Author Topic: Fascinating Facts about Lake Superior (Read 1884 times)

Matthew · « **on:** January 24, 2013, 08:55:14 PM »

Why it's called Lake Superior

Did you realize how big and amazing this lake is?

LAKE SUPERIOR FACTS

Lake Superior contains ten percent of all the fresh
water on the planet Earth.

It covers 82,000 square kilometers or 31,700 square miles.

The average depth is 147 meters or 483 feet.

There have been about 350 shipwrecks recorded in Lake Superior

Lake Superior is, by surface area, the largest lake in the world.

A Jesuit priest in 1668 named it Lac Tracy, but that name
was never officially adopted.

It contains as much water as all the other Great Lakes
combined, plus three extra Lake Erie's!!

There is a small outflow from the lake at St. Mary's River
(Sault Ste Marie) into Lake Huron, but it takes almost
two centuries for the water to be completely replaced.

There is enough water in Lake Superior to cover all of North and
South America with water one foot deep.

Lake Superior was formed during the last glacial retreat, making it one
of the earth's youngest major features at only about 10,000 years old.

The deepest point in the lake is 405 meters or 1,333 feet.

There are 78 different species of fish that call the big lake home.

The maximum wave ever recorded on Lake Superior was 9.45 meters
or 31 feet high.

If you stretched the shoreline of Lake Superior out to a straight
line, it would be long enough to reach from Duluth to the Bahamas.

Over 300 streams and rivers empty into Lake Superior with the
largest source being the Nipigon River.

The average underwater visibility of Lake Superior is about 8 meters
or 27 feet, making it the cleanest and clearest of the Great Lakes.
Underwater visibility in some spots reaches 30 meters.

In the summer, the sun sets more than 35 minutes later on the
western shore of Lake Superior than at its southeastern edge.

Some of the world's oldest rocks can be found on the Ontario shore of Lake Superior.

It very rarely freezes over completely, and then usually just for a few
hours. Complete freezing occurred in 1962, 1979, 2003 and 2009.

magdalena · « **Reply #1 on:** January 24, 2013, 09:24:43 PM »

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

It's a bit choppy. Like the water that fateful November night.

magdalena · « **Reply #2 on:** January 24, 2013, 09:35:21 PM »

And, BTW, thank you, Matthew. I have a special fondness for that lake.

magdalena · « **Reply #3 on:** January 24, 2013, 10:24:23 PM »

http://galleries.lakesuperiorphoto.com/

Beautiful photos. Click on one, and more will show. Enjoy.

Stubborn · « **Reply #4 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:00:53 AM »

Quote from: magdalena

And, BTW, thank you, Matthew. I have a special fondness for that lake.

Same here -and that lake is cold too, freezing cold! - I know that from swimming in it a few times when I was a kid. I bet that lake never gets warmer than 50 degrees - bbrrrr!

I remember that day the E.F. sank. I was 15 and was spending a few weeks about an hour north of Port Huron and a few miles off Lake Huron at that time.

The entire day those winds were screaming 70mph in our neck of the woods non stop, we could see huge white caps on lake Huron - the big lakes was a place not to be that day for sure.

Thursday · « **Reply #5 on:** January 25, 2013, 06:39:47 AM »

I spent seven years on the lake boats with Canada Steamship Lines and spent many a night on that Lake. We usually loaded grain in Thunder Bay and brought it to Duluth, Minnesota to the General Mills elevator but sometimes we brought oats to the Anheiser Busch elevator though. Then we would clean up and load ore in Superior Wisconsin and bring it to Hamilton, Ontario.

Two stories about that Lake worth sharing, on my first year onboard as a cadet we were were going across Lake Superior to Thunder Bay in the fall during rough weather. The Captain at the time was on a vessel (the MV Tadooussac) which was behind the Edmund Fitzgerald the night she went down. He said they knew she was taking on water and were watching here closely on the radar. He was 3rd Officer at the time and said she was on the screen and by the time the radar went one sweep around she was gone, just like that.

Another time when we were crossing the Lake the old wheelsman told about the night they saw the UFO on Lake Superior and how the officer on watch wouldn't report it until after 2 other ships reported seeing it. The sighting happened in the early eighties and since the weather was good and there was no traffic we spent the better half of the watch looking through the old logbooks to find the entry. Sure enough we found it and it was reported to USCG and it named the other two ships in the vicinity who reported it as well.

magdalena · « **Reply #6 on:** January 25, 2013, 07:49:26 PM »

Thank you for sharing your stories, Stubborn and Thursday. Fascinating! My father was an underwriter in the Inland Marine Department of a large insurance company before he retired, which gave him his interest in large cargo ships and why I became quite familiar with Lake Superior. The Edmund Fitzgerald was not one of them, however.

Sigismund · « **Reply #7 on:** January 25, 2013, 08:37:43 PM »

Quote from: magdalena

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

It's a bit choppy. Like the water that fateful November night.

Very interesting, Matthew. and this one one of my favorite songs.

Mariner's Church in Detroit was the location of the service mentioned in the song. It used to be Episcopalian, and is now a conservative independent Anglican church. I passed it when I was in Detroit once and stopped in to see it. The have the lines about the service on their bulletin. I had a nice chat with their organist. It is indeed a musty old hall.

In a musty old hall
In Detroit they prayed
In the maritime sailors' cathedral.
The Church bell chimed
Till it rang 29 times
for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

alaric · « **Reply #8 on:** January 26, 2013, 10:57:36 AM »

Great post and info, love the big lakes. worked up on Lakes Erie and Ontario in upstate NY many years ago, was most impressed by these massive bodies of water. I believe the Great Lakes are probably one of America's greates treasures and assets.

Really sad story about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Great tribute song.

The Marine industry can be most hazardous.

Thursday · « **Reply #9 on:** January 27, 2013, 06:19:14 AM »

When you hear abour a 30 foot wave on Lake Superior it doesn't seem like much as sometimes you get waves 90 ft of the the coast of BC. The thing is the waves on the lakes are so close together, the ship doesn't have time to recover from the first wave before she gets hit by the second one. On the ocean the waves are repetitive so the ship rolls pretty much at the same speed and the angle and after a while you just get used to it, well most people do, and then it doesn't even seem like the ship is moving. Not so on the lakes, rough weather is a nightmare, pretty much everyone gets sick, luckily it's never that far to the nearest port but some ships never make it.