Lakes and all pools of stagnant water are a natural environment distinct from river water in several respects, the first of which is the lack of sediment and plants. Then there are salty lakes, bitter, and others are fresh, and some are located at high altitudes and others are at low levels, or even on the beach, or in a continental environment characterized by thermal extremes such as the desert and the cold pole.

the lake It is a part of water surrounded by land on all sides.^[1][2][3]

Lakes abound in Africa, North America, Asia, and Europe.

Examples of lakes[عدل]

In Africa[عدل]

Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Nyasa, Lake Turkana, Lake Albert, Lake Kivu, Lake Keuna, Lake Tana, Lake Assal, Lake Malawi, Lake Kyoga.

Examples of lakes in North America[عدل]

The Five Great Lakes: Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.

Examples of lakes in Asia[عدل]

Lake Baikal, Aral Sea, Balcash Lake, Tonle Sap, Isik Kul Lake, Dongting Lake, Sevana Leach Lake, Alakol Lake, Danyu Toba Lake, Dead Sea, Sawa Lake.

Examples of lakes in Europe[عدل]

Lake Laduzkoye-Ozero, Lake Wenzakoye-Ozero, Lake Vänern, Lake Vattern, Lake Balaton, Lake Geneva, Lake Bodensee, Lake Jing, Lake Scutari, Lake Lago Garda.

Definition of[عدل]

It is any relatively large body of water that is stagnant or slowly moving, and that occupies a cavity of reasonable area on the Earth’s surface. And a lake from a geographical angle means an expansive water cover, the thickness of its water may be large or shallow, and its water flows only in special ways or according to the slope of one side of it, and the drainage of its water may be artificial through canals or natural in addition to regression, leakage, or evaporation, or they are internal water basins The area is limited and surrounded by land on all sides. Its formation was helped by the presence of deep bottoms made of solid rocks. It forms part of the non-running surface water in the water cycle system, and the lakes are of two types, salty and fresh.

types of lakes[عدل]

formation lakes[عدل]

It is the one that occupies the gorges and rifts arising from fracking, or what is known as cracking in the rocky layers, or the elevation of part of the sea floor as a result of the protrusion of the edges and the confinement of the height of part of the sea floor that was separated from it, such as: Lake Nicarago, which was a gulf from the Pacific Ocean. It is also formed as a result of the irregularity in the lifting movements, and then it collects in these basins after its rise. It is also formed by the reverse overturning movement of water definition systems due to the uplift movements that affect parts of the earth’s crust, which leads to the reversal of water flow systems, and thus the formation of lakes such as Lake Kyoga in Uganda. The formation lakes are formed as a result of the main uplift movements, and the lakes accompanying the rift edges are formed from the formation lakes, as they are considered the most important on the outskirts.

glacial lakes[عدل]

Occupy areas that were subjected to erosion during the ice age, and are known as the Tserki lakes through the continental glaciers that covered Canada, the northern United States, Finland, and parts of Sweden, during their movement, concave pits that turned into depressions with an impermeable bottom in the base rocks, and when these pits were filled with water, tens of thousands of rocks were formed. Lakes with rocky shores, and are found abundantly in northeastern Minnesota and adjacent parts of Canada.

volcanic lakes[عدل]

The summits of volcanoes and their dormant craters or the slopes of the volcanic mountains are occupied in the reefs cut at the horizontal level with liquid lava from the crater, and volcanic lakes of various models are spread in Iceland and in the Eifel Province in Germany and in Vilkrin in Italy, and these lakes are spread in most parts of Indonesia and to the north of the Philippines Japan, and is found in most parts of Central Africa, New Zealand, parts of Australia, and Northwestern American states. Examples include: Lake Crater Boti in California, Lake Soda in Nevada, Lake Rotumhana in northern Iceland, and Lake Kivu in Central Africa.

Karst lakes[عدل]

It is located in the depths, and may be close to the surface, creating what is known as the lower subterranean channels.

dissolving lakes[عدل]

They are formed when water seeps through cracks in water-soluble rocks, such as: Dolin lakes formed in simple circular depressions, and there are Ovala lakes formed when the Dolin lakes merge, in addition to lakes formed by the action of acidic water when it interacts with sediments containing aluminum and iron hydroxide. These lakes appear in the coastal plains of South Carolina, USA.

lagoons[عدل]

It is formed by several factors, the most important of which is: the continuous sedimentation process of long sea currents, where its sediments rise above the water surface level, forming sandy or sedimentary tongues at the opening of the bay, and when these tongues close the openings of the bays, they are called sedimentary barriers, and the lake formed is called coastal. Examples include the lakes formed along the western coast of France, along the Mediterranean Sea, especially the coasts of the Balkan Peninsula, on most of the southern coasts of Australia, and in parts of the southern coasts of Africa. The coastal lakes are also formed by the presence of two tongues that connect the island to the opposite land, and the tongue is known as Tombolo, and the most famous examples are: Lake Orbitidello on the Italian coast overlooking the Cyrene Sea, and Lake Ghar El Melh in Tunisia.

