainage have generally been balanced, making the levels of the lakes relatively constant.[14]

Intensive human population growth began in the region in the 20th century and continues today.[14] At least two human water use activities have been identified as having the potential to affect the lakes' levels: diversion (the transfer of water to other watersheds) and consumption (substantially done today by the use of lake water to power and cool electric generation plants, resulting in evaporation).[33] Outflows through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal is more than balanced by artificial inflows via the Ogoki River and Long Lake/Kenogami River diversions.[34] Fluctuation of the water levels in the lakes has been observed since records began in 1918.[35] The water level of Lake Michigan–Huron had remained fairly constant over the 20th century.[36] Recent lake levels include record low levels in 2013 in Lakes Superior, Erie, and Michigan-Huron,[37] followed by record high levels in 2020[38] in the same lakes. The water level in Lake Ontario has remained relatively constant in the same time period, hovering around the historical average level.[35]

 
Water levels of Lakes Michigan and Huron in the United States, 1918 to 2019.

The lake levels are affected primarily by changes in regional meteorology and climatology. The outflows from Lakes Superior and Ontario are regulated, while the outflows of Michigan-Huron and Erie are not regulated at all. Ontario is the most tightly regulated, with its outflow controlled by the Moses-Saunders Power Dam, which explains its consistent historical levels.[39]

Etymology edit

 
1675 French map, published shortly before the voyage of Le Griffon. Lake Michigan is named Lake Illinois (the name change is first recorded in 1681[40]), and Lake Ontario is named Lake Frontenac, after the then-governor of New France.
 
Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie, photographed from the Sentinel-3B satellite in June 2022, Lake Ontario is not visible in this image.
Lake Erie
From the Erie tribe, a shortened form of the Iroquoian word erielhonan 'long tail'.[41]
Lake Huron
Named for the inhabitants of the area, the Wyandot (or "Hurons"), by the first French explorers .[42] The Wyandot originally referred to the lake by the name karegnondi, a word which has been variously translated as "Freshwater Sea", "Lake of the Hurons", or simply "lake".[43][44]
Lake Michigan
From the Ojibwe word mishi-gami "great water" or "large lake".[45]
Lake Ontario
From the Wyandot word ontarí'io "lake of shining waters".[46]
Lake Superior
English translation of the French term lac supérieur "upper lake", referring to its position north of Lake Huron. The indigenous Ojibwe call it gichi-gami (from Ojibwe gichi "big, large, great"; gami "water, lake, sea"). Popularized in French-influenced transliteration as Gitchigumi as in Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 story song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", or Gitchee Gumee as in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha).[16]

Statistics edit

The Great Lakes contain 21% of the world's surface fresh water: 5,472 cubic miles (22,810 km3), or 6.0×1015 U.S. gallons, that is 6 quadrillion U.S. gallons, (2.3×1016 liters). The lakes contain about 84% of the surface freshwater of North America;[47] if the water were evenly distributed over the entire continent's land area, it would reach a depth of 5 feet (1.5 meters).[48] This is enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U.S. states to a uniform depth of 9.5 feet (2.9 m). Although the lakes contain a large percentage of the world's fresh water, the Great Lakes supply only a small portion of U.S. drinking water on a national basis.[49]

The total surface area of the lakes is approximately 94,250 square miles (244,100 km2)—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.[50] The Great Lakes coast measures approximately 10,500 miles (16,900 km);,[14] but the length of a coastline is impossible to measure exactly and is not a well-defined measure. Canada borders approximately 5,200 miles (8,400 km) of coastline, while the remaining 5,300 miles (8,500 km) are bordered by the United States. Michigan has the longest shoreline of the United States, bordering roughly 3,288 miles (5,292 km) of lakes, followed by Wisconsin (820 miles (1,320 km)), New York (473 miles (761 km)), and Ohio (312 miles (502 km)).[51] Traversing the shoreline of all the lakes would cover a distance roughly equivalent to travelling half-way around the world at the equator.[14]

A notable modern phenomenon is the formation of ice volcanoes over the lakes during wintertime. Storm-generated waves carve the lakes' ice sheet and create conical mounds through the eruption of water and slush. The process is only well-documented in the Great Lakes, and has been credited with sparing the southern shorelines from worse rocky erosion.[52]

Geology edit

 
A diagram of the formation of the Great Lakes
 
Map of Glacial Lake Algonquin and its Correlatives (USGS 1915)

It has been estimated that the foundational geology that created the conditions shaping the present day upper Great Lakes was laid from 1.1 to 1.2 billion years ago,[14][53] when two previously fused tectonic plates split apart and created the Midcontinent Rift, which crossed the Great Lakes Tectonic Zone. A valley was formed providing a basin that eventually became modern day Lake Superior. When a second fault line, the Saint Lawrence rift, formed approximately 570 million years ago,[14] the basis for Lakes Ontario and Erie was created, along with what would become the Saint Lawrence River.

The Great Lakes are estimated to have been formed at the end of the Last Glacial Period (the Wisconsin glaciation ended 10,000 to 12,000 years ago), when the Laurentide Ice Sheet receded.[10] The retreat of the ice sheet left behind a large amount of meltwater (Lake Algonquin, Lake Chicago, Glacial Lake Iroquois, and Champlain Sea) that filled up the basins that the glaciers had carved, thus creating the Great Lakes as they are today.[54] 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.[55] Since the glaciers covered some areas longer than others, this glacial rebound occurred at different rates.

Climate edit

The Great Lakes have a humid continental climate, Köppen climate classification Dfa (in southern areas) and Dfb (in northern parts)[56] with varying influences from air masses from other regions including dry, cold Arctic systems, mild Pacific air masses from the west, and warm, wet tropical systems from the south and the Gulf of Mexico.[57] The lakes have a moderating effect on the climate; they can also increase precipitation totals and produce lake effect snowfall.[56]

Lake effect edit

 
The location of common lake effect bands on the Great Lakes
Main article: Lake-effect snow § Great Lakes region

The Great Lakes can have an effect on regional weather called lake-effect snow, which is sometimes very localized. Even late in winter, the lakes often have no icepack in the middle. The prevailing winds from the west pick up the air and moisture from the lake surface, which is slightly warmer in relation to the cold surface winds above. As the slightly warmer, moist air passes over the colder land surface, the moisture often produces concentrated, heavy snowfall that sets up in bands or "streamers". This is similar to the effect of warmer air dropping snow as it passes over mountain ranges. During freezing weather with high winds, the "snowbelts" receive regular snow fall from this localized weather pattern, especially along the eastern shores of the lakes. Snowbelts are found in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario. Related to the lake effect is the regular occurrence of fog, particularly along the shorelines of the lakes. This is most noticeable along Lake Superior's shores.

The lakes tend to moderate seasonal temperatures to some degree but not with as large an influence as do large oceans; they absorb heat and cool the air in summer, then slowly radiate that heat in autumn. They protect against frost during transitional weather and keep the summertime temperatures cooler than further inland. This effect can be very localized and overridden by offshore wind patterns. This temperature buffering produces areas known as "fruit belts", where fruit can be produced that is typically grown much farther south. For instance, western Michigan has apple orchards, and cherry orchards are cultivated adjacent to the lake shore as far north as the Grand Traverse Bay. Near Collingwood, Ontario, commercial fruit orchards, including a few wineries, exist near the shoreline of southern Nottawasaga Bay. The eastern shore of Lake Michigan and the southern shore of Lake Erie have many successful wineries because of the lakes' moderating effects, as do the large commercial fruit and wine growing areas of the Niagara Peninsula located between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. A similar phenomenon allows wineries to flourish in the Finger Lakes region of New York, as well as in Prince Edward County, Ontario, on Lake Ontario's northeast shore.

Fun Fact! Lake Michigan is a great spot for growing apples because of the soil fertility. 

The Great Lakes have been observed to help intensify storms, such as Hurricane Hazel in 1954, and the 2011 Goderich, Ontario tornado, which moved onshore as a tornadic waterspout. In 1996, a rare tropical or subtropical storm was observed forming in Lake Huron, dubbed the 1996 Lake Huron cyclone. Rather large severe thunderstorms covering wide areas are well known in the Great Lakes during mid-summer; these Mesoscale convective complexes or MCCs[58] can cause damage to wide swaths of forest and shatter glass in city buildings. These storms mainly occur during the night, and the systems sometimes have small embedded tornadoes, but more often straight-line winds accompanied by intense lightning.

Ecology edit

 
Generalized schematic of Great Lakes waterline ecosystem

Historically, the Great Lakes, in addition to their lake ecology, were surrounded by various forest ecoregions (except in a relatively small area of southeast Lake Michigan where savanna or prairie occasionally intruded). Logging, urbanization, and agriculture uses have changed that relationship. In the early 21st century, Lake Superior's shores are 91% forested, Lake Huron 68%, Lake Ontario 49%, Lake Michigan 41%, and Lake Erie, where logging and urbanization has been most extensive, 21%. Some of these forests are second or third growth (i.e. they have been logged before, changing their composition). At least 13 wildlife species are documented as becoming extinct since the arrival of Europeans, and many more are threatened or endangered.[14] Meanwhile, exotic and invasive species have also been introduced.

Fauna edit

See also: Great Lakes Areas of Concern § Invasive species, Category:Fauna of the Great Lakes region (North America), Category:Fish of the Great Lakes, and Asian carp in North America
 
Lake sturgeon, the largest native fish in the Great Lakes and the subject of extensive commercial fishing in the 19th and 20th centuries is listed as a threatened species[59]

While the organisms living on the bottom of shallow waters are similar to those found in smaller lakes, the deep waters contain organisms found only in deep, cold lakes of the northern latitudes. These include the delicate opossum shrimp (order mysida), the deepwater scud (a crustacean of the order amphipoda), two types of copepods, and the deepwater sculpin (a spiny, large-headed fish).[60]

The Great Lakes are an important source of fishing. Early European settlers were astounded by both the variety and quantity of fish; there were 150 different species in the Great Lakes.[14] Throughout history, fish populations were the early indicator of the condition of the Lakes and have remained one of the key indicators even in the current era of sophisticated analyses and measuring instruments. According to the bi-national (U.S. and Canadian) resource book, The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book: "The largest Great Lakes fish harvests were recorded in 1889 and 1899 at some 67,000 tonnes (66,000 long tons; 74,000 short tons) [147 million pounds]."[61]

By 1801, the New York Legislature found it necessary to pass regulations curtailing obstructions to the natural migrations of Atlantic salmon from Lake Erie into their spawning channels. In the early 19th century, the government of Upper Canada found it necessary to introduce similar legislation prohibiting the use of weirs and nets at the mouths of Lake Ontario's tributaries. Other protective legislation was passed, but enforcement remained difficult.[62]

On both sides of the Canada–United States border, the proliferation of dams and impoundments have multiplied, necessitating more regulatory efforts. Concerns by the mid-19th century included obstructions in the rivers which prevented salmon and lake sturgeon from reaching their spawning grounds. The Wisconsin Fisheries Commission noted a reduction of roughly 25% in general fish harvests by 1875. The states have removed dams from rivers where necessary.[clarification needed][63]

Overfishing has been cited as a possible reason for a decrease in population of various whitefish, important because of their culinary desirability and, hence, economic consequence. Moreover, between 1879 and 1899, reported whitefish harvests declined from some 24.3 million pounds (11 million kg) to just over 9 million pounds (4 million kg).[64] By 1900, commercial fishermen on Lake Michigan were hauling in an average of 41 million pounds of fish annually.[65] By 1938, Wisconsin's commercial fishing operations were motorized and mechanized, generating jobs for more than 2,000 workers, and hauling 14 million pounds per year.[65] The population of giant freshwater mussels was eliminated as the mussels were harvested for use as buttons by early Great Lakes entrepreneurs.[64]

The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book (1972) notes: "Only pockets remain of the once large commercial fishery."[61] Water quality improvements realized during the 1970s and 1980s, combined with successful salmonid stocking programs, have enabled the growth of a large recreational fishery.[66] The last commercial fisherman left Milwaukee in 2011 because of overfishing and anthropogenic changes to the biosphere.[65]

 
Cliffs at Palisade Head on Lake Superior in Minnesota near Silver Bay.

