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Wathen1955
12-08-2023, 11:48am
1. Lake Superior is actually not a lake at all, but an inland sea .
2. All of the four other Great Lakes, plus three more the size of Lake Erie, would fit inside of Lake Superior.
3. Isle Royale is a massive island surrounded by Lake Superior. Within this island are several smaller lakes. Yes, that’s a lake on a lake.
4. Despite its massive size, Lake Superior is an extremely young formation by Earth’s standards (only 10,000 years old).
5. There is enough water in Lake Superior to submerge all of North and South America in 1 foot of water.
6. Lake Superior contains 3 quadrillion gallons of water (3,000,000,000,000,000). All five of the Great Lakes combined contain 6 quadrillion gallons.
7. Contained within Lake Superior is a whopping 10% of the world’s fresh surface water.
8. It’s estimated there are about 100 million lake trout in Lake Superior. That’s nearly one-fifth of the human population of North America!
9. There are small outlets through which water leaves Lake Superior. It takes two centuries for all the water in the lake to replace itself.
10. Lake Erie is the fourth-largest Great Lake in surface area, and the smallest in depth. It’s the 11th largest lake on the planet.
11. There is alleged to be a 30- to 40-foot-long “monster” in Lake Erie named Bessie. The earliest recorded sighting goes back as early as 1793.
12. Water in Lake Erie replaces itself in only 2.6 years, which is notable considering the water in Lake Superior takes two centuries.
13. The original publication of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax contained the line, “I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie.”
Fourteen years later, the Ohio Sea Grant Program wrote to Seuss to make the case that conditions had improved. He removed the line.
14. Not only is lake Erie the smallest Great Lake when it comes to volume, but it’s surrounded by the most industry.
Seventeen metropolitan areas, each with populations of more than 50,000, border the Lake Erie basin.
15. During the War of 1812, the U.S. beat the British in a naval battle called
the Battle of Lake Erie, forcing them to abandon Detroit.
16. The shoreline of all the Great Lakes combined equals nearly 44% of the circumference of the planet.
17. If not for the the Straits of Mackinac, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron might be considered one lake. Hydrologically speaking, they have the same mean water level and are considered one lake.
18. The Keystone State was one of the largest and most luxurious wooden steamships running during the Civil War. In 1861, it disappeared. In 2013, it was found 30 miles northeast of Harrisville under 175 feet of water.
19. Goderich Mine is the largest salt mine in the world. Part of it runs underneath Lake Huron, more than 500 meters underground.
20. Below Lake Huron, there are 9,000-year-old animal-herding structures used by prehistoric people from when the water levels were significantly lower.
21. There are massive sinkholes in Lake Huron that have high amounts of sulfur and low amounts of oxygen, almost replicating the conditions of Earth’s ancient oceans 3 million years ago. Unique ecosystems are contained within them.
22. Lake Huron is the second largest among the Great Lakes, and the fifth largest in the world.
23. In size, Lake Michigan ranks third among the Great Lakes, and sixth among all freshwater lakes in the world.
24. Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake that is entirely within the borders of the United States.
25. The largest fresh water sand dunes in the world line the shores of Lake Michigan.
26. Because water enters and exits Lake Michigan through the same path, it takes 77 years longer for the water to replace itself than in Huron, despite their similarity in size and depth. (Lake Michigan: 99 years, Lake Huron: 22 years)
27. When the temperature of Lake Michigan is below freezing, this happens.
28. Within Lake Michigan there is a “triangle” with a similar reputation to the Bermuda Triangle, where a large amount of “strange disappearances” have occurred. There have also been alleged UFO sightings.
29. Singapore, Mich., is a ghost town on the shores of Lake Michigan that was buried under sand in 1871. Because of severe weather conditions and a lack of resources due to the need to rebuild after the great Chicago fire, the town was lost completely.
30. In the mid-19th century, Lake Michigan had a pirate problem. Their booty: timber. In fact, the demise of Singapore is due in large part to the rapidly deforested area surrounding the town.
31. Jim Dreyer swam across Lake Michigan in 1998 (65 miles), and then in 2003, he swam the length of Lake Michigan (422 miles).
32. Lake Michigan was the location of the first recorded “Big Great Lakes disaster,” in which a steamer carrying 600 people collided with a schooner delivering timber to Chicago. Four hundred and fifty people died.
33. Lake Ontario is the smallest of the Great Lakes in surface area, and second smallest in depth. It’s the 14th largest lake on the planet.
34. The province Ontario was named after the lake, and not vice versa.
35. In 1804, a Canadian warship, His Majesty’s Ship Speedy, sank in Lake Ontario. In 1990, wreck hunter Ed Burtt managed to find it.
Only, he isn’t allowed to recover any artifacts until a government-approved site to exhibit them is found. He’s still waiting.
36. Babe Ruth hit his first major league home run at Hanlan’s Point Stadium in Toronto. It landed in Lake Ontario and is believed to still be there.
37. A lake on Saturn’s moon Titan is named after Lake Ontario.

Jughead
12-08-2023, 11:56am
Didn't know any of that. I fish Lake Erie several times during the summer.

Louie Detroit
12-08-2023, 12:01pm
Lake Superior has really cold water.

I laugh whenever someone from the freshwater deprived areas of the US talks about taking our water as if they have some right to do so. It’s not our problem you choose to live in a desert.

Onebadcad
12-08-2023, 12:29pm
Lake Superior is badarse, has waves that can sink a 729-foot freighter.

I remember in elementary school, HOMES, Huron and Ontario and Michigan and Erie and Superior.

When I was really young, I remember seeing the great lakes on a map, and thought the person making the map was making their job easier by putting all five lakes next to each other.

