Sediments in Lake Erie

Sediments in Lake Erie Today’s Image of the Day comes thanks to the NASA Earth Observatory and features a look at sediments in Lake Erie.

This image was captured by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite.

This Lake is the fourth-largest lake (by surface area) of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-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. At its deepest point Lake Erie is 210 feet (64 metres) deep. Situated on the International Boundary between Canada and the United States, Lake Erie’s northern shore is the Canadian province of Ontario, specifically the Ontario Peninsula, with the U.S. states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York on its western, southern, and eastern shores. These jurisdictions divide the surface area of the lake with water boundaries.

Situated below Lake Huron, Erie’s primary inlet is the Detroit River. The main natural outflow from the lake is via the Niagara River, which provides hydroelectric power to Canada and the U.S. as it spins huge turbines near Niagara Falls at Lewiston, New York and Queenston, Ontario. Some outflow occurs via the Welland Canal, part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, which diverts water for ship passages from Port Colborne, Ontario on Lake Erie, to St. Catharines on Lake Ontario, an elevation difference of 326 ft (99 m). Lake Erie’s environmental health has been an ongoing concern for decades, with issues such as overfishing, pollution, algae blooms, and eutrophication generating headlines

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By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: NASA Earth Observatory