Watermark Essay
Michigan has its own watershed better known as the Great Lakes region that we all know and love. The Great Lakes region is made up of the five great lakes, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. Channels and rivers connect these lakes, such as the St. Mary’s River, St. Claire River, Niagara River, St. Lawrence River, and Detroit River. We have about 23,000 km3 of water covering a span of about 244,000 km2. According to Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (2013), the Great Lakes contain the largest supply of fresh water in the world, holding about 18% of the world’s total freshwater and about 90% of the United States’ total freshwater. The water in the Great Lakes region is a very valuable resource that has had, and still has, a huge impact on life. This water has altered the landscape and influenced migration, but humans have also had an influence on water.
The way water has alter the landscape is through processes known as weathering, erosion, and deposition. …show more content…
Early sedimentary and volcanic rocks were folded and heated into complex structures. These were later eroded and, today, appear as the gently rolling hills and small mountain remnants of the Canadian Shield, which forms the northern and northwestern portions of the Great Lakes basin. Granitic rocks of the shield extend southward beneath the Paleozoic, sedimentary rocks where they form the 'basement' structure of the southern and eastern portions of the basin. Glaciers are masses of flowing ice that have accumulated on land in areas where annual snowfall is more than the yearly loss of snow by melting. Glaciers are open systems. They have inputs of snow being stored in snow and ice, and leaving the system usually when it melts. Glacial systems are controlled by two basic climate conditions: precipitation in the form of snow, and freezing
Michigan has its own watershed better known as the Great Lakes region that we all know and love. The Great Lakes region is made up of the five great lakes, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. Channels and rivers connect these lakes, such as the St. Mary’s River, St. Claire River, Niagara River, St. Lawrence River, and Detroit River. We have about 23,000 km3 of water covering a span of about 244,000 km2. According to Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (2013), the Great Lakes contain the largest supply of fresh water in the world, holding about 18% of the world’s total freshwater and about 90% of the United States’ total freshwater. The water in the Great Lakes region is a very valuable resource that has had, and still has, a huge impact on life. This water has altered the landscape and influenced migration, but humans have also had an influence on water.
The way water has alter the landscape is through processes known as weathering, erosion, and deposition. …show more content…
Early sedimentary and volcanic rocks were folded and heated into complex structures. These were later eroded and, today, appear as the gently rolling hills and small mountain remnants of the Canadian Shield, which forms the northern and northwestern portions of the Great Lakes basin. Granitic rocks of the shield extend southward beneath the Paleozoic, sedimentary rocks where they form the 'basement' structure of the southern and eastern portions of the basin. Glaciers are masses of flowing ice that have accumulated on land in areas where annual snowfall is more than the yearly loss of snow by melting. Glaciers are open systems. They have inputs of snow being stored in snow and ice, and leaving the system usually when it melts. Glacial systems are controlled by two basic climate conditions: precipitation in the form of snow, and freezing