What do oceans and lakes have in common

Ponds are much smaller than lakes but are homes to many kinds of fish, ducks, and geese. Cool Creatures The beluga sturgeon is the largest freshwater fish—but it can also live in salt lakes like the Caspian Sea. These huge fishes can grow as long as 24 feet 8 meters and weigh more than 3, pounds 1, kilograms. They can also live to be over years old!

Our great God created the world with amazing power! Quiz your family and friends to see how many questions they can get before looking up the Bible verses for the answers. Christin Baker is a full-time stay-at-home mom who also writes for Faith Alive.

Read entire current print issue ». Oceans, Lakes, Swamps, and Seas. August 17, Columns , Discover. Christin Baker. Download printable version » What do oceans, swamps, seas, lakes, and streams all have in common? Cool Creatures There are around 10 million critters called caimans in the Pantanal. Awesome Oceans The five oceans on our planet cover about 71 percent of the earth.

The Mariana Trench is the deepest ocean point in the world. It is 35, feet deep! The water in lakes comes from rain , snow , melting ice , stream s, and groundwater seepage. Most lakes contain freshwater. All lakes are either open or closed. If water leaves a lake by a river or other outlet, it is said to be open.

All freshwater lakes are open. If water only leaves a lake by evaporation , the lake is closed. Closed lake s usually become saline , or salty. This is because as the water evaporates, it leaves behind solids—mostly salt s. The Great Salt Lake, in the U. Its water is saltier than the ocean. Surrounding the Great Salt Lake are salt flat s, areas where the lake has evaporated, leaving only stretches of white salt.

Lake basin s are formed in several ways. Many lakes, especially those in the Northern Hemisphere, were formed by glacier s that covered large areas of land during the most recent ice age , about 18, years ago.

The huge masses of ice carved out great pits and scrubbed the land as they moved slowly along. When the glaciers melted, water filled those depressions, forming lakes.

Glaciers also carved deep valley s and deposited large quantities of earth , pebble s, and boulder s as they melted. These materials sometimes formed dams that trapped water and created more lakes. Many areas of North America and Europe are dotted with glacial lake s. The U. Many lakes in North America, including the Great Lakes, were created primarily by glaciers.

When the crust breaks, deep cracks, called fault s, may form. These faults make natural basins that may fill with water from rainfall or from streams flowing in the basin. The Caspian Sea was formed this way. Lake Baikal was also formed by the movement of tectonic plate s.

Many lakes form as a result of volcano es. After a volcano becomes inactive, its crater may fill with rain or melted snow. Sometimes the top of a volcano is blown off or collapse s during an eruption , leaving a depression called a caldera.

It, too, may fill with rainwater and become a lake. Crater Lake, in the U. Not all lakes are created by basins filling with water. Some lakes are formed by rivers. Mature rivers often wind back and forth across a plain in wide loops called meander s. During periods of flood ing, a swollen, rushing river may create a shortcut and bypass a meander, leaving a body of standing water. Lakes may also be created by landslide s or mudslide s that send soil , rock , or mud sliding down hills and mountains.

The debris piles up in natural dams that can block the flow of a stream, forming a lake. Dams that beavers build out of tree branches can plug up rivers or streams and make large ponds or marsh es.

People make lakes by digging basins or by damming rivers or springs. These artificial lakes can become reservoir s, storing water for irrigation , hygiene , and industrial use.

Artificial lakes also provide recreational use for boating, swimming, or fishing. Artificial lakes can provide electricity through hydroelectric power plants at the dam. Lake Mead, in the U. The dam was built to control the unpredictable Colorado River and provides electricity to the western United States.

Chemical and Physical Aspects of Lakes Temperature, light, and wind are three of the main factors that affect the physical characteristic s of a lake. Temperature and light vary from lake to lake. Light and wind affect the temperature in lakes. Sunlight warms the water, and wind cools it down. Most lakes go through a process called thermal stratification. Its middle layer is the metalimnion , or thermocline.