Invasive species edit

Since the 19th century, an estimated 160 new species have found their way into the Great Lakes ecosystem; many have become invasive; the overseas ship ballast and ship hull parasitism are causing severe economic and ecological impacts.[67][68] According to the Inland Seas Education Association, on average a new species enters the Great Lakes every eight months.[68] Introductions into the Great Lakes include the zebra mussel, which was first discovered in 1988, and quagga mussel in 1989. Since 2000, the invasive quagga mussel has smothered the bottom of Lake Michigan almost from shore to shore, and their numbers are estimated at 900 trillion.[65] The mollusks are efficient filter feeders, competing with native mussels and reducing available food and spawning grounds for fish. In addition, the mussels may be a nuisance to industries by clogging pipes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated in 2007 that the economic impact of the zebra mussel could be about $5 billion over the next decade.[69][needs update]

 
A zebra mussel–encrusted vector-averaging current meter from Lake Michigan.

The alewife first entered the system west of Lake Ontario via 19th-century canals. By the 1960s, the small silver fish had become a familiar nuisance to beach goers across Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Periodic mass die-offs result in vast numbers of the fish washing up on shore; estimates by various governments have placed the percentage of Lake Michigan's biomass which was made up of alewives in the early 1960s as high as 90%. In the late 1960s, the various state and federal governments began stocking several species of salmonids, including the native lake trout as well as non-native chinook and coho salmon; by the 1980s, alewife populations had dropped drastically.[70] The ruffe, a small percid fish from Eurasia, became the most abundant fish species in Lake Superior's Saint Louis River within five years of its detection in 1986. Its range, which has expanded to Lake Huron, poses a significant threat to the lower lake fishery.[71] Five years after first being observed in the St. Clair River, the round goby can now be found in all of the Great Lakes. The goby is considered undesirable for several reasons: it preys upon bottom-feeding fish, overruns optimal habitat, spawns multiple times a season, and can survive poor water quality conditions.[72]

The influx of parasitic lamprey populations after the development of the Erie Canal and the much later Welland Canal led to the two federal governments of the United States and Canada working on joint proposals to control it. By the mid-1950s, the lake trout populations of Lakes Michigan and Huron were reduced, with the lamprey deemed largely to blame. This led to the launch of the bi-national Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

Several species of exotic water fleas have accidentally been introduced into the Great Lakes, such as the spiny waterflea, Bythotrephes longimanus, and the fishhook waterflea, Cercopagis pengoi, potentially having an effect on the zooplankton population. Several species of crayfish have also been introduced that may contend with native crayfish populations. More recently an electric fence has been set up across the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in order to keep several species of invasive Asian carp out of the lakes. These fast-growing planktivorous fish have heavily colonized the Mississippi and Illinois river systems.[73] Invasive species, particularly zebra and quagga mussels, may be at least partially responsible for the collapse of the deepwater demersal fish community in Lake Huron,[74] as well as drastic unprecedented changes in the zooplankton community of the lake.[75]

Microbiology edit

Scientists understand that the micro-aquatic life of the lakes is abundant but know very little about some of the most plentiful microbes and their environmental effects in the Great Lakes. Although a drop of lake water may contain 1 million bacteria cells and 10 million viruses, only since 2012 has there been a long-term study of the lakes' micro-organisms. Between 2012 and 2019 more than 160 new species have been discovered.[76]

Flora edit

See also the categories Flora of the Great Lakes region (North America) and Trees of the Great Lakes region (North America)

Native habitats and ecoregions in the Great Lakes region include:

Plant lists include:

Logging

Logging of the extensive forests in the Great Lakes region removed riparian and adjacent tree cover over rivers and streams, which provide shade, moderating water temperatures in fish spawning grounds. Removal of trees also destabilized the soil, with greater volumes washed into stream beds causing siltation of gravel beds, and more frequent flooding.

Running cut logs down the tributary rivers into the Great Lakes also dislocated sediments. In 1884, the New York Fish Commission determined that the dumping of sawmill waste (chips and sawdust) had impacted fish populations.[77]

Pollution edit

The first U.S. Clean Water Act, passed by a Congressional override after being vetoed by U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1972, was a key piece of legislation,[78] along with the bi-national Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement signed by Canada and the U.S. A variety of steps taken to process industrial and municipal pollution discharges into the system greatly improved water quality by the 1980s, and Lake Erie in particular is significantly cleaner.[79] Discharge of toxic substances has been sharply reduced. Federal and state regulations control substances like PCBs. The first of 43 "Great Lakes Areas of Concern" to be formally "de-listed" through successful cleanup was Ontario's Collingwood Harbour in 1994; Ontario's Severn Sound followed in 2003.[80] Presque Isle Bay in Pennsylvania is formally listed as in recovery, as is Ontario's Spanish Harbour. Dozens of other Areas of Concern have received partial cleanups such as the Rouge River (Michigan) and Waukegan Harbor (Illinois).[81]

Phosphate detergents were historically a major source of nutrient to the Great Lakes algae blooms in particular in the warmer and shallower portions of the system such as Lake Erie, Saginaw Bay, Green Bay, and the southernmost portion of Lake Michigan. By the mid-1980s, most jurisdictions bordering the Great Lakes had controlled phosphate detergents.[82] Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria blooms,[83] have been problematic on Lake Erie since 2011.[84] "Not enough is being done to stop fertilizer and phosphorus from getting into the lake and causing blooms," said Michael McKay, executive director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research (GLIER) at the University of Windsor. The largest Lake Erie bloom to date occurred in 2015, exceeding the severity index at 10.5 and in 2011 at a 10.[85] In early August 2019, satellite images depicted a bloom stretching up to 1,300 square kilometres on Lake Erie, with the heaviest concentration near Toledo, Ohio. A large bloom does not necessarily mean the cyanobacteria ... will produce toxins", said Michael McKay, of the University of Windsor. Water quality testing was underway in August 2019.[86][85]

Mercury edit

Until 1970, mercury was not listed as a harmful chemical, according to the United States Federal Water Quality Administration. In the 21st century, mercury has become more apparent in water tests. Mercury compounds have been used in paper mills to prevent slime from forming during their production, and chemical companies have used mercury to separate chlorine from brine solutions. Studies conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency have shown that when the mercury comes in contact with many of the bacteria and compounds in the fresh water, it forms the compound methyl mercury, which has a much greater impact on human health than elemental mercury due to a higher propensity for absorption. This form of mercury is not detrimental to a majority of fish types, but is very detrimental to people and other wildlife animals who consume the fish. Mercury has been known for health related problems such as birth defects in humans and animals, and the near extinction of eagles in the Great Lakes region.[87]

Sewage edit

The amount of raw sewage dumped into the waters was the primary focus of both the first Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and federal laws passed in both countries during the 1970s. Implementation of secondary treatment of municipal sewage by major cities greatly reduced the routine discharge of untreated sewage during the 1970s and 1980s.[88] The International Joint Commission in 2009 summarized the change: "Since the early 1970s, the level of treatment to reduce pollution from waste water discharges to the Great Lakes has improved considerably. This is a result of significant expenditures to date on both infrastructure and technology, and robust regulatory systems that have proven to be, on the whole, quite effective."[89] The commission reported that all urban sewage treatment systems on the U.S. side of the lakes had implemented secondary treatment, as had all on the Canadian side except for five small systems.[citation needed]

Though contrary to federal laws in both countries, those treatment system upgrades have not yet eliminated combined sewer overflow events.[citation needed] This describes when older sewerage systems, which combine storm water with sewage into single sewers heading to the treatment plant, are temporarily overwhelmed by heavy rainstorms. Local sewage treatment authorities then must release untreated effluent, a mix of rainwater and sewage, into local water bodies. While enormous public investments such as the Deep Tunnel projects in Chicago and Milwaukee have greatly reduced the frequency and volume of these events, they have not been eliminated. The number of such overflow events in Ontario, for example, is flat according to the International Joint Commission.[89] Reports about this issue on the U.S. side highlight five large municipal systems (those of Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee and Gary) as being the largest current periodic sources of untreated discharges into the Great Lakes.[90]

 
Diatoms of different sizes seen through the microscope. These minuscule phytoplankton are encased within a silicate cell wall.

The fish of the Great Lakes have anti-depressant drugs meant for humans in their brains, which has caused concerns. The number of American adults who take anti-depressant drugs rose from 7.7% of all American adults in 1999–2002 to 12.7% in 2011–2014. As the anti-depressant drugs pass out of human bodies and through sanitation systems into the Great Lakes, this has resulted in fish in the Great Lakes with twenty times the level of anti-depressants in their brains than what is in the water, leading to the fish being exceedingly happy and hence less risk-averse, to the extent of damaging the fish populations.[91]

Plastic edit

Researchers have found that more than 22 million pounds (10.0 kt) of plastic end up in the Great Lakes each year.[92] Plastics in the water break up into very small particles known as microplastics. Microplastics can also come from synthetic clothing washed down our drains.[93] Plastic waste found in the lakes include single-use plastics, plastics used in packaging, takeout containers as well as pre-production pellets produced by plastics industry.[94] High concentrations of microplastics were discovered in 100 percent of the fish that were studied by researchers from the Rochman Lab. About 50 million pounds (23 kt) of fish is harvested each year from Great Lakes which has raised concerns on how this might affect human health.[93] Microscopic pieces of plastic have also been found in drinking water coming from Great Lakes. It is estimated that nearly 40 million people in the region rely on drinking water from the Great Lakes.[92]

A number of self-operating floating devices called Seabin, were put in the Great Lakes to capture plastic trash as part of the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup project. The project captured 74,000 pieces of trash using this technology between 2020 and 2021; however, it does not claim to catch up with 22 million pounds (10.0 kt) of plastic that ends up in Great Lakes every year. The production, consumption, and throwing away of plastics seems to remain the core of Great Lakes trash problem.[95]

Impacts of climate change on algae edit

Algae such as diatoms, along with other phytoplankton, are photosynthetic primary producers supporting the food web of the Great Lakes,[96] and have been affected by global warming.[97] The changes in the size or in the function of the primary producers may have a direct or an indirect impact on the food web. Photosynthesis carried out by diatoms constitutes about one fifth of the total photosynthesis.[where?] By taking CO2 out of the water to photosynthesize, diatoms help to stabilize the pH of the water, as CO2 would react with water to produce carbonic acid.

CO2 + H2O ⇌ HCO−3 + H+

Diatoms acquire inorganic carbon through passive diffusion of CO2 and HCO−3, and use carbonic anhydrase mediated active transport to speed up this process.[98] Large diatoms require more carbon uptake than smaller diatoms.[99] There is a positive correlation between the surface area and the chlorophyll concentration of diatom cells.[100]

History edit

 
A woodcut of Le Griffon

Several Native American populations (Paleo-indians) inhabited the region around 10,000 BC, after the end of the Wisconsin glaciation.[101][102] The peoples of the Great Lakes traded from around 1000 AD, as copper nuggets have been extracted from the region and fashioned into ornaments and weapons in the mounds of Southern Ohio.

The Rush–Bagot Treaty signed in 1818, after the War of 1812 and the later Treaty of Washington eventually led to a complete disarmament of naval vessels in the Great Lakes. Nonetheless, both nations maintained coast guard vessels in the Great Lakes.

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 known sailing ship to travel the upper Great Lakes on August 7, 1679.[103] 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 Welland Canal opened in 1824 and the later Erie Canal opened in 1825.[104] By 1848, with the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal at Chicago, direct access to the Mississippi River was possible from the lakes.[105] 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 19th century 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, have 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.

