Lake Erie ( ) ( ) is the
fourth largest lake (by surface area) of the
five Great
Lakes in North America, and
the thirteenth largest globally. It is the southernmost,
shallowest, and smallest by
volume of the
Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water
residence time.
It is bounded on the north by the Canadian province of
Ontario, on the south by the U.S.
states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New
York, and on the west by the state of Michigan. The
lake is named after the
Erie tribe of
Native
Americans who lived along its southern shore.
Geography
Lake Erie (42.2° N, 81.2° W) has a mean elevation of 571 feet
(174 m) above sea level. It has a surface area of 9,940 square
miles (25,745 km²) with a length of 241 miles (388 km)
and breadth of 57 miles (92 km) at its widest points.
It is the shallowest of the Great Lakes with an average depth of 62
feet (19 m) and a maximum depth of 210 feet (64 m).
For
comparison, Lake
Superior has an
average depth of 483 feet (147 m), a volume of 2,900 cubic
miles (12,100 km³) and shoreline of 2,726 miles
(4385 km). Because it is the shallowest, it is also the
warmest of the Great Lakes.
Lake Erie
is primarily fed by the Detroit River
(from Lake
Huron and Lake St. Clair) and drains via the Niagara River and Niagara
Falls into Lake
Ontario. Navigation downstream is provided by the
Welland
Canal, part of the Saint
Lawrence Seaway. Other major contributors to Lake Erie include
the Grand
River, the Huron
River, the Maumee River, the
Sandusky River and the Cuyahoga River.
Point Pelee
National Park, the southernmost point of the Canadian mainland,
is located on a peninsula extending into the lake.
Several
islands are found in the western end of the lake; these belong to
Ohio except for Pelee
Island and 8 neighboring islands, which are part of
Ontario. The cities of Buffalo, New York; Erie, Pennsylvania; Toledo,
Ohio; Port Stanley, Ontario; Monroe,
Michigan; and
Cleveland,
Ohio are located on the shores of Lake
Erie.
The
drainage basin covers 30,140
square miles (78,000 km
2).
Partial map of the Lake Erie
islands
Islands
Hydrology
Lake Erie
has a lake retention time of 2.6
years, the shortest of all the Great Lakes.
Lake Erie's water level fluctuates with the seasons as in the other
Great Lakes. The lowest levels are in January and February, and the
highest in June or July. The average yearly level varies depending
on long-term precipitation.
Short-term level changes are often caused by
seiches that are particularly high when southwesterly
winds blow across the length of the lake during storms. These cause
water to pile up at the eastern end of the lake. Storm driven
seiches can cause damage onshore. During one storm in November
2003, the water level at Buffalo rose by 7 feet (2.1 m) with waves
of 10–15 feet (3-4.5 m) for a rise of 22 feet (6.7 m).
Meanwhile, at the
western end of the lake, Toledo experienced
a similar drop in water level.
Water Levels
Historic High WaterThe lake fluctuates from month
to month with the highest lake levels in October and November. The
normal highwater mark is above datum (
569.2 ft or 173.5
meters). In the summer of 1986, Lake Erie reached its highest
level at above datum.Monthly bulletin of Lake Levels for The Great
Lakes; September 2009; US Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit District
The high water records were set from 1986 (April) through January
1987. Levels ranged from to above Chart Datum.
Historic Low WaterLake Erie experiences its lowest
levels in the winter. The normal lowwater mark is above datum
(
569.2 ft or 173.5 meters). In the winter of 1934,
Lake Erie reached its lowest level at below datum. Monthly low
water records were set from July 1934 through June 1935. During
this twelve month period water levels ranged from to the Chart
Datum.
Geology
Sandy bluffs along Lake Erie in Erie
County, Pennsylvania
Lake Erie in its current form is less than 4,000 years old, a short
amount of time geologically speaking. Prior to this, the land on
which the lake now sits has gone through several complex stages.
Over two million years ago, a large lowland basin formed as a
result of an eastern flowing river that existed well before the
Pleistocene ice
ages. This ancient drainage system was destroyed by the first
major
glacier in the area while at the same
time deepening and enlarging the lowland allowing water to settle
and form a lake. The glaciers were able to carve away more land on
the eastern side of the lowland because the bedrock is made of
shale which is much softer then the carbonate rocks on the western
side. Thus, the eastern side of the modern lake is much deeper than
the western portion which averages only 25 feet deep. Lake Erie is
the shallowest of the Great Lakes because the ice was so thin and
lacked erosion power needed when it reached that far south.