Classification of lakes according to their production[عدل]

Lakes are classified according to their productivity and organic content into three types:

The lakes are oligotrophic[عدل]

Lakes of this type have clear, blue-coloured water, very deep, low productivity, poor organic matter, good aeration, and few plants. As for the benthic fauna, they are abundant in quantity and quality.

The lakes are rich in nutrients[عدل]

The lakes are relatively shallow and have high productivity, and the organic matter at the bottom is present in large quantities. Lakes of this type contain high concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium, and plants are abundant in them, as well as some animal species abound in them.

The lakes are eutrophic[عدل]

Lakes of this type are shallow, and their water appears brown or dark because there is a lot of organic matter at the bottom. It contains nitrogen, phosphorous and calcium in very small quantities. These lakes are so poorly ventilated that the proportion of dissolved oxygen in their depths is sometimes zero. The neighborhoods in this type of lakes are few, as plankton, zooplankton, and vascular plants are usually few in quantity and quality, as is the case with bottom animals and fish, and these lakes usually turn into swamps over time.

water movement[عدل]

The waters of the lakes are easy to stir up, and waves of a few meters may arise on their surface. Its waters do not move like the waters of rivers, so they can be included with a kind of reservation when studying each lake separately within the second movement that is characterized by fluids, known as the non-balancing movement, which benefits straightness in direction, balance, and regularity, and it is originally known in groundwater. This movement is achieved by distinguishing the following characteristics:

1. The velocity at the surface of the aquifer is zero and rises upward.
2. Water movement is affected in particular by the viscosity factor.

Hydrological division of lakes[عدل]

Among the classifications that are popular with students of lake water are those that were based on dissolved salts and on a thermal basis, and they are briefly shown in the following table:

Division based on heat	Classification based on dissolved salts
Hot tropical lakes: their water temperature is positive throughout the year	Soda lakes: contain large amounts of soda compounds
Lakes of the temperate zone: their water temperature decreases towards the depths and changes seasonally	Sulfate salty lakes: their waters are spread in dry environments, consisting of different sulfur solutions, with a salty taste mixed with bitterness.
Polar and sub-polar cold lakes: their water temperature drops below four degrees Celsius and their surfaces are subject to freezing	Chlorine lakes: Like sulphate lakes, they are spread in dry environments in general and contain many dissolved elements such as magnesium and potassium.

Lake water salinity[عدل]

The water is called salty if it contains 2.7 grams or more in each liter of water, and medium salty if the water contains between one gram and 2.7 grams per liter. It is described as fresh if the liter of water contains one gram or less.

Natural water is not devoid of salts, just as there is no pure water.

Geographical distribution of lakes[عدل]

Lakes are spread across all continents, but in different proportions, according to the rocky area, climate conditions, and annual precipitation amounts.

This table shows the most important lakes of our planet:

the lake	The state	Area: km²	Depth/m	Height/m
Caspian sea	Iran, Russia	438000	1000	-26
Superior	United States, Canada	82000	307	183
Victoria	Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda	68000	79	1185
Aral	Russian	64000	68	48
Horn	United States, Canada	59500	222	177
busy	United State	58100	266	177
Baikal	Russian	34000	1741	488
Tangenica	Tanzania, Congo, Burundi	31900	1435	773
Chad	Niger, Chad, Nigeria	30000	7	240
Crit Bear	Canada	29000	–	119
Create Self	Canada	27000	–	158
Nisa	Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania	26500	785	471
Erie	United States, Canada	25900	64	175
Where are you?	Canada	25000	27	216
Belkash	Russian	18800	20	234
Ontario	United States, Canada	18760	225	75
Ladoca	Russian	18120	223	5
Athabasca	Canada	11500	–	212
Ayer	Australia	11000	–	-12

See also[عدل]

• Undersea lake

Reference[عدل]

• Geography portal
• Lakes Gate
• Nature portal
• water gate
• Earth Sciences Portal

Commons photos and files about: lake

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