 
The passenger ship SS Eastland (foreground) leaving Chicago, c. 1909

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 to make steel on the spot. 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; 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 has been since about 1950 the 1,000-by-105-foot (305 by 32 m), 78,850-long-ton (80,120-metric-ton) self-unloader. This is a laker with a conveyor belt system that can unload itself by swinging a crane over the side.[106] 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.

During World War II, the risk of submarine attacks against coastal training facilities motivated the United States Navy to operate two aircraft carriers on the Great Lakes, USS Sable and USS Wolverine. Both served as training ships to qualify naval aviators in carrier landing and takeoff.[107] Lake Champlain briefly became the sixth Great Lake of the United States on March 6, 1998, when President Clinton signed Senate Bill 927. This bill, which reauthorized the National Sea Grant Program, contained a line declaring Lake Champlain to be a Great Lake. Not coincidentally, this status allows neighboring states to apply for additional federal research and education funds allocated to these national resources.[108] Following a small uproar, the Senate voted to revoke the designation on March 24 (although New York and Vermont universities would continue to receive funds to monitor and study the lake).[109]

Alan B. McCullough has written that the fishing industry of the Great Lakes got its start "on the American side of Lake Ontario in Chaumont Bay, near the Maumee River on Lake Erie, and on the Detroit River at about the time of the War of 1812". Although the region was sparsely populated until the 1830s, so there was not much local demand and transporting fish was prohibitively costly, there were economic and infrastructure developments that were promising for the future of the fishing industry going into the 1830s. Particularly, the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal and the Welland Canal a few years later. The fishing industry expanded particularly in the waters associated with the fur trade that connect Lake Erie and Lake Huron. In fact, two major suppliers of fish in the 1830s were the fur trading companies Hudson's Bay Company and the American Fur Company.[110]

The catch from these waters was sent to the growing market for salted fish in Detroit, where merchants involved in the fur trade had already gained some experience handling salted fish. One such merchant was John P. Clark, a shipbuilder and merchant who began selling fish in the area of Manitowoc, Wisconsin where whitefish was abundant. Another operation cropped up in Georgian Bay, Canadian waters plentiful with trout as well as whitefish. In 1831, Alexander MacGregor from Goderich, Ontario found whitefish and herring in abundant supply around the Fishing Islands. A contemporary account by Methodist missionary John Evans describes the fish as resembling a "bright cloud moving rapidly through the water".[110]

From 1844 through 1857, palace steamers carried passengers and cargo around the Great Lakes.[111] In the first half of the 20th century large luxurious passenger steamers sailed the lakes in opulence.[112] The Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company had several vessels at the time and hired workers from all walks of life to help operate these vessels.[113] Several ferries currently operate on the Great Lakes to carry passengers to various islands. As of 2007, four 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, one on Lake Erie: a boat from Kingsville, Ontario, or Leamington, Ontario, to Pelee Island, Ontario, then onto Sandusky, Ohio, and one on Lake Huron: the MS Chi-Cheemaun[114] runs between Tobermory and South Baymouth, Manitoulin Island, operated by the Owen Sound Transportation Company. An international ferry across Lake Ontario from Rochester, New York, to Toronto ran during 2004 and 2005 but is no longer in operation.

Shipwrecks edit

See also: List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, Great Storms of the North American Great Lakes, and Great Lakes Storm of 1913

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, in particular 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.[115] The Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve serves as an underwater museum to protect the many shipwrecks in this area.

The first ship to sink in Lake Michigan was Le Griffon, also the first ship to sail the Great Lakes. Caught in a 1679 storm while trading furs between Green Bay and Michilimacinac, she was lost with all hands aboard.[116] Its wreck may have been found in 2004,[117] but a wreck subsequently discovered in a different location was also claimed in 2014 to be Le Griffon.[118] The largest and last major freighter wrecked on the lakes was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank on November 10, 1975, just over 17 miles (30 km) offshore from Whitefish Point on Lake Superior. The largest loss of life in a shipwreck out on the lakes may have been that of Lady Elgin, wrecked in 1860 with the loss of around 400 lives on Lake Michigan. In an incident at a Chicago dock in 1915, the SS Eastland rolled over while loading passengers, killing 841.

In 2007, the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced that it had found the wreckage of Cyprus, a 420-foot (130 m) 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, Charles Pitz, who floated on a life raft for almost seven hours.[119] In 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".[120] There are no plans to raise her as the site is being treated as a war grave. In 2010, L.R. Doty was found in Lake Michigan by an exploration diving team led by dive boat Captain Jitka Hanakova from her boat Molly V.[121] The ship sank in October 1898, probably attempting to rescue a small schooner, Olive Jeanette, during a terrible storm.

Still missing are the two last warships to sink in the Great Lakes, the French minesweepers Inkerman and Cerisoles, which vanished in Lake Superior during a blizzard in 1918. 78 people died, making it the largest loss of life in Lake Superior and the greatest unexplained loss of life in the Great Lakes.

The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary was established in 2021 in the waters of Lake Michigan off Wisconsin. It is the site of a large number of historically significant shipwrecks.[122][123][124]

Economy edit

 
Map of the Great Lakes, Great Lakes Waterway, St. Lawrence Seaway depicting the entire length.
 
Photograph of, closest to farthest, Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron (North is to the right) plus the Finger Lakes of upstate New York, near Lake Ontario, June 14, 2012, taken aboard the International Space Station, with lake names added

Shipping edit

Except when the water is frozen during winter, more than 100 lake freighters operate continuously on the Great Lakes,[125] which remain a major water transport corridor for bulk goods. The Great Lakes Waterway connects all the lakes; the shorter Saint Lawrence Seaway connects the lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. Some lake freighters are too large to use the Seaway and operate only on the Waterway and lakes. 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.[126] 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. Major ports on the Great Lakes include Duluth-Superior, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Twin Harbors, Hamilton and Thunder Bay.

Recreation edit

 
Escanaba's Ludington Park in Michigan

Tourism and recreation are major industries on the Great Lakes.[127] A few small cruise ships operate on the Great Lakes including some sailing ships. Sport fishing, commercial fishing, and Native American fishing represent a U.S.$4 billion a year industry with salmon, whitefish, smelt, lake trout, bass and walleye being major catches. Many other water sports are practiced on the lakes such as yachting, sea kayaking, diving, kitesurfing, powerboating, and lake surfing. The Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River.[128]

Legislation edit

 
Various national, state, provincial, and municipal jurisdictions govern the Great Lakes

In 1872, a treaty gave access to the St. Lawrence River to the United States and access to Lake Michigan to the Dominion of Canada.[129] The International Joint Commission was established in 1909 to help prevent and resolve disputes relating to the use and quality of boundary waters, and to advise Canada and the United States on questions related to water resources. Concerns over diversion of Lake water are of concern to both Americans and Canadians. Some water is diverted through the Chicago River to operate the Illinois Waterway, but the flow is limited by treaty. Possible schemes for bottled water plants and diversion to dry regions of the continent raise concerns. Under the U.S. "Water Resources Development Act",[130] diversion of water from the Great Lakes Basin requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors through the Great Lakes Commission, which rarely occurs. International treaties regulate large diversions.

In 1998, the Canadian company Nova Group won approval from the Province of Ontario to withdraw 158,000,000 U.S. gallons (600,000 m3) of Lake Superior water annually to ship by tanker to Asian countries. Public outcry forced the company to abandon the plan before it began. Since that time, the eight Great Lakes Governors and the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec have negotiated the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement[131] and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact[132] that would prevent most future diversion proposals and all long-distance ones. The agreements strengthen protection against abusive water withdrawal practices within the Great Lakes basin. On December 13, 2005, the Governors and Premiers signed these two agreements, the first of which is between all ten jurisdictions. It is somewhat more detailed and protective, though its legal strength has not yet been tested in court. The second, the Great Lakes Compact, has been approved by the state legislatures of all eight states that border the Great Lakes as well as the U.S. Congress, and was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 3, 2008.[133]

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, described as "the largest investment in the Great Lakes in two decades",[134] was funded at $475 million in the U.S. federal government's Fiscal Year 2011 budget, and $300 million in the Fiscal Year 2012 budget. Through the program a coalition of federal agencies is making grants to local and state entities for toxics cleanups, wetlands and coastline restoration projects, and invasive species-related projects. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2019 passed as Public Law 116-294 on January 5, 2021.

See also edit

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Further reading edit

  • Annin, Peter (2006). The Great Lakes Water Wars. Island Press. ISBN 978-1-61091-077-4.
  • Beltran, R.; et al. (1995). The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book. Environmental Protection Agency. ISBN 0-662-23441-3.
  • Coon, W.F.; Sheets, R.A. (2006). Estimate of Ground Water in Storage in the Great Lakes Basin. Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5180. United States Geological Survey.
  • Egan, Dan (2018). The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-35555-0.
  • Holling, Holling Clancy (2019) [1941]. Paddle-to-the-Sea. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-15082-5. (an illustrated children's book about the Great Lakes and their environment).
  • Hornbeck Tanner, Helen (1987). Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-2056-0.
  • Riley, John L. (2013). The Once and Future Great Lakes Country: An Ecological History. McGill-Queen's University Press. (traces environmental change in the region since the last ice age.)

External links edit

 
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Great Lakes.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Lakes.