As many as three glaciers advanced and retreated over the land
causing temporary lakes to form in the time periods in between each
of them. Because each of the lakes had a different amount of water
volume, their shorelines rested at differing elevations. The last
of these lakes to form, Lake Warren, existed between about 13,000
and 12,000 years ago. It was deeper than the current Lake Erie, so
its shoreline existed about eight miles inland from the modern one.
The shorelines of these lakes left behind high ground sand ridges
that cut through swamps and were used as trails for Indians and
later, pioneers. These trails became primitive roads which were
eventually paved.
U.S. Route 30 west of Delphos and
U.S. Route 20
west of Norwalk and east of Cleveland were formed in this manner.
One can still see some of these ancient sand dunes that formed in
the
Oak Openings Region in
Northwestern Ohio. There, the
sandy dry lake bed soil was not enough to support large trees with
the exception of a few species of oaks, forming a rare
oak savanna.
History
Native American
At the time of European contact, there were several groups of
Iroquoian cultures living around the shores of the eastern end of
the lake. The
Erie tribe (from whom the
lake takes its name) lived along the southern edge, while the
Neutrals (also known as Attawandaron) lived
along the northern shore. Both tribes were conquered and
assimilated by their hostile eastern neighbors, the
Iroquois Confederacy between AD 1651 and 1657, in
what is referred to as part of the
Beaver
Wars.
For decades after those wars, the land around eastern Lake Erie was
claimed and utilized by the Iroquois as a hunting ground. As the
power of the Iroquois waned during the last quarter of the
seventeenth century, several other, mainly
Anishinaabe Native American tribes, displaced
them from the territories they claimed on the north shore of the
lake.
European exploration and settlement
In 1669, the Frenchman
Louis Jolliet
was the first documented European to sight Lake Erie, although
there is speculation that
Etienne
Brule may have come across it in 1615.
Lake Erie was the
last of the Great Lakes to be explored by Europeans, since the
Iroquois who occupied the Niagara River area were in conflict with the French, and they did
not allow explorers or traders to pass through. Explorers
had followed rivers out of Lake Ontario and portaged into Lake
Huron.During the
War of 1812,
Oliver Hazard Perry captured an entire
British fleet near Put-in-Bay,
Ohio.
Great Lakes Compact
In 2008,
the Great
Lakes States of Ohio, Michigan, New
York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Canadian Province of Ontario formed an
alliance to save the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Compact is
an international policy written by the compact concerning water
rights that protects the Great Lakes from distant states exploiting
it. This compact is not popular in the southwestern states because
of recent drought conditions. The compact was signed into law by
President
George W. Bush in September 2008. Its supporters range
from United States Senator
George
Voinovich (R-OH) to Governor
Jennifer Granholm (D-MI).
Environment
Weather
Like the
other Great Lakes, Erie produces lake
effect snow when the first cold winds of winter pass over the
warm waters, making Buffalo, New York and Erie, Pennsylvania the eleventh and thirteenth snowiest places in the
entire United
States respectively, according to data collected from the
National Climatic Data
Center. The lake effect ends or its effect is reduced,
however, when the lake freezes over. Being the shallowest of the
Great Lakes, it is the most likely to freeze and frequently
does.
The lake is also responsible for
microclimates that are important to
agriculture. Along its north shore is one of the
richest areas of Canada's
fruit and
vegetable production, and along the southeastern
shore in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York is an important
grape growing region, as are the islands in the lake.
Apple orchards are abundant in northeast Ohio
to western New York.
Water quality
Lake Erie infamously became very polluted in the 1960s and 1970s.
The
water quality deteriorated due to
increasing levels of the nutrient
phosphorus in both the water and lake bottom
sediments. The resultant high
nitrogen
levels in the water caused
eutrophication, which resulted in
algal blooms.
Algae masses and fish kills increasingly
fouled the shoreline during this period, but a 1969 Time magazine
article about a fire on the Cuyahoga River, a tributary feeding the
lake at Cleveland,
Ohio so embarrassed officials that the United States Congress quickly passed
the Clean Water Act of 1972.
In 1972 the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the United
States and Canadian governments also significantly reduced the
dumping and runoff of phosphorus into the lake. The lake has since
become clean enough to allow sunlight to infiltrate its water and
produce algae and sea weed, but a dead zone persists in the central
Lake Erie Basin during the late
summer. The clearing of the water column is also partly due to the
introduction and rapid spread of
zebra
mussels, each of which can filter up to one litre (1L) of water
per day. The
United States
Environmental Protection Agency is currently studying this
cyclic phenomenon.
Since the 1970s
environmental
regulation has led to a great increase in water quality and the
return of economically important fish species such as
walleye and other biological life.
