Lake Superior Research Paper

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Lake Superior first took form about 1.2 billion years ago as an effect of the North American Mid-Continent Rift. The area was occupied by Native Americans for several years prior to being explored in the mid-1600s by the French. The lake was a key form of transportation for the fur trade and other trading actions during the Colonial period and remains a huge shipping focal point to this day. Lake Superior is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the St. Lawrence Seaway. The 2,343 mile outing can take up to seven days by boat from Duluth. It is the busiest inland port in the country and has more than 1,000 ships visiting each year.
Lake Superior is not only the largest of the Great Lakes, but it is also the largest body of fresh water on Earth …show more content…
The lake is about 160 miles wide and about 350 miles long. It has a surface area of 31,699 square miles, and water volume of 2,900 cubic miles. The deepest spot in Lake Superior is 1,300 feet beneath the surface, making a whole freeze very uncommon. Lake Superior possesses enormously clear water, with an average underwater visibility of 27 feet. Like all of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior is prone to lake effect snow, but the weather is normally reasonable, with warmer temperatures than inland during the year. Winter temperatures in the region of the lake rarely fall below minus 30 degree Fahrenheit, well above inland temperatures. June and July are calm months, while October and November are prone to storms. During the majority of winters, the lake is 40 to 95 percent covered with ice, though it hardly ever fully freezes. The last time Lake Superior froze over completely was in 1997, and it almost totally froze in 2003. The average water temperature for Lake Superior is 40 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the other Great Lakes, which are farther south. The water temperature throughout the summer month’s average is about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, but surface temperatures achieved a record of 68.7 degrees Fahrenheit in August of …show more content…
One of the most recognized events took place on November 10, 1975, when the Edmund Fitzgerald, a hefty cargo ship that was carrying iron ore ran into a ruthless storm that killed the ship’s 29 team members. It was the worst single accident in Lake Superior’s history. The ship weighed more than 13,000 tons and was 730 feet long. One probable cause for the shipwreck is that the Fitzgerald was carrying way too much cargo. With the ship weighing that much, it sat lower in the water compared to most ships which made it more helpless to an overly large wave. In the official description, it says that the hatches to the cargo area may have been defective, which would lead to an unexpected change to the cargo that tipped over the
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