Dynamically updated data edit

  • Surface temperatures
  • Water levels
  • Currents
  • Ship locations

April 12, 2024
great, lakes, this, article, about, north, america, african, african, region, region, other, uses, this, term, disambiguation, french, grands, lacs, also, called, north, america, series, large, interconnected, freshwater, lakes, east, central, interior, north,. This article is about the Great Lakes of North America For the African Great Lakes see African Great Lakes For the region see Great Lakes region For other uses of this term see Great Lakes disambiguation The Great Lakes French Grands Lacs also called the Great Lakes of North America are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the east central interior of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River The five lakes are Superior Michigan Huron Erie and Ontario and they are in general on or near the Canada United States border Hydrologically Michigan and Huron are a single body of water joined at the Straits of Mackinac The Great Lakes Waterway enables modern travel and shipping by water among the lakes Great Lakes of North AmericaGreat LakesThe Great Lakes seen from NASA s Aqua satellite in August 2010 From left to right Lake Superior Michigan Huron Erie OntarioBathymetry map of the Great LakesLocationEastern North AmericaCoordinates45 N 84 W 45 N 84 W 45 84Typegroup of interconnected freshwater lakesPart ofGreat Lakes BasinPrimary inflowsPast precipitation and meltwaterNow rivers precipitation and groundwater springsPrimary outflowsEvaporation St Lawrence River to the Atlantic OceanBasin countriesCanada United StatesSurface area94 250 square miles 244 106 km2 Average depth60 480 ft 18 146 m depending on the lakesMax depth210 1 300 ft 64 396 m depending on the lakesWater volume5 439 cubic miles 22 671 km3 lowest Frozenaround January to MarchLocation of the Great Lakes in North AmericaThe Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total area and the second largest by total volume they contain 21 of the world s surface fresh water by volume 1 2 3 The total surface is 94 250 square miles 244 106 km2 and the total volume measured at the low water datum is 5 439 cubic miles 22 671 km3 4 slightly less than the volume of Lake Baikal 5 666 cu mi or 23 615 km3 22 23 of the world s surface fresh water Because of their sea like characteristics such as rolling waves sustained winds strong currents great depths and distant horizons the five Great Lakes have long been called inland seas 5 Depending on how it is measured by surface area either Lake Superior or Lake Michigan Huron is the second largest lake in the world and the largest freshwater lake Lake Michigan is the largest lake that is entirely within one country 6 7 8 9 The Great Lakes began to form at the end of the Last Glacial Period around 14 000 years ago as retreating ice sheets exposed the basins they had carved into the land which then filled with meltwater 10 The lakes have been a major source for transportation migration trade and fishing serving as a habitat to many aquatic species in a region with much biodiversity The surrounding region is called the Great Lakes region which includes the Great Lakes Megalopolis 11 Contents 1 Geography 1 1 Bathymetry 1 2 Primary connecting waterways 1 3 Lake Michigan Huron 1 4 Large bays and related significant bodies of water 1 5 Islands 1 6 Peninsulas 1 7 Shipping connection to the ocean 1 8 Water levels 2 Etymology 3 Statistics 4 Geology 5 Climate 5 1 Lake effect 6 Ecology 6 1 Fauna 6 2 Invasive species 6 3 Microbiology 6 4 Flora 6 5 Pollution 6 5 1 Mercury 6 5 2 Sewage 6 5 3 Plastic 6 6 Impacts of climate change on algae 7 History 7 1 Shipwrecks 8 Economy 8 1 Shipping 8 2 Recreation 9 Legislation 10 See also 11 References 12 Further reading 13 External links 13 1 Dynamically updated dataGeography edit nbsp A map of the Great Lakes Basin showing the five sub basins Left to right they are Superior magenta Michigan cyan Huron green Erie yellow Ontario red Though the five lakes lie in separate basins they form a single naturally interconnected body of fresh water within the Great Lakes Basin As a chain of lakes and rivers they connect the east central interior of North America to the Atlantic Ocean From the interior to the outlet at the Saint Lawrence River water flows from Superior to Huron and Michigan southward to Erie and finally northward to Lake Ontario The lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers and contain approximately 35 000 islands 12 There are also several thousand smaller lakes often called inland lakes within the basin 13 The surface area of the five primary lakes combined is roughly equal to the size of the United Kingdom while the surface area of the entire basin the lakes and the land they drain is about the size of the UK and France combined 14 Lake Michigan is the only one of the Great Lakes that is entirely within the United States the others form a water boundary between the United States and Canada The lakes are divided among the jurisdictions of the Canadian province of Ontario and the U S states of Michigan Wisconsin Minnesota Illinois Indiana Ohio Pennsylvania and New York Both the province of Ontario and the state of Michigan include in their boundaries portions of four of the lakes The province of Ontario does not border Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan does not border Lake Ontario New York and Wisconsin s jurisdictions extend into two lakes and each of the remaining states into one of the lakes Bathymetry edit Relative elevations average depths maximum depths and volumes of the Great Lakes Notes The area of each rectangle is proportionate to the volume of each lake All measurements at Low Water Datum Source United States Environmental Protection Agency 15 Lake Erie Lake Huron Lake Michigan Lake Ontario Lake SuperiorSurface area 4 25 700 km2 9 910 sq mi 60 000 km2 23 000 sq mi 58 000 km2 22 300 sq mi 19 000 km2 7 340 sq mi 82 000 km2 31 700 sq mi Water volume 4 480 km3 116 cu mi 3 500 km3 850 cu mi 4 900 km3 1 180 cu mi 1 640 km3 393 cu mi 12 000 km3 2 900 cu mi Elevation 15 174 m 571 ft 176 m 577 ft 176 m 577 ft 75 m 246 ft 182 9 m 600 0 ft Average depth 14 19 m 62 ft 59 m 195 ft 85 m 279 ft 86 m 283 ft 147 m 483 ft Maximum depth 16 64 m 210 ft 228 m 748 ft 282 m 925 ft 245 m 804 ft 406 m 1 333 ft Major settlements 17 Buffalo NYErie PACleveland OHDetroit MILorain OHToledo OHSandusky OH Alpena MIBay City MICollingwood ONOwen Sound ONPort Huron MISarnia ON Chicago ILWaukegan ILGary INGreen Bay WISheboygan WIMilwaukee WIKenosha WIRacine WIMuskegon MITraverse City MI Hamilton ONKingston ONMississauga ONOshawa ONRochester NYToronto ON Duluth MNMarquette MISault Ste Marie MISault Ste Marie ONSuperior WIThunder Bay ONAs the surfaces of Lakes Superior Huron Michigan and Erie are all approximately the same elevation above sea level while Lake Ontario is significantly lower and because the Niagara Escarpment precludes all natural navigation the four upper lakes are commonly called the upper great lakes This designation is not universal Those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as the lower lakes because they are farther south Sailors of bulk freighters transferring cargoes from Lake Superior and northern Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to ports on Lake Erie or Ontario commonly refer to the latter as the lower lakes and Lakes Michigan Huron and Superior as the upper lakes This corresponds to thinking of lakes Erie and Ontario as down south and the others as up north Vessels sailing north on Lake Michigan are considered upbound even though they are sailing toward its effluent current 18 nbsp System profile of the Great Lakes Primary connecting waterways edit nbsp Chicago on Lake Michigan is in the western part of the lakes megalopolis and the site of the waterway linking the lakes to the Mississippi River valley nbsp Detroit on the Detroit River links the region s central metropolitan areasThe Chicago River and Calumet River systems connect the Great Lakes Basin to the Mississippi River System through human made alterations and canals The St Marys River including the Soo Locks connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron via the North Channel The Straits of Mackinac connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron the two are hydrologically one lake The St Clair River connects Lake Huron to Lake St Clair The Detroit River connects Lake St Clair to Lake Erie The Niagara River including Niagara Falls connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario The Welland Canal bypassing the Niagara River connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario The Saint Lawrence River and the Saint Lawrence Seaway connect Lake Ontario to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence which connects to the Atlantic Ocean Lake Michigan Huron edit Main article Lake Michigan Huron nbsp Lake Michigan Huron with north oriented to the right taken on April 14 2022 during Expedition 67 of the International Space Station Green Bay is at the upper right and Saginaw Bay is on the left Lakes Huron and Michigan are sometimes considered a single lake called Lake Michigan Huron because they are one hydrological body of water connected by the Straits of Mackinac 19 The straits are five miles 8 km wide 14 and 120 feet 37 m deep the water levels rise and fall together 20 and the flow between Michigan and Huron frequently reverses direction Large bays and related significant bodies of water edit Lake Nipigon connected to Lake Superior by the Nipigon River is surrounded by sill like formations of mafic and ultramafic igneous rock hundreds of meters high The lake lies in the Nipigon Embayment a failed arm of the triple junction centered beneath Lake Superior in the Midcontinent Rift System event estimated at 1 1 billion years ago Green Bay is an arm of Lake Michigan along the south coast of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the east coast of Wisconsin It is separated from the rest of the lake by the Door Peninsula in Wisconsin the Garden Peninsula in Michigan and the chain of islands between them all of which were formed by the Niagara Escarpment Lake Winnebago connected to Green Bay by the Fox River serves as part of the Fox Wisconsin Waterway and is part of a larger system of lakes in Wisconsin known as the Winnebago Pool Grand Traverse Bay is an arm of Lake Michigan on Michigan s west coast and is one of the largest natural harbors in the Great Lakes The bay is divided into east and west arms by the Old Mission Peninsula 21 The bay has one major island Power Island Its name is derived from Jacques Marquette s crossing of the bay from Norwood to Northport which he called La Grande Traversee citation needed Georgian Bay is an arm of Lake Huron extending northeast from the lake entirely within Ontario The bay along with its narrow westerly extensions of the North Channel and Mississagi Strait is separated from the rest of the lake by the Bruce Peninsula Manitoulin Island and Cockburn Island all of which were formed by the Niagara Escarpment Lake Nipissing connected to Georgian Bay by the French River contains two volcanic pipes which are the Manitou Islands and Callander Bay 22 These pipes were formed by a violent supersonic eruption of deep origin The lake lies in the Ottawa Bonnechere Graben a Mesozoic rift valley that formed 175 million years ago Lake Simcoe connected to Georgian Bay by the Severn River serves as part of the Trent Severn Waterway a canal route traversing Southern Ontario between Lakes Ontario and Huron Lake St Clair connected with Lake Huron to its north by the St Clair River and with Lake Erie to its south by the Detroit River Although it is 17 times smaller in area than Lake Ontario and only rarely included in the listings of the Great Lakes 23 24 proposals for its official recognition as a Great Lake are occasionally made which would affect its inclusion in scientific research projects designated as related to The Great Lakes 25 Saginaw Bay an extension of Lake Huron into the Lower Peninsula of Michigan fed by the Saginaw and other rivers has the largest contiguous freshwater wetland in the United States 26 Islands edit nbsp South Bass Island in Lake ErieDispersed throughout the Great Lakes are approximately 35 000 islands 12 The largest among them is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron the largest island in any inland body of water in the world 27 The second largest island is Isle Royale in Lake Superior 28 Both of these islands are large enough to contain multiple lakes themselves for instance Manitoulin Island s Lake Manitou is the world s largest lake on a freshwater island 29 Some of these lakes even have their own islands like Treasure Island in Lake Mindemoya in Manitoulin Island Peninsulas edit nbsp Toronto on Lake Ontario is in the eastern section of the Great Lakes MegalopolisThe Great Lakes also have several peninsulas between them including the Door Peninsula the Peninsulas of Michigan and the Ontario Peninsula Some of these peninsulas even contain smaller peninsulas such as the Bruce Keweenaw Leelanau Niagara and Thumb peninsulas Population centers on the peninsulas include Grand Rapids Flint and Detroit in Michigan along with London Hamilton Brantford and Toronto in Ontario Shipping connection to the ocean edit Although the Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway make the Great Lakes accessible to ocean going vessels 30 shifts in shipping to wider ocean going container ships which do not fit through the locks on these routes have limited container shipping on the lakes Most Great Lakes trade is of bulk material and bulk freighters of Seawaymax size or less can move throughout the entire lakes and out to the Atlantic 31 Larger ships are confined to working within the lakes Only barges can access the Illinois Waterway system providing access to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River Despite their vast size large sections of the Great Lakes freeze over in winter interrupting most shipping from January to March Some icebreakers ply the lakes keeping the shipping lanes open through other periods of ice on the lakes The Great Lakes are connected by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to the Gulf of Mexico via the Illinois River from the Chicago River 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 a combination of a series of rivers and lakes and canals to Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico Commercial tug and barge traffic on these waterways is heavy 32 Pleasure boats can 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 New York and at the south side of Lake Ontario at Oswego New York Water levels edit