The 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Adventures

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Did You Know...



…Lake Michigan is the fifth-largest freshwater lake in the world (by water volume). Lake Baikal in Siberia contains the most water.


Lake Superior, at third on the list, contains more water than the other four Great Lakes combined.


…turn-over time for Lake Michigan is 99 years, so what we put in the lake will mostly be with us for a lifetime.


And all of the Great Lakes flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Pollutants that we flush into our lakes not only reside there, but gradually travel through the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Gulf of St. Lawrence and then the Atlantic Ocean.



…the deepest point in Lake Michigan is approximately 920 feet and is in the middle of the lake between Frankfort, Michigan and Algoma, Wisconsin.


When you take the Badger Ferry, you pass just south of it.


3 comments:

  1. That 99-year turnover figure is one that needs wider attention, Loreen. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

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  2. Whatever my Antrim County Civil War veterans put into the lake is still there, somewhere. Although the prevailing winds work against us. Every now and then the oddest things appear on the beach. Old things. A wooden mast with an iron cleat. So maybe whatever we put there keeps coming back to us. Maybe it always will.

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  3. Maybe we need to remember this and not use the lake as a dumping place...especially for industrial waste.

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