Economy
Fisheries
Lake Erie is home to one of the world's largest freshwater
commercial fisheries. Once a mainstay of communities around the
lake,
commercial fishing is now
predominantly based in Canadian communities, with a much smaller
fishery—largely restricted to
yellow
perch—in Ohio. The Ontario fishery is one of the most
intensively managed in the world. It was one of the first fisheries
in the world managed on individual transferable quotas and features
mandatory daily catch reporting and intensive auditing of the catch
reporting system. Still, the commercial fishery is the target of
critics who would like to see the lake managed for the exclusive
benefit of
sport fishing and the
various industries serving the sport fishery.
Commercial landings are dominated by yellow perch and
walleye, with substantial quantities of
rainbow smelt and
white
bass also taken. Anglers target walleye and yellow perch, with
some effort directed at
rainbow trout.
A variety of other species are taken in smaller quantities by both
commercial and sport fleets.
Management of the fishery is by consensus of all management
agencies with an interest in the resource (the states of New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan and the province of Ontario) under
the mandate of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, which is driven
by comprehensive fisheries assessment programs and sophisticated
mathematical modeling systems. The Commission remains the source of
considerable recrimination, primarily from United States based
angler and charter fishing groups with a historical antipathy to
the commercial fishery. This conflict is complex, dating from the
1960s, with in U.S. fisheries management that led to elimination of
commercial fishing in most U.S. Great Lakes states.
The process began in
Michigan, and its evolution is well documented in Szylvian (2004),
using Lake
Michigan as a case
study. The underlying issues are universal, wherever sport
and commercial fishing coexist, but their persistence in the Lake
Erie context, one of the most intensively scrutinized and managed
fisheries, suggests that these conflicts are cultural, not
scientific, and therefore not resolvable by reference to ecological
data. These debates are largely driven by social, political and
economic issues, not ecology.
The lake consists of a long list of well established
introduced species. Common non-indigenous
fish species include the
rainbow
smelt,
alewife,
white perch and
common
carp. Non-native sport fish such as
rainbow trout and
brown
trout are stocked specifically for anglers to catch. Attempts
failed to stock
coho salmon and its
numbers are once again dwindling.
The lake has recently been plagued with a number of
invasive species, including
Zebra and
quagga
mussels, the
goby
and the
grass carp. Zebra mussels and
gobies have been credited with the increased population and size of
smallmouth bass in Lake Erie.
Agriculture
The lake's formerly more extensive lakebed creates a favorable
environment for
agriculture in the
bordering areas of Ontario, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New
York. The lake also supports a strong commercial and sport fishery.
But since high levels of
pollution were
discovered in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been continued debate
over the desired intensity of commercial fishing.
The drainage basin has led to well fertilized soil.
Ohio's north coast
is widely referred to as the nursery capital.
Transportation
The Port of Cleveland generates over $350 million and over 15
million tons of cargo. The port will begin work on a new set of
docks with more efficient railway, road, and crane access. The
current port facility is unable to handle larger cargo ships, and
the cranes needed to lift goods such as steel to truck trailers are
insufficient to current shipping standards. This project is planned
to start in 2010 and will be completed by 2020.
The ship traffic in Lake Erie being the highest among the Great
Lakes, along with it being the shallowest and roughest of the lakes
has led to it having the highest number of known shipwrecks in the
Great Lakes.
The
Great Lakes Circle Tour
is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great
Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.
See also
Notes
Further reading
- Assel, R.A. (1983). Lake Erie regional ice cover analysis:
preliminary results [NOAA Technical Memorandum ERL GLERL 48].
Ann Arbor, MI: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Research Laboratories,
Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
- Saylor, J.H. and G.S. Miller. (1983). Investigation of the
currents and density structure of Lake Erie [NOAA Technical
Memorandum ERL GLERL 49]. Ann Arbor, MI: U.S. Department of
Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
Environmental Research Laboratories, Great Lakes Environmental
Research Laboratory.
Images
Image:1430-19.Jpg|Howard Farms Beach and
Cooley Canal on Lake Erie near Toledo,
OhioImage:pbalson_20060527_IMG_3822.JPG|Sunset
over Lake Erie near Cleveland,
OhioImage:pbalson_20060527_IMG_3835.JPG|Sunset over Lake
Erie near Cleveland, Ohio
Image:Sunset at Veterans Park AL.JPG|Sunset
from Avon
Lake, OhioImage:Lake Erie sunglint.JPG|Lake Erie
from space, looking from the west. Lake Ontario is to the
upper-left, with Lake St. Clair and the southern tip of Lake Huron
at center-left.
Image:Lake Erie from Long Point.jpg|The
shore of Lake Erie as seen from Long Point
External links