The lakes were originally fed by both precipitation and meltwater from glaciers which are no longer present In modern times only about 1 of volume per year is new water originating from rivers precipitation and groundwater springs In the post glacial period evaporation and drainage have generally been balanced making the levels of the lakes relatively constant 14 Intensive human population growth began in the region in the 20th century and continues today 14 At least two human water use activities have been identified as having the potential to affect the lakes levels diversion the transfer of water to other watersheds and consumption substantially done today by the use of lake water to power and cool electric generation plants resulting in evaporation 33 Outflows through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal is more than balanced by artificial inflows via the Ogoki River and Long Lake Kenogami River diversions 34 Fluctuation of the water levels in the lakes has been observed since records began in 1918 35 The water level of Lake Michigan Huron had remained fairly constant over the 20th century 36 Recent lake levels include record low levels in 2013 in Lakes Superior Erie and Michigan Huron 37 followed by record high levels in 2020 38 in the same lakes The water level in Lake Ontario has remained relatively constant in the same time period hovering around the historical average level 35 nbsp Water levels of Lakes Michigan and Huron in the United States 1918 to 2019 The lake levels are affected primarily by changes in regional meteorology and climatology The outflows from Lakes Superior and Ontario are regulated while the outflows of Michigan Huron and Erie are not regulated at all Ontario is the most tightly regulated with its outflow controlled by the Moses Saunders Power Dam which explains its consistent historical levels 39 Etymology edit nbsp 1675 French map published shortly before the voyage of Le Griffon Lake Michigan is named Lake Illinois the name change is first recorded in 1681 40 and Lake Ontario is named Lake Frontenac after the then governor of New France nbsp Lakes Superior Michigan Huron and Erie photographed from the Sentinel 3B satellite in June 2022 Lake Ontario is not visible in this image Lake Erie From the Erie tribe a shortened form of the Iroquoian word erielhonan long tail 41 Lake Huron Named for the inhabitants of the area the Wyandot or Hurons by the first French explorers 42 The Wyandot originally referred to the lake by the name karegnondi a word which has been variously translated as Freshwater Sea Lake of the Hurons or simply lake 43 44 Lake Michigan From the Ojibwe word mishi gami great water or large lake 45 Lake Ontario From the Wyandot word ontari io lake of shining waters 46 Lake Superior English translation of the French term lac superieur upper lake referring to its position north of Lake Huron The indigenous Ojibwe call it gichi gami from Ojibwe gichi big large great gami water lake sea Popularized in French influenced transliteration as Gitchigumi as in Gordon Lightfoot s 1976 story song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald or Gitchee Gumee as in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow s 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha 16 Statistics editThe Great Lakes contain 21 of the world s surface fresh water 5 472 cubic miles 22 810 km3 or 6 0 1015 U S gallons that is 6 quadrillion U S gallons 2 3 1016 liters The lakes contain about 84 of the surface freshwater of North America 47 if the water were evenly distributed over the entire continent s land area it would reach a depth of 5 feet 1 5 meters 48 This is enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U S states to a uniform depth of 9 5 feet 2 9 m Although the lakes contain a large percentage of the world s fresh water the Great Lakes supply only a small portion of U S drinking water on a national basis 49 The total surface area of the lakes is approximately 94 250 square miles 244 100 km2 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 50 The Great Lakes coast measures approximately 10 500 miles 16 900 km 14 but the length of a coastline is impossible to measure exactly and is not a well defined measure Canada borders approximately 5 200 miles 8 400 km of coastline while the remaining 5 300 miles 8 500 km are bordered by the United States Michigan has the longest shoreline of the United States bordering roughly 3 288 miles 5 292 km of lakes followed by Wisconsin 820 miles 1 320 km New York 473 miles 761 km and Ohio 312 miles 502 km 51 Traversing the shoreline of all the lakes would cover a distance roughly equivalent to travelling half way around the world at the equator 14 A notable modern phenomenon is the formation of ice volcanoes over the lakes during wintertime Storm generated waves carve the lakes ice sheet and create conical mounds through the eruption of water and slush The process is only well documented in the Great Lakes and has been credited with sparing the southern shorelines from worse rocky erosion 52 Geology edit nbsp A diagram of the formation of the Great Lakes nbsp Map of Glacial Lake Algonquin and its Correlatives USGS 1915 It has been estimated that the foundational geology that created the conditions shaping the present day upper Great Lakes was laid from 1 1 to 1 2 billion years ago 14 53 when two previously fused tectonic plates split apart and created the Midcontinent Rift which crossed the Great Lakes Tectonic Zone A valley was formed providing a basin that eventually became modern day Lake Superior When a second fault line the Saint Lawrence rift formed approximately 570 million years ago 14 the basis for Lakes Ontario and Erie was created along with what would become the Saint Lawrence River The Great Lakes are estimated to have been formed at the end of the Last Glacial Period the Wisconsin glaciation ended 10 000 to 12 000 years ago when the Laurentide Ice Sheet receded 10 The retreat of the ice sheet left behind a large amount of meltwater Lake Algonquin Lake Chicago Glacial Lake Iroquois and Champlain Sea that filled up the basins that the glaciers had carved thus creating the Great Lakes as they are today 54 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 55 Since the glaciers covered some areas longer than others this glacial rebound occurred at different rates Climate editThe Great Lakes have a humid continental climate Koppen climate classification Dfa in southern areas and Dfb in northern parts 56 with varying influences from air masses from other regions including dry cold Arctic systems mild Pacific air masses from the west and warm wet tropical systems from the south and the Gulf of Mexico 57 The lakes have a moderating effect on the climate they can also increase precipitation totals and produce lake effect snowfall 56 Lake effect edit nbsp The location of common lake effect bands on the Great LakesMain article Lake effect snow Great Lakes region This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed February 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Great Lakes can have an effect on regional weather called lake effect snow which is sometimes very localized Even late in winter the lakes often have no icepack in the middle The prevailing winds from the west pick up the air and moisture from the lake surface which is slightly warmer in relation to the cold surface winds above As the slightly warmer moist air passes over the colder land surface the moisture often produces concentrated heavy snowfall that sets up in bands or streamers This is similar to the effect of warmer air dropping snow as it passes over mountain ranges During freezing weather with high winds the snowbelts receive regular snow fall from this localized weather pattern especially along the eastern shores of the lakes Snowbelts are found in Wisconsin Michigan Ohio Pennsylvania New York and Ontario Related to the lake effect is the regular occurrence of fog particularly along the shorelines of the lakes This is most noticeable along Lake Superior s shores The lakes tend to moderate seasonal temperatures to some degree but not with as large an influence as do large oceans they absorb heat and cool the air in summer then slowly radiate that heat in autumn They protect against frost during transitional weather and keep the summertime temperatures cooler than further inland This effect can be very localized and overridden by offshore wind patterns This temperature buffering produces areas known as fruit belts where fruit can be produced that is typically grown much farther south For instance western Michigan has apple orchards and cherry orchards are cultivated adjacent to the lake shore as far north as the Grand Traverse Bay Near Collingwood Ontario commercial fruit orchards including a few wineries exist near the shoreline of southern Nottawasaga Bay The eastern shore of Lake Michigan and the southern shore of Lake Erie have many successful wineries because of the lakes moderating effects as do the large commercial fruit and wine growing areas of the Niagara Peninsula located between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario A similar phenomenon allows wineries to flourish in the Finger Lakes region of New York as well as in Prince Edward County Ontario on Lake Ontario s northeast shore Fun Fact Lake Michigan is a great spot for growing apples because of the soil fertility SOIL 2 20 Al 2 49 Si 1 63 Ca 2 42 Fe 1 94 Ti displaystyle ce SOIL 2 20 Al 2 49 Si 1 63 Ca 2 42 Fe 1 94 Ti nbsp The Great Lakes have been observed to help intensify storms such as Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and the 2011 Goderich Ontario tornado which moved onshore as a tornadic waterspout In 1996 a rare tropical or subtropical storm was observed forming in Lake Huron dubbed the 1996 Lake Huron cyclone Rather large severe thunderstorms covering wide areas are well known in the Great Lakes during mid summer these Mesoscale convective complexes or MCCs 58 can cause damage to wide swaths of forest and shatter glass in city buildings These storms mainly occur during the night and the systems sometimes have small embedded tornadoes but more often straight line winds accompanied by intense lightning Ecology edit nbsp Generalized schematic of Great Lakes waterline ecosystem Historically the Great Lakes in addition to their lake ecology were surrounded by various forest ecoregions except in a relatively small area of southeast Lake Michigan where savanna or prairie occasionally intruded Logging urbanization and agriculture uses have changed that relationship In the early 21st century Lake Superior s shores are 91 forested Lake Huron 68 Lake Ontario 49 Lake Michigan 41 and Lake Erie where logging and urbanization has been most extensive 21 Some of these forests are second or third growth i e they have been logged before changing their composition At least 13 wildlife species are documented as becoming extinct since the arrival of Europeans and many more are threatened or endangered 14 Meanwhile exotic and invasive species have also been introduced Fauna edit See also Great Lakes Areas of Concern Invasive species Category Fauna of the Great Lakes region North America Category Fish of the Great Lakes and Asian carp in North America nbsp Lake sturgeon the largest native fish in the Great Lakes and the subject of extensive commercial fishing in the 19th and 20th centuries is listed as a threatened species 59 While the organisms living on the bottom of shallow waters are similar to those found in smaller lakes the deep waters contain organisms found only in deep cold lakes of the northern latitudes These include the delicate opossum shrimp order mysida the deepwater scud a crustacean of the order amphipoda two types of copepods and the deepwater sculpin a spiny large headed fish 60 The Great Lakes are an important source of fishing Early European settlers were astounded by both the variety and quantity of fish there were 150 different species in the Great Lakes 14 Throughout history fish populations were the early indicator of the condition of the Lakes and have remained one of the key indicators even in the current era of sophisticated analyses and measuring instruments According to the bi national U S and Canadian resource book The Great Lakes An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book The largest Great Lakes fish harvests were recorded in 1889 and 1899 at some 67 000 tonnes 66 000 long tons 74 000 short tons 147 million pounds 61 By 1801 the New York Legislature found it necessary to pass regulations curtailing obstructions to the natural migrations of Atlantic salmon from Lake Erie into their spawning channels In the early 19th century the government of Upper Canada found it necessary to introduce similar legislation prohibiting the use of weirs and nets at the mouths of Lake Ontario s tributaries Other protective legislation was passed but enforcement remained difficult 62 On both sides of the Canada United States border the proliferation of dams and impoundments have multiplied necessitating more regulatory efforts Concerns by the mid 19th century included obstructions in the rivers which prevented salmon and lake sturgeon from reaching their spawning grounds The Wisconsin Fisheries Commission noted a reduction of roughly 25 in general fish harvests by 1875 The states have removed dams from rivers where necessary clarification needed 63 Overfishing has been cited as a possible reason for a decrease in population of various whitefish important because of their culinary desirability and hence economic consequence Moreover between 1879 and 1899 reported whitefish harvests declined from some 24 3 million pounds 11 million kg to just over 9 million pounds 4 million kg 64 By 1900 commercial fishermen on Lake Michigan were hauling in an average of 41 million pounds of fish annually 65 By 1938 Wisconsin s commercial fishing operations were motorized and mechanized generating jobs for more than 2 000 workers and hauling 14 million pounds per year 65 The population of giant freshwater mussels was eliminated as the mussels were harvested for use as buttons by early Great Lakes entrepreneurs 64 The Great Lakes An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book 1972 notes Only pockets remain of the once large commercial fishery 61 Water quality improvements realized during the 1970s and 1980s combined with successful salmonid stocking programs have enabled the growth of a large recreational fishery 66 The last commercial fisherman left Milwaukee in 2011 because of overfishing and anthropogenic changes to the biosphere 65 nbsp Cliffs at Palisade Head on Lake Superior in Minnesota near Silver Bay Invasive species edit Since the 19th century an estimated 