The Great Lakes - Part One
Pellucid pearls in northeastern North America since planetary birth
Comprise Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario dearth
Largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth
Straddle Canadian–United States border tethering partial global girth
Constituting 21% of world's surface fresh water species hearth
Total surface equals 94,250 square miles
And total volume equals 5,439 cubic miles immeasurable worth.
Lake Erie from Erie tribe, abridged form of Iroquoian word erielhonan “long tail”
Lake Huron named by French explorers for Wyandot
or “Hurons” whence they did sail
Lake Michigan likely from Ojibwa word mishigami
“great water” aka outsize gold quail
Lake Ontario i.e. “Lake of Shining Waters”
shimmering like hammered coat of mail
Lake Superior coined from French “lac supérieur”
"upper lake", an emerald watery dale
Ojibwe people called it gitchigumi medicinal
to cure that, which might ail.
These five lakes each reside in separate basin
Form a single, naturally interconnected body of fresh water caisson
Linking east-central interior of North America
to Atlantic Ocean akin to escutcheon.
From interior to outlet at St. Lawrence River,
Water flows via Superior to Michigan-Huron southward to Erie to avoid a shiver
Finally released northward to Lake Ontario
like a well taut archer with his quiver.
The lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers as an Olympic team
Populated with approximately 35,000 islands this estimate not x stream.
The Great Lakes region contains many thousands of smaller lakes,
Often called inland lakes
undulating in cascading analogous to a fluid ream
Lake Michigan the only one located entirely within United States
While the others border between United States and Canada –
essentially a liquid seam.
Lakes Michigan and Huron are basically a single lake,
Sometimes called Lake Michigan-Huron, combined doth make
Total area of 45,300 square miles (117,000 km2)
Have the same surface elevation of 577 feet (176 m),
Connected by 295-foot deep Straits of Mackinac Islands
dis pull layed like a rake.
approximately 35,000 islands extant throughout oceanic like sea
largest among them is Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron perhaps,
the largest island in any inland body of water in the world.
The second-largest island is Isle Royale in Lake Superior.
Both of these islands are large enough
to contain multiple lakes themselves —
Manitoulin Island's Lake Manitou is listed
in Guinness Book of World Records as
world's largest lake located on a freshwater island.
Connection to the ocean
The Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway
connect the Great Lakes to ocean-going vessels.
The move to wider ocean-going container ships —
which do not fit through the locks on these routes —
has limited container shipping on the lakes.
Most Great Lakes trade is of bulk material
and bulk freighters of Seawaymax-size or less
can move throughout entire lakes and out
to Atlantic. The Great Lakes are also connected
to Gulf of Mexico by way of Illinois River
(from the Chicago River) and Mississippi River.
Copyright © Matthew Harris | Year Posted 2017
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