StudleyJames
12-08-2023, 1:14pm
The coast line of the upper Peninsula of Michigan is Gods country

Unsuspicious
12-08-2023, 1:40pm
Extremely underappreciated resource

MidLifeinMI
12-08-2023, 1:55pm
3. I’ve been to that lake on Isle Royale; I believe it’s called Lake Siskiwit? Another trivia piece; there’s an island in that lake. That is the largest island on the largest lake on the largest island on the largest lake in the world.

PLRX
12-08-2023, 2:26pm
The water in the bottom has been there since the big bang.

Swany00
12-08-2023, 2:35pm
I did not know that

Kevin68
12-08-2023, 2:52pm
Lake Superior has really cold water.

I laugh whenever someone from the freshwater deprived areas of the US talks about taking our water as if they have some right to do so. It’s not our problem you choose to live in a desert.

That's the American Spirit!!! Would you consider selling it?

Just think, 10's of million of people would rather live in a desert without water than live in Detroit or Cleveland. I would appreciate it if they stayed put and enjoyed their water.

Relax though, taking - or buying for that matter - "your" water will never happen. There's this problem of the Rocky Mountains that probably makes the energy needed to pump it cost prohibitive....not to mention the pipe diameters and reservoirs that would be needed to get it over the Rockies (no known pipe could withstand the burst pressure).

Aerovette
12-08-2023, 2:57pm
That's the American Spirit!!! Would you consider selling it?

Just think, 10's of million of people would rather live in a desert without water than live in Detroit or Cleveland. I would appreciate it if they stayed put and enjoyed their water.

Relax though, taking - or buying for that matter - "your" water will never happen. There's this problem of the Rocky Mountains that probably makes the energy needed to pump it cost prohibitive....not to mention the pipe diameters and reservoirs that would be needed to get it over the Rockies (no known pipe could withstand the burst pressure).

Wind powered tanker trains. :yesnod:

Kevin68
12-08-2023, 3:02pm
5. There is enough water in Lake Superior to submerge all of North and South America in 1 foot of water.
6. Lake Superior contains 3 quadrillion gallons of water (3,000,000,000,000,000). All five of the Great Lakes combined contain 6 quadrillion gallons.

The US is about 2.3 billion acres. 3 quadrillion gallons is about 9 billion acre-feet, so ~4 feet. One acre-foot is about 325,850 gallons.

Kevin68
12-08-2023, 3:05pm
Wind powered tanker trains. :yesnod:

Damn, I forgot about those. :Jeff '79:

04 commemorative
12-08-2023, 3:30pm
Awesome information, thanks :seasix:

Aerovette
12-08-2023, 5:28pm
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered

Torqaholic
12-08-2023, 6:50pm
Iron Butt trivia -

Circling either Lake Superior, Michigan, or Huron can earn you the 1000 mile in less than 24 hours certificate. I've done all three. Doing Ontario and Erie together would also be good for a 1000 mile cert but I opted for something a bit more challenging.

Circumnavigation of all 5 Great Lakes was further than the Coast To Coast in less than 50 hours (Jacksonville -> San Diego) that riders typically perform. It's also not as simple as hopping on I-10 and hanging on to the grips. I completed the run in 47 hours... Not recommended. I think climbing Mount Everest might be easier.

MadInNc
12-08-2023, 7:44pm
the waves on Lake Michigan gets many "ocean seasoned sailors" sick due to the frequency as much shorter and more of them.... truth, seen it

zeek
12-08-2023, 8:04pm
The water in the bottom has been there since the big bang.

How can that be since it states that the lake is only 10,000 years old?

Louie Detroit
12-08-2023, 8:10pm
How can that be since it states that the lake is only 10,000 years old?

Plus the Earth didn’t come along for almost 10 billion years after the Big Bang.

Big bob
12-08-2023, 8:23pm
How can that be since it states that the lake is only 10,000 years old?

:iagree: I was taught the lakes were formed by receding glaciers from global warming. :rofl:

donuts
12-08-2023, 8:27pm
I’ve seen alota Great Lakes trivia this week but this list beats them all

ratflinger
12-08-2023, 9:53pm
Who dares to question PLRX? :slap:

Bruze
12-09-2023, 12:06am
:iagree: I was taught the lakes were formed by receding glaciers from global warming. :rofl:

The global warming thing is true, although I think the lakes were already there -- but the glaciers radically changed their shorelines. I grew up about 10 miles south of Ontario's southern shore, and lived a half-mile from it from '75-'82.

Ridge Road runs a long ways, most of the southern shore? -- not sure. It is a ridge (:eek:) that parallels the shore some miles away from it and supposedly was the shore before the last glacier re-shaped everything.

Where I lived in '75, Ridge Road was about 8 miles from the shore. The lake-effect winter storms were literal blizzards within a few miles from shore. Being a half-mile away we got the worst of them.

A couple of times we housed people that got stranded. We had fun drinking all night. The worst storm I remember was in 1977 (I think). The snow and brutal wind lasted a couple days or so.

There was a drift across the road right in front of our house that was probably five feet or so deep, and hard-packed by the endless wind. So after it let up, the town got to clearing the roads. To clear those YOOGE drifts they had a German made 6-wheel drive (3 axles) dump (don't remember the brand) with a V-plow on it.

He came at the drift in front of our house probably 30 or so MPH, hit it and the snow went flying out from the V-plow and the truck came to a halt pretty quickly. Back up, come at it again. Had to do that several times to get through it.

And during those blizzards you could drive several miles south and the sun would be shining. One time the neighbors and I went on a beer run, got several cases of beer in the back of his truck and hit a mountain of snow on the way home and went in the ditch; we couldn't really see the road. The town plow came by and pulled us out.

Oh well.