160 new species have found their way into the Great Lakes ecosystem many have become invasive the overseas ship ballast and ship hull parasitism are causing severe economic and ecological impacts 67 68 According to the Inland Seas Education Association on average a new species enters the Great Lakes every eight months 68 Introductions into the Great Lakes include the zebra mussel which was first discovered in 1988 and quagga mussel in 1989 Since 2000 the invasive quagga mussel has smothered the bottom of Lake Michigan almost from shore to shore and their numbers are estimated at 900 trillion 65 The mollusks are efficient filter feeders competing with native mussels and reducing available food and spawning grounds for fish In addition the mussels may be a nuisance to industries by clogging pipes The U S Fish and Wildlife Service estimated in 2007 that the economic impact of the zebra mussel could be about 5 billion over the next decade 69 needs update nbsp A zebra mussel encrusted vector averaging current meter from Lake Michigan The alewife first entered the system west of Lake Ontario via 19th century canals By the 1960s the small silver fish had become a familiar nuisance to beach goers across Lakes Michigan Huron and Erie Periodic mass die offs result in vast numbers of the fish washing up on shore estimates by various governments have placed the percentage of Lake Michigan s biomass which was made up of alewives in the early 1960s as high as 90 In the late 1960s the various state and federal governments began stocking several species of salmonids including the native lake trout as well as non native chinook and coho salmon by the 1980s alewife populations had dropped drastically 70 The ruffe a small percid fish from Eurasia became the most abundant fish species in Lake Superior s Saint Louis River within five years of its detection in 1986 Its range which has expanded to Lake Huron poses a significant threat to the lower lake fishery 71 Five years after first being observed in the St Clair River the round goby can now be found in all of the Great Lakes The goby is considered undesirable for several reasons it preys upon bottom feeding fish overruns optimal habitat spawns multiple times a season and can survive poor water quality conditions 72 The influx of parasitic lamprey populations after the development of the Erie Canal and the much later Welland Canal led to the two federal governments of the United States and Canada working on joint proposals to control it By the mid 1950s the lake trout populations of Lakes Michigan and Huron were reduced with the lamprey deemed largely to blame This led to the launch of the bi national Great Lakes Fishery Commission Several species of exotic water fleas have accidentally been introduced into the Great Lakes such as the spiny waterflea Bythotrephes longimanus and the fishhook waterflea Cercopagis pengoi potentially having an effect on the zooplankton population Several species of crayfish have also been introduced that may contend with native crayfish populations More recently an electric fence has been set up across the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in order to keep several species of invasive Asian carp out of the lakes These fast growing planktivorous fish have heavily colonized the Mississippi and Illinois river systems 73 Invasive species particularly zebra and quagga mussels may be at least partially responsible for the collapse of the deepwater demersal fish community in Lake Huron 74 as well as drastic unprecedented changes in the zooplankton community of the lake 75 Microbiology edit Scientists understand that the micro aquatic life of the lakes is abundant but know very little about some of the most plentiful microbes and their environmental effects in the Great Lakes Although a drop of lake water may contain 1 million bacteria cells and 10 million viruses only since 2012 has there been a long term study of the lakes micro organisms Between 2012 and 2019 more than 160 new species have been discovered 76 Flora edit See also the categories Flora of the Great Lakes region North America and Trees of the Great Lakes region North America Native habitats and ecoregions in the Great Lakes region include Alvar Boreal rich fen such as in Door County Eastern forest boreal transition Eastern Great Lakes lowland forests Southern Great Lakes forests Central forest grasslands transition Upper Midwest forest savanna transition Western Great Lakes forests Central Canadian Shield forests Laurentian Mixed Forest Province Beech maple forest Habitats of the Indiana DunesPlant lists include List of Michigan flowers List of Minnesota wild flowers List of Minnesota treesLoggingLogging of the extensive forests in the Great Lakes region removed riparian and adjacent tree cover over rivers and streams which provide shade moderating water temperatures in fish spawning grounds Removal of trees also destabilized the soil with greater volumes washed into stream beds causing siltation of gravel beds and more frequent flooding Running cut logs down the tributary rivers into the Great Lakes also dislocated sediments In 1884 the New York Fish Commission determined that the dumping of sawmill waste chips and sawdust had impacted fish populations 77 Pollution edit The first U S Clean Water Act passed by a Congressional override after being vetoed by U S President Richard Nixon in 1972 was a key piece of legislation 78 along with the bi national Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement signed by Canada and the U S A variety of steps taken to process industrial and municipal pollution discharges into the system greatly improved water quality by the 1980s and Lake Erie in particular is significantly cleaner 79 Discharge of toxic substances has been sharply reduced Federal and state regulations control substances like PCBs The first of 43 Great Lakes Areas of Concern to be formally de listed through successful cleanup was Ontario s Collingwood Harbour in 1994 Ontario s Severn Sound followed in 2003 80 Presque Isle Bay in Pennsylvania is formally listed as in recovery as is Ontario s Spanish Harbour Dozens of other Areas of Concern have received partial cleanups such as the Rouge River Michigan and Waukegan Harbor Illinois 81 Phosphate detergents were historically a major source of nutrient to the Great Lakes algae blooms in particular in the warmer and shallower portions of the system such as Lake Erie Saginaw Bay Green Bay and the southernmost portion of Lake Michigan By the mid 1980s most jurisdictions bordering the Great Lakes had controlled phosphate detergents 82 Blue green algae or cyanobacteria blooms 83 have been problematic on Lake Erie since 2011 84 Not enough is being done to stop fertilizer and phosphorus from getting into the lake and causing blooms said Michael McKay executive director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research GLIER at the University of Windsor The largest Lake Erie bloom to date occurred in 2015 exceeding the severity index at 10 5 and in 2011 at a 10 85 In early August 2019 satellite images depicted a bloom stretching up to 1 300 square kilometres on Lake Erie with the heaviest concentration near Toledo Ohio A large bloom does not necessarily mean the cyanobacteria will produce toxins said Michael McKay of the University of Windsor Water quality testing was underway in August 2019 86 85 Mercury edit Until 1970 mercury was not listed as a harmful chemical according to the United States Federal Water Quality Administration In the 21st century mercury has become more apparent in water tests Mercury compounds have been used in paper mills to prevent slime from forming during their production and chemical companies have used mercury to separate chlorine from brine solutions Studies conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency have shown that when the mercury comes in contact with many of the bacteria and compounds in the fresh water it forms the compound methyl mercury which has a much greater impact on human health than elemental mercury due to a higher propensity for absorption This form of mercury is not detrimental to a majority of fish types but is very detrimental to people and other wildlife animals who consume the fish Mercury has been known for health related problems such as birth defects in humans and animals and the near extinction of eagles in the Great Lakes region 87 Sewage edit The amount of raw sewage dumped into the waters was the primary focus of both the first Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and federal laws passed in both countries during the 1970s Implementation of secondary treatment of municipal sewage by major cities greatly reduced the routine discharge of untreated sewage during the 1970s and 1980s 88 The International Joint Commission in 2009 summarized the change Since the early 1970s the level of treatment to reduce pollution from waste water discharges to the Great Lakes has improved considerably This is a result of significant expenditures to date on both infrastructure and technology and robust regulatory systems that have proven to be on the whole quite effective 89 The commission reported that all urban sewage treatment systems on the U S side of the lakes had implemented secondary treatment as had all on the Canadian side except for five small systems citation needed Though contrary to federal laws in both countries those treatment system upgrades have not yet eliminated combined sewer overflow events citation needed This describes when older sewerage systems which combine storm water with sewage into single sewers heading to the treatment plant are temporarily overwhelmed by heavy rainstorms Local sewage treatment authorities then must release untreated effluent a mix of rainwater and sewage into local water bodies While enormous public investments such as the Deep Tunnel projects in Chicago and Milwaukee have greatly reduced the frequency and volume of these events they have not been eliminated The number of such overflow events in Ontario for example is flat according to the International Joint Commission 89 Reports about this issue on the U S side highlight five large municipal systems those of Detroit Cleveland Buffalo Milwaukee and Gary as being the largest current periodic sources of untreated discharges into the Great Lakes 90 nbsp Diatoms of different sizes seen through the microscope These minuscule phytoplankton are encased within a silicate cell wall The fish of the Great Lakes have anti depressant drugs meant for humans in their brains which has caused concerns The number of American adults who take anti depressant drugs rose from 7 7 of all American adults in 1999 2002 to 12 7 in 2011 2014 As the anti depressant drugs pass out of human bodies and through sanitation systems into the Great Lakes this has resulted in fish in the Great Lakes with twenty times the level of anti depressants in their brains than what is in the water leading to the fish being exceedingly happy and hence less risk averse to the extent of damaging the fish populations 91 Plastic edit Researchers have found that more than 22 million pounds 10 0 kt of plastic end up in the Great Lakes each year 92 Plastics in the water break up into very small particles known as microplastics Microplastics can also come from synthetic clothing washed down our drains 93 Plastic waste found in the lakes include single use plastics plastics used in packaging takeout containers as well as pre production pellets produced by plastics industry 94 High concentrations of microplastics were discovered in 100 percent of the fish that were studied by researchers from the Rochman Lab About 50 million pounds 23 kt of fish is harvested each year from Great Lakes which has raised concerns on how this might affect human health 93 Microscopic pieces of plastic have also been found in drinking water coming from Great Lakes It is estimated that nearly 40 million people in the region rely on drinking water from the Great Lakes 92 A number of self operating floating devices called Seabin were put in the Great Lakes to capture plastic trash as part of the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup project The project captured 74 000 pieces of trash using this technology between 2020 and 2021 however it does not claim to catch up with 22 million pounds 10 0 kt of plastic that ends up in Great Lakes every year The production consumption and throwing away of plastics seems to remain the core of Great Lakes trash problem 95 Impacts of climate change on algae edit Algae such as diatoms along with other phytoplankton are photosynthetic primary producers supporting the food web of the Great Lakes 96 and have been affected by global warming 97 The changes in the size or in the function of the primary producers may have a direct or an indirect impact on the food web Photosynthesis carried out by diatoms constitutes about one fifth of the total photosynthesis where By taking CO2 out of the water to photosynthesize diatoms help to stabilize the pH of the water as CO2 would react with water to produce carbonic acid CO2 H2O HCO 3 H Diatoms acquire inorganic carbon through passive diffusion of CO2 and HCO 3 and use carbonic anhydrase mediated active transport to speed up this process 98 Large diatoms require more carbon uptake than smaller diatoms 99 There is a positive correlation between the surface area and the chlorophyll concentration of diatom cells 100 History edit nbsp A woodcut of Le GriffonSeveral Native American populations Paleo indians inhabited the region around 10 000 BC after the end of the Wisconsin glaciation 101 102 The peoples of the Great Lakes traded from around 1000 AD as copper nuggets have been extracted from the region and fashioned into ornaments and weapons in the mounds of Southern Ohio The Rush Bagot Treaty signed in 1818 after the War of 1812 and the later Treaty of Washington eventually led to a complete disarmament of naval vessels in the Great Lakes Nonetheless both nations maintained coast guard vessels in the Great Lakes The brigantine Le Griffon which was commissioned by Rene Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle was built at Cayuga Creek near the southern end of the Niagara River and became the first known sailing ship to travel the upper Great Lakes on August 7 1679 103 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 Welland Canal opened in 1824 and the later Erie Canal opened in 1825 104 By 1848 with the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal at Chicago direct access to the Mississippi River was possible from the lakes 105 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 19th century 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 have 