Lakes

How many lakes are there? We don't actually know. Lakes are often undercounted, or small lakes ignored, in larger scale geophysical surveys. It is hard to count the small lakes, or in some cases, even to define them. A recent study (published in Geophysical Research Letters) examines this question. We want to know how many lakes there are, and how much surface area they take up, in order to understand better the global Carbon cycle (and for other reasons). From the Abstract of this study: An accurate description of the abundance and size distribution of lakes is critical to quantifying…

To the lakes with the children for a little relaxation out of the flow of normal time, or so it seems from up there. My aunt lives in Torpenhow, a village so small it only just about has a wikipedia article. Its to the north west of the park, beyond Bassenthwaite and Skiddaw, looking out towards the Solway Firth and Scotland. Anyway, the only minor item of interest to the outside world is that I finally climbed Helvellyn via Striding Edge. And very pleasant it was too, though it can't begin to compare with the Stubai. Also there was Allonby beach (or whatever it is really called; the bay…

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time at lakes, but the idea of walking around a lake hardly every occurred to me or anyone else. This might be because the lakes were either really big (like the Great Sacandaga Reservoir) or nestled into deep sided rock canyons carved out by glaciers, and thus, not walk-aroundable. Lakes were central places, termini of inland pathways, points along long distance hikes, not things you walked around. Eventually, I moved to Minnesota where there are probably between five and ten thousand lakes that a) are about the right size to walk around in several…

Where I grew up, lakes were important. We would spend considerable time driving to them, and once there, camp next to them for a couple of weeks. Every now and then we'd go and camp next to the really really big lake. The one with England on the other side, or so my brother would tell me. All the lakes had these big chairs along the swimming areas that lifeguards sat in. The really really big lake had extra tall chairs. I remember thinking that they could probably see England from up there! But despite the importance of lakes in our recreational regime, lakes were actually fairly…

This has come up a couple of times recently, so I thought I'd summarize the information here. The distribution of water on Earth in cubic kilometers Salt water: 1,318,062,462 Glaciers: 28,005,430 Groundwater: 12,270,210 Lakes: 106,396 Swamps: 13,452 Rivers: 2,446 Vapor: 13,000 Biological: 1,120 (Biological means like your spit and guts and all the juicy parts of worms and tree saps and water in bacteria and stuff.) USGS Wikipedia What happens if all that glacial ice melts and ends up in the ocean? Play with this for a while to get an idea. The maximum rise in sea…

Another fabulously weird map, from the great blog Strange Maps. This one is entitled "The Man of Commerce" and dates to 1889. According to the American Geographical Society Library, The highly detailed 31" x 50" map/chart conflates human anatomy with the American transportation system, in an apparent attempt to promote Superior as a transportation hub.Its metaphor makes West Superior "the center of cardiac or heart circulation"; the railways become major arteries; and New York is "the umbilicus through which this man of commerce was developed."The explanatory notes conclude: "It is an…

His face wore a blank expression, but you could tell he was hiding disdain. He was looking down on us both figuratively and literally. He looked down because he sat on a swivel chair that rode atop a metal stem inserted in the tall open deck of his Lund fishing boat, the remote control for a small electric motor in one hand, and a casting rod rigged with an elaborate contraption of hooks, weights, jigs, and a tiny live minnow trying to swim as fast as possible through the air in which it was suspended. He wore a camouflage hat, and his enormous frame was covered by a camouflage jacket, a…