The deepest layer is the hypolimnion. The most important chemicals in a lake are nitrogen and phosphorus. These chemicals allow nutrient -rich plants and algae to grow. Other organisms feed off these plants and algae, creating a complex, healthy ecosystem. The chemistry of a lake is affected by biological, geological, and human processes. Natural processes such as the eruption of a nearby volcano can alter the chemical aspect of a lake by introducing new gases or mineral s.

A lake must have a healthy amount of oxygen to sustain life. Lakes that do not have enough oxygen to sustain life are abiotic. The pH level is a chemical property of all substances.

Substances with a pH of less than 7 are acidic; substances with a pH greater than 7 are basic. Lakes have different pH levels, with life adapting to different chemical environments. It is full of dissolved minerals. Fish such as cichlid s thrive in Lake Tanganyika.

Tilapia, a variety of cichlid, can also thrive in lakes with very low pH. The Life Cycle of Lakes Once formed, lakes do not stay the same. Like people, they go through different life stages—youth, maturity, old age, and death. All lakes, even the largest, slowly disappear as their basins fill with sediment and plant material. The natural aging of a lake happens very slowly, over the course of hundreds and even thousands of years. But with human influence, it can take only decades. The warm, shallow water of the upper layer of the lake causes plants and algae to decompose , and eventually they sink to the basin.

Dust and mineral deposits on the bottom of the lake combine with the plants to form sediment. Rain washes soil and pebbles into the basin. The lake becomes smaller, starting at the edges and working toward the middle. Eventually, the lake becomes a marsh, bog , or swamp. Eventually, the lake becomes dry land. Dry lake beds are a perfect place to find and study fossil s.

Archaeologist s often excavate ancient lake beds, such as Fossil Butte in the U. The remains of organisms, from single-celled bacteria to dinosaur s, were preserved over time as sediment on the lake bed built up around and on top of them. In fact, some scientists believe the first living organisms on Earth developed in lakes. Lake Classification There are three basic ways that limnologists classify lakes: how many nutrients lakes have, how their water mixes, and what kinds of fish live in them.

When lakes are classified by the amount of nutrients they have, limnologists are using the trophic system. Generally, the clearer the water in the lake, the fewer nutrients it has. Lakes that are very nutrient-rich are cloudy and hard to see through; this includes lakes that are unhealthy because they have too many nutrients. Lakes need to have a balance of nutrients. Lakes can also be classified by how the water mixes, or turns over from top epilimnion to bottom hypolimnion.

This is called lake turnover. Water in some lakes, mostly shallow ones, mixes all year long. These lakes have very little lake turnover. Our oceans also contain sand, while lakes do not. While oceans can also be significantly colder than lakes, and produce big waves. Bodies of water surrounded by land all around. Rivers are what feed water to lakes, lakes can always change. Which can become dried out over time if the river stops producing water for the lake.

It may all start as precipitation, but through infiltration and seepage, water soaks into the ground in vast amounts. Water in the ground keeps all plant life alive and serves peoples' needs, too.

Note: This section of the Water Science School discusses the Earth's "natural" water cycle without human Runoff is nothing more than water "running off" the land surface. Just as the water you wash your car with runs off down the driveway as you work, the rain that Mother Nature covers the landscape with runs off downhill, too due to gravity.

Runoff is an important component of the natural water cycle. In , scientists exploring the NW Eifuku volcano near the Mariana Islands reported seeing small white chimneys emitting a cloudy white fluid near the volcano's summit, as well as masses of.

Skip to main content. Search Search. Water Science School. Oceans and Seas and the Water Cycle. The Components of the Water Cycle Investigate each part of the water cycle adults and advanced students Learn more. Downloadable Water Cycle Products coming soon! Printable versions of our water-cycle diagrams and products.

The oceans contain the vast majority of all water on Earth. Water source Water volume, in cubic miles Water volume, in cubic kilometers Percent of total water Oceans, seas and bays ,, 1,,, More topics and other components of the water cycle:. Date published: July 10, Filter Total Items: Year Select Year Apply Filter.

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