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 nbsp The passenger ship SS Eastland foreground leaving Chicago c 1909Since 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 to make steel on the spot 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 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 has been since about 1950 the 1 000 by 105 foot 305 by 32 m 78 850 long ton 80 120 metric ton self unloader This is a laker with a conveyor belt system that can unload itself by swinging a crane over the side 106 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 During World War II the risk of submarine attacks against coastal training facilities motivated the United States Navy to operate two aircraft carriers on the Great Lakes USS Sable and USS Wolverine Both served as training ships to qualify naval aviators in carrier landing and takeoff 107 Lake Champlain briefly became the sixth Great Lake of the United States on March 6 1998 when President Clinton signed Senate Bill 927 This bill which reauthorized the National Sea Grant Program contained a line declaring Lake Champlain to be a Great Lake Not coincidentally this status allows neighboring states to apply for additional federal research and education funds allocated to these national resources 108 Following a small uproar the Senate voted to revoke the designation on March 24 although New York and Vermont universities would continue to receive funds to monitor and study the lake 109 Alan B McCullough has written that the fishing industry of the Great Lakes got its start on the American side of Lake Ontario in Chaumont Bay near the Maumee River on Lake Erie and on the Detroit River at about the time of the War of 1812 Although the region was sparsely populated until the 1830s so there was not much local demand and transporting fish was prohibitively costly there were economic and infrastructure developments that were promising for the future of the fishing industry going into the 1830s Particularly the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal and the Welland Canal a few years later The fishing industry expanded particularly in the waters associated with the fur trade that connect Lake Erie and Lake Huron In fact two major suppliers of fish in the 1830s were the fur trading companies Hudson s Bay Company and the American Fur Company 110 The catch from these waters was sent to the growing market for salted fish in Detroit where merchants involved in the fur trade had already gained some experience handling salted fish One such merchant was John P Clark a shipbuilder and merchant who began selling fish in the area of Manitowoc Wisconsin where whitefish was abundant Another operation cropped up in Georgian Bay Canadian waters plentiful with trout as well as whitefish In 1831 Alexander MacGregor from Goderich Ontario found whitefish and herring in abundant supply around the Fishing Islands A contemporary account by Methodist missionary John Evans describes the fish as resembling a bright cloud moving rapidly through the water 110 From 1844 through 1857 palace steamers carried passengers and cargo around the Great Lakes 111 In the first half of the 20th century large luxurious passenger steamers sailed the lakes in opulence 112 The Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Company had several vessels at the time and hired workers from all walks of life to help operate these vessels 113 Several ferries currently operate on the Great Lakes to carry passengers to various islands As of 2007 four 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 one on Lake Erie a boat from Kingsville Ontario or Leamington Ontario to Pelee Island Ontario then onto Sandusky Ohio and one on Lake Huron the MS Chi Cheemaun 114 runs between Tobermory and South Baymouth Manitoulin Island operated by the Owen Sound Transportation Company An international ferry across Lake Ontario from Rochester New York to Toronto ran during 2004 and 2005 but is no longer in operation Shipwrecks edit See also List of shipwrecks in the Great Lakes Great Storms of the North American Great Lakes and Great Lakes Storm of 1913 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 in particular 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 115 The Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve serves as an underwater museum to protect the many shipwrecks in this area The first ship to sink in Lake Michigan was Le Griffon also the first ship to sail the Great Lakes Caught in a 1679 storm while trading furs between Green Bay and Michilimacinac she was lost with all hands aboard 116 Its wreck may have been found in 2004 117 but a wreck subsequently discovered in a different location was also claimed in 2014 to be Le Griffon 118 The largest and last major freighter wrecked on the lakes was the SS Edmund Fitzgerald which sank on November 10 1975 just over 17 miles 30 km offshore from Whitefish Point on Lake Superior The largest loss of life in a shipwreck out on the lakes may have been that of Lady Elgin wrecked in 1860 with the loss of around 400 lives on Lake Michigan In an incident at a Chicago dock in 1915 the SS Eastland rolled over while loading passengers killing 841 In 2007 the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced that it had found the wreckage of Cyprus a 420 foot 130 m 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 Charles Pitz who floated on a life raft for almost seven hours 119 In 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 120 There are no plans to raise her as the site is being treated as a war grave In 2010 L R Doty was found in Lake Michigan by an exploration diving team led by dive boat Captain Jitka Hanakova from her boat Molly V 121 The ship sank in October 1898 probably attempting to rescue a small schooner Olive Jeanette during a terrible storm Still missing are the two last warships to sink in the Great Lakes the French minesweepers Inkerman and Cerisoles which vanished in Lake Superior during a blizzard in 1918 78 people died making it the largest loss of life in Lake Superior and the greatest unexplained loss of life in the Great Lakes The Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary was established in 2021 in the waters of Lake Michigan off Wisconsin It is the site of a large number of historically significant shipwrecks 122 123 124 Economy edit nbsp Map of the Great Lakes Great Lakes Waterway St Lawrence Seaway depicting the entire length nbsp Photograph of closest to farthest Lakes Ontario Erie and Huron North is to the right plus the Finger Lakes of upstate New York near Lake Ontario June 14 2012 taken aboard the International Space Station with lake names addedShipping edit Except when the water is frozen during winter more than 100 lake freighters operate continuously on the Great Lakes 125 which remain a major water transport corridor for bulk goods The Great Lakes Waterway connects all the lakes the shorter Saint Lawrence Seaway connects the lakes to the Atlantic Ocean Some lake freighters are too large to use the Seaway and operate only on the Waterway and lakes 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 126 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 Major ports on the Great Lakes include Duluth Superior Chicago Detroit Cleveland Twin Harbors Hamilton and Thunder Bay Recreation edit nbsp Escanaba s Ludington Park in MichiganTourism and recreation are major industries on the Great Lakes 127 A few small cruise ships operate on the Great Lakes including some sailing ships Sport fishing commercial fishing and Native American fishing represent a U S 4 billion a year industry with salmon whitefish smelt lake trout bass and walleye being major catches Many other water sports are practiced on the lakes such as yachting sea kayaking diving kitesurfing powerboating and lake surfing The Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River 128 Legislation edit nbsp Various national state provincial and municipal jurisdictions govern the Great LakesIn 1872 a treaty gave access to the St Lawrence River to the United States and access to Lake Michigan to the Dominion of Canada 129 The International Joint Commission was established in 1909 to help prevent and resolve disputes relating to the use and quality of boundary waters and to advise Canada and the United States on questions related to water resources Concerns over diversion of Lake water are of concern to both Americans and Canadians Some water is diverted through the Chicago River to operate the Illinois Waterway but the flow is limited by treaty Possible schemes for bottled water plants and diversion to dry regions of the continent raise concerns Under the U S Water Resources Development Act 130 diversion of water from the Great Lakes Basin requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors through the Great Lakes Commission which rarely occurs International treaties regulate large diversions In 1998 the Canadian company Nova Group won approval from the Province of Ontario to withdraw 158 000 000 U S gallons 600 000 m3 of Lake Superior water annually to ship by tanker to Asian countries Public outcry forced the company to abandon the plan before it began Since that time the eight Great Lakes Governors and the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec have negotiated the Great Lakes Saint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement 131 and the Great Lakes St Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact 132 that would prevent most future diversion proposals and all long distance ones The agreements strengthen protection against abusive water withdrawal practices within the Great Lakes basin On December 13 2005 the Governors and Premiers signed these two agreements the first of which is between all ten jurisdictions It is somewhat more detailed and protective though its legal strength has not yet been tested in court The second the Great Lakes Compact has been approved by the state legislatures of all eight states that border the Great Lakes as well as the U S Congress and was signed into law by President George W Bush on October 3 2008 133 The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative described as the largest investment in the Great Lakes in two decades 134 was funded at 475 million in the U S federal government s Fiscal Year 2011 budget and 300 million in the Fiscal Year 2012 budget Through the program a coalition of federal agencies is making grants to local and state entities for toxics cleanups wetlands and coastline restoration projects and invasive species related projects The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2019 passed as Public Law 116 294 on January 5 2021 See also edit nbsp Lakes portalAlliance for the Great Lakes Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 Eastern Continental Divide Great Lakes census statistical areas Great Lakes Protection Fund Great Lakes WATER Institute Great Recycling and Northern Development Canal List of municipalities on the Great Lakes Michigan Islands National Wildlife Refuge Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary Populated islands of the Great Lakes Sixty Years War for control of the Great LakesReferences edit Great Lakes U S Environmental Protection Agency June 28 2006 Retrieved February 19 2011 LUHNA Chapter 6 Historical Landcover Changes in the Great Lakes Region USGS Ecosystems November 20 2003 Archived from the original on January 11 2012 Retrieved February 19 2011 Ghassemi Fereidoun 2007 Inter basin water transfer Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 86969 0 a b c Great Lakes Basic Information Physical Facts U S Environmental Protection Agency May 25 2011 Archived from the original on May 29 2012 Retrieved November 9 2011 Williamson James 2007 The inland seas of North America and the natural and industrial productions John Duff Montreal Hew Ramsay Toronto AH Armour and Co ISBN 9780665341281 Retrieved January 5 2014 The Top Ten The Ten Largest Lakes of the World infoplease com Rosenberg Matt Largest Lakes in the World by Area Volume and Depth About com Education Archived from the original on February 17 2017 Retrieved January 30 2015 Hough Jack 1970 1763 Great Lakes Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 10 Commemorative Edition for Expo 70 ed Chicago William Benton p 774 ISBN 978 0 85229 135 1 Large Lakes of the World factmonster com a b Cordell Linda S Lightfoot Kent McManamon Francis Milner George 2008 Archaeology in America An Encyclopedia ABC CLIO p 1 ISBN 978 0 313 02189 3 Great Lakes America 2050 Archived from the original on February 20 2020 Retrieved December 7 2016 a b Bennett Tom 1999 State of the Great Lakes 1997 Annual Report Diane Publishing p 1991 ISBN 978 0 7881 4358 8 Likens Gene E 2010 Lake Ecosystem Ecology A Global Perspective Academic Press p 326 ISBN 978 0 12 382003 7 a b c d e f g h i j k Grady Wayne 2007 The Great Lakes Vancouver Greystone Books and David Suzuki Foundation pp 13 21 26 42 43 ISBN 978 1 55365 197 0 a b Great Lakes Atlas Factsheet 1 U S Environmental Protection Agency March 9 2006 Archived from the original on March 28 2008 Retrieved December 3 2007 a b Great Lakes Map Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Archived from the original on November 14 2011 Retrieved November 27 2011 See List of cities on the Great Lakes for a complete list Bowlus W Bruce 2010 Iron Ore Transport on the Great Lakes The Development of a Delivery System to Feed American Industry McFarland p 215 ISBN 978 0 7864 8655 7 Michigan and Huron One Lake or Two Information Please Database Pearson Education 2007 Wright John W ed 2006 The New York Times Almanac 2007 ed New York Penguin Books p 64 ISBN 978 0 14 303820 7 Home Peninsula Township Retrieved December 7 2016 Background Geology of the North Bay area Archived from the original on July 24 2010 Retrieved September 24 2007 self published source Lake St Clair summary report PDF Great Lakes net Archived from the original PDF on April 16 2016 Retrieved December 2 2007 Chapter 1 Introduction to Lake St Clair and the St Clair River U S government U S Army June 2004 Archived from the original on January 10 2009 Retrieved June 8 2008 Movement Would Thrust Greatness on Lake St Clair Los Angeles Times October 20 2002 The Great Lakes Environmental Protection Agency August 20 2015 REG 05 Dunn Gary A 1996 Insects of the Great Lakes Region University of Michigan Press p 3 ISBN 978 0 472 06515 8 Huber Norman King United States Geological Survey United States National Park Service 1975 The geologic story of Isle Royale National Park Government Printing Office p 41 ISBN 9780932212313 Manivanan R 2008 Water Quality Modeling Rivers Streams and Estuaries New India Publishing p 114 ISBN 978 81 89422 93 6 McCalla Robert January 1 1994 Water