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Lakes might be the most misunderstood bodies of water on earth. And while they may seem commonplace, without lakes our world would never be the same. In this revealing look at these lifegiving treasures, John Richard Saylor shows us just how deep our connection to still waters run.
Lakes is an illuminating tour through the most fascinating lakes around the world. Whether it’s Lake Vostok, located more than two miles beneath the surface of Antarctica, whose water was last exposed to the atmosphere perhaps a million years ago; Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, the world’s deepest and oldest lake formed by a rift in the earth’s crust; or Lake Nyos, the so-called Killer Lake that exploded in 1986, resulting in hundreds of deaths, Saylor reveals to us the wonder that exists in lakes found throughout the world. Along the way we learn all the many forms that lakes take—how they come to be and how they feed and support ecosystems—and what happens when lakes vanish.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 7, 2022 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781643261676
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781643261676
- File size: 1132 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from May 1, 2022
Depending on how they're measured, there are as many as 117 million lakes in the world, according to Smithsonian magazine. Saylor, professor of mechanical engineering at Clemson University, delivers science in a layperson's language to detail their forms, how they're created, how they're miraculously sustained, and, yes, how they die. Revelations abound: 45 percent of the Earth's lake water is found in salt lakes; Lake Vostok, a subterranean body of water beneath Antarctica that's roughly the size of Lake Ontario, hasn't been exposed to the atmosphere in as many as 10 million years; a lake "overturns" once, maybe twice, a year, enough to supply a year's worth of oxygen to its plant and animal life "in one great gulp"; and the surface tension created by the desire of water molecules to stay close together allows some 1,200 different creatures to literally walk on water. Millions of lakes notwithstanding, Saylor warns of the dangers to the world's freshwater supply by human activity, citing, as just one example, the fated Aral Sea. An excellent primer for libraries of any size.COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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