Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the uppermost, deepest and largest of the North American Great Lakes.[1] It is the largest both by volume and by surface area. The only freshwater lake that has a greater volume is Lake Baikal, in Siberia.[2]
It takes water approximately 200 years to transit the lake.[1]
The name "Superior" is said to be due to a mistranslation. It is said that early French maps didn't actually name the lake, they merely described it as "superior", meaning uppermost, but English travelers, using the French maps, assumed that was its name.[3]
The lake forms part of the boundary between Canada and the United States. Over 100 Lake freighters, and many "salties" use the lake to transport bulk cargo.[4] According to the Clear Seas website:
- Most cargo transiting on the Great Lakes is bulk cargo, which is transported in large holds rather than packed in containers. Today, the primary Great Lakes cargoes include iron ore, coal, limestone, farm products (such as grain, corn, soybeans), steel, and project cargo (such as large turbine blades for wind energy projects, giant steel pressure vessels for oil refining, and railroad locomotives for export). Other bulk goods carried on the Great Lakes include taconite, salt, cement, gypsum, sand, slag, and potash.[4]
Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the northeast shore, is the railhead for Canadian railways.[5]
Duluth, Minnesota, at the very western tip of the lake, is the most important port on the United States' side.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Douglas O. Linder. Lake Superior Facts, University of Missouri, 2014. Retrieved on 2024-02-14.
- ↑ Water We Talking About? The Greatest Lake(s)], University of Wisconsin, 2020-08-28. Retrieved on 2024-02-14. “If you are talking about the lake with that holds the most water, then you need to head to a place in Russia just north of its border with Mongolia, where the crystal-clear waters of Lake Baikal plunge down more than a mile to a lake floor formed at the intersection of two continental plates.”
- ↑ Great Lakes name meanings. Retrieved on 2024-02-14.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Marine shipping in the Great Lakes: What you need to know, Clear Seas. Retrieved on 2024-02-14. “Lake Superior (also referred to by the Ojibwe name Gichi-gami – gichi meaning ‘big, large, great’, gami meaning ‘water, lake sea’) is the largest Great Lake with a surface area of 82,000 km², about the same size as the country of Austria or the American state of South Carolina. It has an average depth of 147 metres, with a maximum depth of 406 metres. Lake Superior holds 12,000 km³ of water, which is enough to cover North and South America in a foot (30.5 cm) of water.”
- ↑ Ships in the Port of Thunder Bay, Net News Ledger, 2020. Retrieved on 2024-02-14.
- ↑ Watch the ships, Visit Duluth. Retrieved on 2024-02-14. “The Port of Duluth-Superior, ranked in the top 20 ports in the US by cargo tonnage, accommodates the maritime transportation needs of a wide range of industries ranging from agriculture, forestry, mining, manufacturing, power generation, and passenger cruising.”