Transportation in Canada Formac Publishing Company pp 159 162 ISBN 978 0 88780 247 8 Coastal Sediments 07 ASCE Publications 2007 p 2215 ISBN 978 0 7844 7194 4 Retrieved April 16 2013 United States Bureau of the Census 1908 Transportation by water 1906 Government Printing Office p 220 State of the Great Lakes 2009 Highlights Environment Canada and Environmental Protection Agency pp 7 8 Retrieved July 7 2013 An Overview of Great Lakes Diversions International Joint Commission May 14 2020 Retrieved September 29 2021 a b Great Lakes Water Levels 1918 2021 PDF United State Army Corps of Engineers Archived PDF from the original on July 11 2019 Retrieved June 26 2021 Bolsenga Stanley J Herdendorf Charles E 1993 Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair Handbook Wayne State University Press p 67 ISBN 978 0 8143 2470 7 Egan Dan February 5 2013 Lakes Michigan Huron hit record low water level Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Retrieved June 26 2021 Lake Michigan Huron Water Levels from Harbor Beach MI 9075014 2020 2021 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Retrieved June 26 2021 Armstrong Leslie August 14 2014 Great Lakes Water Levels Rebound Thanks to Prolonged Winter Toronto Star Dunbar W F May G S 1995 Michigan A History of the Wolverine State Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Company p 64 ISBN 978 1 4674 3517 8 Retrieved September 7 2022 By 1681 a map published in Paris obviously based on this new information shows the Mississippi River and the western shore of Lake Michigan Earlier maps had called the lake Lac des Illinois this was the first to call it Lac de Michigami thus introducing an early variation of the future state s name Room A 2006 Placenames of the World Origins And Meanings of the Names for 6 600 Countries Cities Territories Natural Features And Historic Sites McFarland p 150 ISBN 978 0 7864 2248 7 Room 2006 p 171 Sioui Georges E 1999 Huron Wendat Jane Brierley UBC Press ISBN 978 0 7748 0715 9 Retrieved March 12 2009 Fonger Ron May 3 2007 Genesee Oakland counties adopt historic name for water group The Flint Journal Retrieved December 6 2011 Weiland Matt Wilsey Sean 2010 State by State HarperCollins p 226 ISBN 978 0 06 204357 3 Ylvisaker Anne 2004 Lake Ontario Capstone p 12 ISBN 978 0 7368 2211 4 The Great Lakes Environmaal Protection Agency August 20 2015 Grady Wayne 2007 The Great Lakes Vancouver Greystone Books and David Suzuki Foundation pp 13 21 26 42 43 ISBN 978 1 55365 197 0 Cayton Andrew R L Sisson Richard Zacher Chris 2006 The American Midwest An Interpretive Encyclopedia Indiana University Press p 161 ISBN 978 0 253 00349 2 Taylor William W Schechter Michael G Wolfson Lois G 2007 Globalization Effects on Fisheries Resources Cambridge University Press p 85 ISBN 978 1 139 46834 3 Shorelines of the Great Lakes Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Archived from the original on July 14 2014 Retrieved July 8 2014 Fahnestock R K Crowley D J Wilson M Schneider H 1973 Ice Volcanoes of the Lake Erie Shore Near Dunkirk New York U S A PDF Journal of Glaciology 12 64 93 99 doi 10 3189 S0022143000022735 Archived PDF from the original on August 28 2017 Retrieved May 25 2018 Van Schmus W R Hinze W J May 1985 The Midcontinent Rift System PDF Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 13 1 345 83 Bibcode 1985AREPS 13 345V doi 10 1146 annurev ea 13 050185 002021 hdl 1808 104 Retrieved October 6 2008 Larson Grahame Schaetzl R 2001 Origin and evolution of the Great Lakes PDF Journal of Great Lakes Research 27 4 518 546 Bibcode 2001JGLR 27 518L doi 10 1016 S0380 1330 01 70665 X Archived from the original PDF on October 31 2008 Retrieved March 4 2009 Lake levels report weighs Great Lakes basin s glacial legacy Great Lakes Echo June 8 2009 Retrieved February 19 2011 a b Natural Processes in the Great Lakes The Great Lakes An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book Environmental Protection Agency July 24 2008 Retrieved November 27 2011 Great Lakes Water Levels Sensitive To Climate Change Science Daily January 14 2009 Retrieved April 14 2010 Glossary National Weather Service U S Fish and Wildlife Service Great Lakes Lake Sturgeon Web Site Beeton Alfred Great Lakes Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved January 31 2016 a b Anon 1972 The Great Lakes An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book Bi national U S and Canadian resource book full citation needed Bogue Margaret Beattie 2001 Fishing the Great Lakes An Environmental History 1783 1933 Univ of Wisconsin Press p 180 ISBN 978 0 299 16763 9 Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission Special report of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission The Commission p 23 a b Macdonald David Service Katrina eds 2009 Key Topics in Conservation Biology John Wiley amp Sons p 188 ISBN 978 1 4443 0906 5 a b c d The lake left me It s gone Milwaukee Journal Sentinel August 13 2011 Great Minds Great Lakes Don t Miss The Boat With Environmental Education Environmental Protection Agency March 1997 p 7 New EPA rules to target invasive species Invaders have plagued Great Lakes for years The Blade ProQuest 380761083 a b Our Threatened Great Lakes Inland Seas Education Association Archived from the original on April 3 2013 Retrieved November 30 2007 Great Lakes Aquatic Nuisance Species Great Lakes Commission March 27 2007 Archived from the original on April 15 2007 Retrieved November 30 2007 Smith Paul February 24 2009 Gobies up alewives down in Lake Michigan Miwaukee Journal Sentinel Archived from the original on June 5 2011 Retrieved August 6 2010 Predicting Invasive Species in the Great Lakes Environmental Protection Agency Archived from the original on February 5 2011 Glassner Shwayder Katherine July 2000 Briefing Paper Great Lakes Nonindigenous Invasive Species PDF Great Lakes Nonindigenous Invasive Species Workshop Archived from the original PDF on 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Evolution of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Michigan State University Press Recovery of Lake Erie Walleye a Success Story Michigan Department of Natural Resources June 8 2006 Archived from the original on August 30 2013 Our Great Lakes PDF binational net Archived from the original PDF on December 27 2005 Milestone in Waukegan Harbor PCB Cleanup Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Spring 1997 Archived from the original on November 29 2014 Knud Hansen Chris February 1994 Historical Perspective of the Phosphate Detergent Conflict Working Paper 94 54 Archived from the original on May 28 2010 Retrieved December 7 2016 via Colorado edu Lake Erie Harmful Algal Bloom National Weather Service Spring Rain Then Foul Algae in Ailing Lake Erie The New York Times March 14 2013 a b Hill Sharon August 7 2019 Large Lake Erie algal bloom nearing Colchester tested for toxicity Windsor Star Archived from the original on August 11 2019 Retrieved August 12 2019 UWindsor researchers test the 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one s regulating it experts warn CBC News Retrieved April 21 2023 Redelmeier Rebecca October 14 2022 How a fleet of robots could help solve the Great Lakes plastic pollution problem The Verge Retrieved April 21 2023 About the Lakes Great Lakes Commission Williams Kurt February 13 2019 Monitoring algal blooms in the Great Lakes Basin Great Lakes Echo Burkhardt Steffen Amoroso Gabi Riebesell Ulf Sultemeyer Dieter September 2001 CO2 and HCO 3 uptake in marine diatoms acclimated to different CO2 concentrations Limnology and Oceanography 46 6 1378 1391 doi 10 4319 lo 2001 46 6 1378 Popp Brian N Laws Edward A Bidigare Robert R Dore John E Hanson Kristi L Wakeham Stuart G 998 Effect of Phytoplankton Cell Geometry on Carbon Isotopic Fractionation Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 62 69 77 doi 10 1016 S0016 7037 97 00333 5 Durbin E G 1977 Studies on the Autecology of the Marine Diatom Thalassiosira nordenskioeldii II The Influence of Cell Size on Growth Rate and Carbon Nitrogen Chlorophyll a and Silica Content Journal of Phycology 13 150 155 O Shea John Meadows Guy June 23 2009 Evidence for early hunters beneath the Great Lakes Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106 25 10120 10123 Bibcode 2009PNAS 10610120O doi 10 1073 pnas 0902785106 PMC 2700903 PMID 19506245 The earliest human occupation in the upper Great Lakes is associated with the regional fluted point Paleoindian tradition which conventionally ends with the drop in water level to the Lake Stanley stage Ancient Land and First Peoples Wisconsin Historical Society February 6 2013 Retrieved February 13 2020 Woodford Arthur M 1991 Charting the Inland Seas A History of the U S Lake Survey Wayne State University Press p 4 ISBN 978 0 8143 2499 8 Bernstein Peter L 2010 Wedding of the Waters The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation W W Norton p 349 ISBN 978 0 393 32795 3 Danzer Gerald A 2011 Illinois A History in Pictures University of Illinois Press p 90 ISBN 978 0 252 03288 2 Wharton George Great Lakes Fleet Page Vessel Feature Burns Harbor Boatnerd Retrieved August 6 2010 Gonzalez Therese 2008 Great Lakes Naval Training Station Arcadia Publishing p 71 ISBN 978 0 7385 5193 7 Lake Champlain The Sixth Great Lake Geography Geography About com March 6 1998 Archived from the original on April 23 2013 Retrieved July 12 2013 Seelye Katharine Q March 25 1998 Lakes Are Born Great 5 Sniff So Upstart Is Ousted The New York Times Retrieved November 14 2013 a b Bogue Magaret Beattie 2000 Fishing the Great Lakes An Environmental History 1783 1933 The University of Wisconsin Press pp 29 31 Thompson Mark L 1991 Steamboats amp Sailors of the Great Lakes Wayne State University Press p 210 ISBN 978 0 8143 2359 5 Strand Kathryn Koutsky Koutsky Linda 2006 Minnesota Vacation Days An Illustrated History Minnesota Historical Society p 34 ISBN 978 0 87351 526 9 Toast of the Town The Life and Times of Sunnie Wilson Wayne State University Press 2005 p 30 ISBN 978 0 8143 2696 1 MS Chi Cheemaun About Us Ontario Ferries Archived from the original on November 29 2014 Retrieved June 29 2014 Stonehouse Frederick 1998 1985 Lake Superior s Shipwreck Coast Gwinn Michigan Avery Color Studios p 267 ISBN 0 932212 43 3 Matile Roger April 11 2004 Has a famed Great Lakes mystery been solved Ledger Sentinel Oswego Illinois Archived from the original on January 1 2016 Boswell Randy February 17 2009 France claims historic Great Lakes wreck Canwest News Service Explorer says Griffin shipwreck may be found Yahoo News Associated Press June 24 2014 Century old shipwreck discovered NBC News Associated Press September 10 2007 Retrieved December 3 2007 Divers find 1780 British warship BBC News June 14 2008 Retrieved June 15 2008 L R Doty ship that sank in Lake Michigan 112 years ago found largely intact near Milwaukee Star Tribune Minneapolis June 24 2010 Archived from the original on June 27 2010 Retrieved June 28 2010 National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration June 23 2021 Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary Designation Final Regulations Federal Register Retrieved June 29 2021 National Marine Sanctuaries media document Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary PDF Retrieved June 29 2021 NOAA designates new national marine sanctuary in Wisconsin s Lake Michigan NOAA News June 22 2021 Retrieved June 29 2021 Chapter 4 The Watery Boundary United Divide A Linear Portrait of the USA Canada Border The Center for Land Use Interpretation Winter 2015 Great Lake Seaway Cargoes American Great Lakes Ports Association www greatlakesports org Grover Velma I Krantzberg Gail 2012 Great Lakes Lessons in Participatory Governance CRC Press p 334 ISBN 978 1 57808 769 3 Great Lakes Circle Tour Great lakes net July 5 2005 Archived from the original on July 25 2010 Retrieved February 19 2011 Bowlus W Bruce 2010 Iron Ore Transport on the Great Lakes The Development of a Delivery System to Feed American Industry McFarland p 227 n 35 ISBN 978 0 7864 8655 7 Federal Statute on Great Lakes Water Diversions Water Resources Development Act Ohio Department of Natural Resources Archived from the original on October 29 2007 Retrieved October 29 2007 Great Lakes St Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement PDF Archived PDF from the original on March 8 2006 Retrieved February 19 2011 Agreement Great Lakes St Lawrence River Basin Water Resources PDF cglg org December 13 2005 Great Lakes Compact Alliance for the Great Lakes Great Lakes Restoration Initiative home page Archived from the original on February 6 2016 Further reading editAnnin Peter 2006 The Great Lakes Water Wars Island Press ISBN 978 1 61091 077 4 Beltran R et al 1995 The Great Lakes An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book Environmental Protection Agency ISBN 0 662 23441 3 Coon W F Sheets R A 2006 Estimate of Ground Water in Storage in the Great Lakes Basin Scientific Investigations Report 2006 5180 United States Geological Survey Egan Dan 2018 The Death and Life of the Great Lakes W W Norton amp Company ISBN 978 0 393 35555 0 Holling Holling Clancy 2019 1941 Paddle to the Sea Boston Houghton Mifflin ISBN 0 395 15082 5 an illustrated children s book about the Great Lakes and their environment Hornbeck Tanner Helen 1987 Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 978 0 8061 2056 0 Riley John L 2013 The Once and Future Great Lakes Country An Ecological History McGill Queen s University Press traces environmental change in the region since the last ice age External links edit nbsp Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Great Lakes nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Great Lakes Great Lakes New International Encyclopedia 1905 How the Great Lakes Were Built Popular Science Monthly Vol 49 June 1896 Great Lakes website of the Canadian Department of the Environment Great Lakes website of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Binational website of USEPA and Environment Canada for Great Lakes Water Quality Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory website an arm of the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Great Lakes Information Network sponsored by the Great Lakes Commission an official American interstate compact agency Great Lakes Echo a publication covering Great Lakes environmental issues Maritime History of the Great Lakes digital library covering Great Lakes history Dynamically updated data edit Surface temperatures Water levels Currents Ship locations Water levels since 1918 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Great Lakes amp oldid 1218374245, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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