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Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

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Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#211

Post by topspin »

godtoldmetodoit wrote: post #23
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #16

Seas or not, I love the lakes and the land around them, in the 20+ years since I moved myself here they've taken over my heart. I'm from the aspen parkland of central Alberta; thin trees, dry air, small muddy leach-infested kettle lakes, big skies, poplar and birch land. When I was 8 we did a trip across Canada, and I remember us camping by the shores of Superior when a massive thunderstorm came rolling in, and it le…

I grew up in south west Michigan and absolutely took them for granted. After almost 5 years in Austin we decided to come back to Michigan with the birth of our first child. I missed the lakes terribly, just totally took for granted that not everywhere has fresh water surrounding them on all sides. In this climate change age, being close to so much fresh water really helps calm my nerves knowing that I am in a spot th…

I go swimming in the West short of lake Huron. It is by far the best water for plain old swimming I've experienced. It's a big body of water so nice rolling waves are constant. Yet, unlike some inland lakes there is no stagnancy, just clear salt free water. Huge sand bars, miles long a hundred meters or more from shore.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#212

Post by scorxn »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #16

Seas or not, I love the lakes and the land around them, in the 20+ years since I moved myself here they've taken over my heart. I'm from the aspen parkland of central Alberta; thin trees, dry air, small muddy leach-infested kettle lakes, big skies, poplar and birch land. When I was 8 we did a trip across Canada, and I remember us camping by the shores of Superior when a massive thunderstorm came rolling in, and it le…

Re: appreciation, yes. The Great Lakes are unique and amazing. The more you travel, the more you realize it. I love hearing from people who visited the Great Lakes and were like: I can't see land on the horizon! This is an ocean! But also, no jellyfish +1

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#213

Post by unethical_ban »

throw0101a wrote: post #176
unethical_ban wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why bring it up?

Because I find/found it surprising and was curious if the Hive Mind of HN may have an explanation.

You insult the members of the site and bring up off-topic current affairs discussion in a geography submission.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#214

Post by jacquesm »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #16

Seas or not, I love the lakes and the land around them, in the 20+ years since I moved myself here they've taken over my heart. I'm from the aspen parkland of central Alberta; thin trees, dry air, small muddy leach-infested kettle lakes, big skies, poplar and birch land. When I was 8 we did a trip across Canada, and I remember us camping by the shores of Superior when a massive thunderstorm came rolling in, and it le…

Nice! I've lived on St. Josephs Island in Lake Huron and still miss nature every day. Crappy economy though.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#215

Post by a2tech »

topspin wrote: post #211
godtoldmetodoit wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in south west Michigan and absolutely took them for granted. After almost 5 years in Austin we decided to come back to Michigan with the birth of our first child. I missed the lakes terribly, just totally took for granted that not everywhere has fresh water surrounding them on all sides. In this climate change age, being close to so much fresh water really helps calm my nerves knowing that I am in a spot th…

I go swimming in the West short of lake Huron. It is by far the best water for plain old swimming I've experienced. It's a big body of water so nice rolling waves are constant. Yet, unlike some inland lakes there is no stagnancy, just clear salt free water. Huge sand bars, miles long a hundred meters or more from shore.

My wife and I are looking to buy a lakehouse/property up in Oscoda because we love watching the sun come up and swimming in the lake.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#216

Post by robonerd »

jltsiren wrote: post #189
robbrown451 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True but it is all arbitrary. If there was an island twice as big as Greenland, what would it be called? And why is Europe considered a continent when it is more accurately just a peninsula off of Asia? And if we are talking seas, why is the Caribbean a sea when it is just a region of the Atlantic ocean? Even moreso for the Sargasso sea, which is a region right out in the middle of the Atlantic (it doesn't even have…

It's fuzzy rather than arbitrary, because the universe resists categorization. Australia is the dominant landmass on its tectonic plate, and it's relatively far away from other major landmasses. Greenland is a lesser landmass on the North American Plate, and it's much closer to the mainland. Europe, Asia, and Africa are names people gave to the major regions surrounding the Mediterranean long ago. Later generations g…

Plate tectonics is a fairly recent 20th century theory; I believe Australia's classification as a continent predates it.

I think it might be considered a continent because people were looking for a continent. Since Roman times, there was reputed to be a continent at the South Pole called Terra Australis. Captain Cook was looking for Terra Australis, but found Australia instead. They new they weren't at the South Pole, but they decided to call the place Australia anyway (Antarctica would not be seen until several decades later.) I suspect the continent classification was cast as soon as they started calling the place Australia.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#217

Post by cmrdporcupine »

duped wrote: post #135
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's legally forbidden by treaty of all the states and provinces that border them. For now. There's also little reason for it. There's plenty of rich farmland here to grow on. Agriculture should move back to this region, and growing practices and crops adapt for the colder climate. Growing heavily irrigated crops in the desert or semi-arid regions has many advantages but makes little sense in a water constrained worl…

> Agriculture should move back to this region It never left, Illinois and Minnesota are the 3rd and 5th largest producers of staple crops (the other being California, Iowa, and Texas, respectively, and CA and TX are only slightly larger in production but massively larger in size). West of the Mississippi, ranching dominates agriculture due to the poor soil and dry climate. Largely that corn and soy in the Great Lakes…

I should have clarified. It never left, but it became much less diverse.

And in the more northeast states, it actually left.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#218

Post by jedberg »

duped wrote: post #134
ceejayoz wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By act of Congress, not Constitutional amendment. It could be repealed in a matter of weeks if Congress saw fit.

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and New York have 97 votes in the house and 12 votes in the Senate. Good luck passing any legislation that sees major diversion of water out of these states.

Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Oklahoma (all in drought) have 12 votes in the Senate and 117 members in the House.

It would be a battle for sure.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#219

Post by fredsmith219 »

khuey wrote: post #88
lettergram wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In this climate change age The Great Lakes only exist because the massive ice sheet melted and left the lakes as a deposit some 10-15,000 years ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few thousand years the lakes largely dissipate. That said I grew up near the lake, definitely something that’s awesome to live near

The Great Lakes will eventually go away, but not for the reason you think. Niagara Falls is eroding its way upstream and will eventually reach Lake Erie, at which point Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan will all drain away downstream.

I live on the Huron River in southeast Michigan and like to tease my son that in a few thousand years we will have the falls in our back yard. He is somewhat skeptical but loves the idea.

Re: Are the Great Lakes really inland seas?

#220

Post by ericmay »

Great Lakes and Michigan in particular are pretty underrated in the national consciousness in my opinion.

I also wish we’d stop lumping all of this stuff together as “the Midwest” and instead refer to it as The Great Lakes region.

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