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The Lakes Portal
A portal dedicated to Lakes
A view of the six lowest (and largest) lakes of the Seven Rila Lakes
Thunder Lake in Northern Alberta
A view of West Lake in Hangzhou, China
A view of Goëngarijpsterpoelen, one of the Frisian Lakes
A view of Lake Teletskoye, the largest lake in the Altai Mountains and the Altai Republic, Russia
Introduction
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and set apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger oceans, they do form part of the Earth's water cycle. Lakes are distinct from lagoons, which are generally coastal parts of the ocean. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which also lie on land, though there are no official or scientific definitions. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which usually flow in a channel on land. Most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams.
Natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers, where a river channel has widened into a basin. 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.
Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for industrial or agricultural use, for hydro-electric power generation or domestic water supply, for aesthetic or recreational purposes, or for other activities. (Full article...)
Selected article - show another
Lobelia dortmanna, Dortmann's cardinalflower or water lobelia, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This stoloniferous herbaceous perennial aquatic plant with basal leaf-rosettes and flower stalks grows to 0.7–2 m (2.3–6.6 ft) tall. The flowers are 1–2 cm long, with a five-lobed white to pale pink or pale blue corolla, produced in groups of one to ten on an erect raceme held above the water surface. The fruit is a capsule 5–10 mm long and 3–5 mm wide, containing numerous small seeds.
The leaves are almost cylindrical, blunt, 2.5–7.5 cm long and evergreen. They have no functional stomata. It is one of several unrelated species of plants from low nutrient lakes known as isoetids, owing to their superficial similarity to Isoetes. The leaves of Lobelia dortmanna are, however, easily distinguishable from those of other isoetids in having only two air-canals (Isoetes having four and most others several) and in the presence of milky sap. The plant has the unusual ability of removing carbon dioxide from the rooting zone rather than from the atmosphere. (Full article...)General topics
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General images - show new batch
Image 1Ephemeral 'Lake Badwater', a lake only noted after heavy winter and spring rainfall, Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park, 9 February 2005. Landsat 5 satellite photo (from Lake)
Image 2Crater Lake in Oregon, USA (from Volcanogenic lake)
Image 3Lake Teletskoye, Siberia (from Lake)
Image 4Ice melting on Lake Balaton in Hungary (from Lake)
Image 5Oeschinen Lake in the Swiss Alps (from Lake)
Image 6Satellite image of subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica. Image credit: NASA (from Subglacial lake)
Image 7There are some 187,888 lakes in Finland larger than 500 square metres. Isojärvi is Finland's 97th-largest lake. (from Lake)
Image 8Russian scientist Peter Kropotkin first proposed the idea of fresh water under Antarctic ice. (from Subglacial lake)
Image 9The shores of Lake Peipus, the fifth-largest lake in Europe, near the town of Kallaste in Estonia (from Lake)
Image 10Lake of Flowers (Liqeni i Lulëve), one of the Lurë Mountains glacial lakes, Albania (from Lake)
Image 11An artist's depiction of the subglacial lakes and rivers beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Image credit: Zina Deretsky / US National Science Foundation (from Subglacial lake)
Image 12Lake Mapourika, New Zealand (from Lake)
Image 13Badwater Basin dry lake, 15 February 2007. Landsat 5 satellite photo (from Lake)
Image 14Lake Sevan is the largest body of water in Armenia and the Caucasus region. It is one of the largest freshwater high-altitude (alpine) lakes in Eurasia. (from Lake)
Image 15A view of the southern polar plain of Mars. The area where a subglacial lake has been detected is highlighted. Image credit: USGS Astrogeology Science Center, Arizona State University (from Subglacial lake)
Image 16These kettle lakes in Alaska were formed by a retreating glacier. (from Lake)
Image 17The crater lake of Mount Rinjani, Indonesia (from Lake)
Image 18Cross sectional diagram of limnological lake zones (left) and algal community types (right) (from Lake)
Image 19Lake Tahoe on the border of California and Nevada (from Lake)
Image 20A schematic cross-section of the subglacial pool beneath Taylor Glacier and its outflow, Blood Falls. Image credit: Zina Deretsky / US National Science Foundation (from Subglacial lake)
Image 21Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Indonesia is the largest volcanic lake in the world (from Lake)
Image 22Peyto Lake in Alberta, Western Canada (from Lake)
Image 24The Caspian Sea is either the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea (from Lake)
Image 25Atro/Attar Lake and pass, Ishkoman Valley, Gilgit-Baltistan (from Lake)
Image 26The Seven Rila Lakes are a group of glacial lakes in the Bulgarian Rila mountains. (from Lake)
Image 27Lake Kaniere is a glacial lake in the West Coast region of New Zealand. (from Lake)
Image 28Five Flower Lake in Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan (from Lake)
Image 29The Nowitna River in Alaska. Two oxbow lakes – a short one at the bottom of the picture and a longer, more curved one at the middle-right. (from Lake)
Image 30Round Tangle Lake, one of the Tangle Lakes, 2,864 feet (873 m) above sea level in interior Alaska (from Lake)
Image 31Soda Lakes in Nevada, USA (from Volcanogenic lake)
Image 32The first view of the sediment at the bottom of subglacial Lake Whillans, captured by the WISSARD expedition. Image credit: NASA/JPL, California Institute of Technology (from Subglacial lake)
Image 33Garibaldi Lake in British Columbia, Canada, is impounded by lava flows comprising The Barrier (from Volcanogenic lake)
Image 34An illustration of ice core drilling above subglacial Lake Vostok. These drilling efforts collected re-frozen lake water that has been analyzed to understand the lake's chemistry. Image credit: Nicolle Rager-Fuller / US National Science Foundation (from Subglacial lake)
Image 35View of Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia which is the largest volcanic lake in the world (from Volcanogenic lake)
Image 36Lava lake at Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from Volcanogenic lake)
Image 37Titan's north polar hydrocarbon seas and lakes, as seen in a false-color Cassini synthetic aperture radar mosaic (from Lake)
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Natural Lakes |
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Lakes on the Altiplano | |
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Lake expansions of Lake Titicaca | |
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Eastern Georgia |
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Low-altitude lakes | |
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Mid-altitude lakes | |
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Lakes in Japan | |
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Hokkaido region | |
Tōhoku region | |
Kantō region | |
Chūbu region | |
Kansai region | |
San'in region | |
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Lakes of New Mexico | |
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Lakes and other natural bodies of water in New South Wales, Australia | |
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Lakes of Switzerland | ||
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External media
- World Lake Database. International Lake Environment Committee Foundation. – provides a searchable database
- Global Lakes and Wetlands Database. World Wide Fund for Nature. – available for free download