Portal:Lakes

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Introduction

A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers. Lakes, like other bodies of water, are part of the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Most lakes are fresh water and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume of water, but in total cover approximately 2.5 X 106 km2 (less than 2%) of the Earth's surface.

Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are generally shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars or other material at coastal regions of oceans or large lakes. Most lakes are fed by springs, and both fed and drained by creeks and rivers, but some lakes are endorheic without any outflow, while volcanic lakes are filled directly by precipitation runoffs and do not have any inflow streams.

Natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas (i.e. alpine lakes), dormant volcanic craters, rift zones and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in depressed landforms or along the courses of mature rivers, where a river channel has widened over a basin formed by eroded floodplains and wetlands. Some lakes are found in caverns underground. Some parts of the world have many lakes formed by the chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last ice age. All lakes are temporary over long periods of time, as they will slowly fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them. (Full article...)

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Satellite image of the Altiplano. The green, brown and white surfaces in the lower right quadrant of the image are Lake Poopó, Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Uyuni, respectively. The blue surface at centre top is Lake Titicaca

Lake Tauca is a former lake in the Altiplano of Bolivia. It is also known as Lake Pocoyu for its constituent lakes: Lake Poopó, Salar de Coipasa and Salar de Uyuni. At high water levels, the lake spread across the southern Altiplano between the Eastern and Western Cordilleras, flooding the basins that now hold Lake Poopó and the Uyuni and Coipasa salars. Published area estimates range from about 48,000 to 80,000 square kilometres (19,000 to 31,000 sq mi). Water levels varied, possibly reaching about 3,800 metres (12,500 ft) above sea level. It was a saline lake. The lake received water from Lake Titicaca, although estimates of Titicaca's contribution vary widely. In any case, Tauca was large enough to influence local climate and to depress the underlying terrain under its own weight. Diatoms, plants and animals lived in the lake, sometimes forming reef-like carbonate knolls.

The duration of Lake Tauca's existence is uncertain. Research published in 2011 suggested that lake levels began rising around 18,500 BP and reached their main highstand around 16,000–14,500 years ago. Around 14,200 years ago, lake levels fell, then rose again and persisted until about 11,500 years ago. Some researchers suggest that the final phase may have continued until about 8,500 BP. When the lake dried—possibly during the Bølling–Allerød oscillation—it left the salt deposits of Salar de Uyuni.

Lake Tauca is one of several ancient lakes which formed in the Altiplano. Lake Tauca was one of several named Altiplano palaeolakes (including Escara, Ouki, Salinas, Minchin, Inca Huasi and Sajsi), alongside repeated highstands of Lake Titicaca. How these named lake phases relate to one another is debated. Sajsi is often treated as part of the Tauca system, and Tauca itself is frequently divided into an earlier Ticaña phase and a later Coipasa phase. (Full article...)

General topics

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  • WikiProject Lakes
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