The upper lake. Where is Lake Superior?

A fresh pond with the largest area is the Upper Lake. Location - North America. 82,4 thousand square kilometers covers the area of its water mirror. The lake is on the 3rd place by the volume of fresh water on our planet, and it is second only to Baikal and Tanganyika in terms of indicators. The fresh water content in the lake is 11.6 thousand km ³ . The average depth is 147 m, the largest is 406 m.

Great Lakes

Where is Lake Superior on a map of the North American continent? It is located in the territories of the USA and Canada. The upper lake is one of the Great Lakes, a link from a chain of freshwater reservoirs that are located in eastern North America between Canada and the United States. The system consists of five lakes: Upper, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario. And only Michigan is fully owned by the United States.

Other lakes are separated by a boundary. In Canada, the Upper Lake is in Ontario. On the western shore of the lake is Minnesota. In the south-west - Wisconsin. The south coast is in Michigan.

The length of the coastline is 4387 km. The length of the lake is 560 km. The width reaches 260 km. The shore line is riddled with bays and bays. On the north bank are rocks and cliffs. And the southern coast has a flat terrain.

Connections

The upper lake is considered the second largest on the globe and, as already mentioned, the largest freshwater body in the world and the USA. It ends the path from the Atlantic Ocean to the interior of the continent. All the Great Lakes are connected with each other by rivers and canals. The upper is inextricably linked with Lake Huron by the St. Marys River, whose length is about 112 km. It has a large number of rapids and rapids, in these places it is not suitable for navigation. That is why channels are created around the thresholds. The upper lake is still communicating with the Canadian lake Nipigon via a small river.

Occurrence

The bowl of the lake has the appearance of a basin of tectonic origin. Due to the large number of earthquakes, deep faults appeared. The bottom of the lake was lined with glaciers, completing the earthquake-initiated case. According to scientists, about 30 thousand years ago, North America in the eastern regions was covered with glaciers that came here from the north. These glaciers were fickle. They then moved north, leaving behind the lake bowls, then again came here. When the glaciers finally left the territory of the eastern regions of the continent, in this place a huge lake was formed, which in modern science was called Algonkin. By area, it was very large and presumably exceeded the dimensions of Baikal by 10 times. This lake did not last long. After a while, a lot of water left, which filled the St. Lawrence River. And in a few millennia Great Lakes appeared on this place.

Uniqueness

These famous lakes are considered one of the great wonders of the planet. They are unique. Lakes form a hydrographic community, and very extensive, differing from the rest of the world's lakes by the size, volume of water and the configuration of the shoreline. They are located 500 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean and 700 kilometers from the Hudson Strait. They represent the largest lake system in North America, located in the upper and middle parts of the St. Lawrence Basin.

The Sea Road

Great Lakes - one of the main shipping routes in the east of North America. To get from the port of Duluth on the Upper Lake to the source of the St. Lawrence River, it is necessary to overcome the path more than 2000 km. The upper lake is the highest mountain - 183.6 meters above sea level. The reservoir is fed by atmospheric precipitation and water, which carry rivers.

The upper lake is sewage or without drainage?

Let's try to understand this question. The lake is a waste, its runoff occurs through the St. Marys River. From December to April in coastal areas there is a freeze-up. The water level drops in the lake. Precipitation is also rare at this time, because there is not enough water to keep the level in the lake.

The minimum level is usually in March-April. Then the ambient temperature rises, and the coastal snow begins to melt. The rivers quickly fill with water, and this leads to an increase in its level in the lake.

The largest volume of water in the Upper is observed in the summer, just at this time go Heavy rains. The fluctuation of the level does not exceed 1 m, but sometimes it happens more. This occurs mainly not because of the inflow of water, but because of the movement of air masses.

Seishi

The upper lake is not protected by mountain ranges, so winds that come from the mainland or from the ocean, freely roam, causing unrest in the pond.

Here you can observe a frequent phenomenon for a given place - seiches. Giant waves are formed on the surface of the lake, which leads to the collapse of the shore. The upper lake is colder than all other Great Lakes. In summer, the water warms up no more than 12 degrees. And at a depth of almost constant 4 degrees.

Lake food

More than 200 rivers flow into the Upper Lake. Nipigon is one of them, it is 48 km long and its width is from 50 to 200 m. It is impossible not to remember the St. Louis River, which is 192 km long. There are also such rivers as Pigeon, Brul, Belaya, Kamenistaya. All of them are not more than 100 km in length, but still contribute to the nutrition of the lake.

The Islands

Lake Superior also has islands, some fairly large. The largest is Isle-Royal, in length it reaches 72 km, in width - 14 km. On the Great Lakes, it takes 2nd place after the island of Manitulina on Lake Huron. Now Isle-Royal is a national park, which ferries from the mainland.

In the north of the lake is the island of Mishipikoten, its length is 27 km, width is 10 km. He is a kingdom of wild nature. 22 islands, called the Islands of the Apostle, belong to the state of Wisconsin.

Also called the islands, which are the National Recreation Area of Michigan. This is Madeline and Grand Island.

Conclusion

Near the lake there are many large cities such as Duluth, Thunder Bay, Marquette, Su-Sainte-Marie. From this article you learned where the Upper Lake is located. Read about the history of its occurrence. Acquainted with interesting facts, its location on the map and received other information. We hope that you were interested.