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U-M divers retrieve 8,900-year-old piece of wood from Lake Huron
Annarbor.com (12/12)
University of Michigan researchers announced they have found a 5 1/2 foot long, pole-shaped piece of wood that is 8,900 years old in Lake Huron.
Possible lost world found in Lake Huron
The Montreal Gazette (1/9)
The recovery of a mysterious wooden pole at the bottom of Lake Huron is fuelling excitement among U.S. and Canadian researchers that they have found more evidence of a "lost world" of North American caribou hunters from nearly 10,000 years ago.
New GLIER director has lots of fish stories
The Windsor Star (1/9)
Dan Heath begins was recently chosen for a five-year appointment as director of the prestigious Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Windsor starting in May 2012.
Lake Superior research facility arrives in the Twin Ports
WDIO - Duluth, MN (1/9)
The Twin Ports is now home to a unique research facility, studying the water flows into Lake Superior, and it's expected to change the way residents here live on the lake.
COMMENTARY: Learn about your environment: You can help improve water quality
Erie Time-News (1/9)
When the quality of our water and productivity of our land are compromised, everyone loses. Whether or not you live near or far from a stream or Great Lake, you can help protect our valuable ecosystem and economy.
Educators can now schedule hands-on field trips on Lake Erie
Beacon.net (12/19)
Educators from across the region can still register their fourth through 12th grade students for a 2012 Lake Erie Science Field Trip at Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory.
What's going on in your neighborhood this month? Meet other people and learn together at recreational and educational events! Our new dynamic calendar is updated daily with current educational events.
Introduction
Three types of water level fluctuations
History repeating itself: Hydrographs illustrate historical levels
How levels and flows are measured
Effects of lake level fluctuations
References and more information
Water levels are part of the ebb and flow of nature.
The difference between the amount of water coming into a lake and the amount going out is the determining factor in whether the water level will rise, fall or remain stable. When several months of above-average precipitation occur with cooler, cloudy conditions that cause less evaporation, the levels gradually rise. Likewise, prolonged periods of lower-than-average precipitation and warmer temperatures typically result in lowering of water levels.
The recent decline of Great Lakes' water levels, now at lows not seen since the mid-1960s, is due mostly to evaporation during the warmer-than-usual temperatures of the past three years, a series of mild winters, and below-average snowpack in the Lake Superior basin.
Because the major factors affecting the water supply to the lakes--precipitation, evaporation and runoff--cannot be controlled or accurately predicted for more than a few weeks into the future, the influence of man-made regulation of lake levels is very limited. Nature has most of the control, adding water through snow and rain, and taking it away through evaporation.
Graphic: Lake Superior's south shore, April 2000.
Detailed Map: The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system
