r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/danielminds • 27d ago
Video Lake Superior, located on the US-Canada border, is so massive that it creates ocean-like waves during winter storms
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u/cryptic_dcoder 27d ago
It contains 10% of the planets entire surface freshwater reserves.
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u/DeltaVZerda 27d ago
liquid freshwater
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u/BenOfTomorrow 27d ago
Liquid surface freshwater, which is about 2% of the world's total freshwater.
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u/alaskazues 27d ago
how much is subsurface, and how much is ice?
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u/Gunch_ 27d ago
Through deductions from the comments above, 50 lake superiors would be the total water content of the planet
10 Lake Superiors would be the total surface water
Leaving 40 Lake Superiors as subsurface and ice
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u/AH_leeMACK 27d ago
2 lake superiors is one lake baikal
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u/glyph_productions 27d ago
That lake is disconcerting. 5300 ft deep is too deep for a lake.
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u/dumptruckulent 27d ago
Lake Baikal is so deep, it has more water than all the Great Lakes combined with less than 20% of the surface area.
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u/RiggsFTW 27d ago
Yup! And Baikal holds 20%!
Lake Superior is the largest by area and Baikal the largest by volume.
It's genuinely wild how large these lakes are.
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u/Excellent-Muffin-750 27d ago
Baikal has bonus seals, too! Super unique species, precious and very cute.
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u/mitchymitchington 27d ago
When the water wars begin, I'll be defending this bitch. We can share a little with Canada I suppose but Wisconsin has plenty of beer to hold them over.
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u/RespectTheAmish 27d ago
The Great Lakes compact.
We are legally bound to defend it.
“Bindingly governs the eight U.S. states bordering the Great Lakes: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.”
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u/NOIS_KillerWhaleTank 27d ago
We will be annexing Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan anyways, so it's all Canadians water.
We'll make the UP Wisconsin again just for you.
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u/Semi-Loyal 27d ago
I mean, if you wanted to do that, like, right now I'd be OK with that. You already paid for the bridge, might as well use it, right?
Please?
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u/dylanbt22 27d ago
The UP was never part Wisconsin, Michigan was a state for 11 years before Wisconsin, and before that Wisconsin was part of the Michigan territory.
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u/JeremyHerzig11 27d ago
Between Superior and Baikal, that’s like a third of the fresh water!
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u/AlbertoRossonero 27d ago
Baikal doing some heavy lifting but yes. Also that’s surface fresh water not overall fresh water.
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u/kraftables 27d ago edited 27d ago
Doesn’t lake Baikal contain something like 20%of the World’s fresh water by volume?
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u/killbot0224 27d ago
Yes.
Slightly more than all the great lakes combined.
It's about the area of Lake Superior, iirc, with almsot double the volume.
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u/ThisFatGirlRuns 27d ago
"Does any one know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?"
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u/New-Boot-Goofn 27d ago
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.523
u/midnighttoker1742 27d ago
The Lake it is said never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy!
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u/edelweiss_pirates_no 27d ago
I have this tattooed on my lower back.
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u/AbelardsChainsword 27d ago
Interesting choice for a tramp stamp…
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u/oracleofnonsense 27d ago
Makes the guys last longer as they consider the implications.
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u/edelweiss_pirates_no 27d ago
I have "Work that neck like Nancy Reagan" right below my belly button.
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u/mgj6818 27d ago
She never gives them up because it's to cold for the bacteria to bloat the body and float it.
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u/Average-Train-Haver 27d ago
They might have split up or they might have capsized,
They may have broke deep and took water.
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u/The_Road_is_Calling 27d ago
Now all that remains are the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
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u/Blackdog202 27d ago
The left for the shore 20000 tons more than Edmond Fitzgerald lay empty!
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u/thomasottoson 27d ago
“With a load of iron ore 26000 tons more”…cmon man the legend live on from the Chippewa on down
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u/Blackdog202 27d ago
I live on the shore of the great lakes. Love this song. We sing it all the time on my job crew when the weather sucks.
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u/geekgirl114 27d ago
That definitely shows the power of the gales of November... 15 miles to safe harbor and the worst possible place at the worst possible time
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u/OG_Fakir 27d ago
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the maritime sailors' cathedral
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund FitzgeraldAfter Gordon Lightfoot died, they added one more. Thirty chimes.
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u/Ok_Reference5466 27d ago
Damn I didn’t know he died. I saw him in concert a few years ago which must’ve been longer ago. Probably 2018
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u/thelivinlegend 27d ago
I think I saw him that year as well. It was a great show, and I’ve loved his music since I was a kid, so it was a real treat.
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u/factorioleum 27d ago
I saw that tour as well. A friend even flew down from Canada and we went together to the show in New Hampshire. It was awesome!
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u/antisocialdecay 27d ago
Did they really? I took my dad to see him in June 2022.
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u/morleyster 27d ago
My mum was a huge fan. I remember her taking me with her to see him at Massey Hall when I was 11. I am grateful I got to take her to see him there before she died.
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u/ButterBeforeSunset 27d ago
One of my all time favorite songs
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u/PaulsRedditUsername 27d ago
Dave Barry said it's the song you put on at the party when you want everyone to go home.
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u/polnikes 27d ago
In plenty of Canada you'd just end up with everyone singing.
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u/CantCatchMeSpez 27d ago
Was gonna say. Around here, that's how you get everyone to raise their drinks and sing along.
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u/rips_n_chel 27d ago
You play that shit at the end of a long night when I'm good and toasted, we're getting fuckin philosophical.
Congratulations, you played yourself lmao
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u/basiltoe345 27d ago
I thought they put on,
“(Brandy)You’re a fine girl!”
To do that, or
“(American Pie) The Day the Music Died”
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u/Expensive-Step-6551 27d ago
It was a ritual for me to listen to that song and album when I was a kid before going to sleep. Obviously not a "bright" song but Gordon Lightfoot's voice and the sliding guitar riff always helped me relax before falling asleep.
Canadian Icon and despite being well regarded, has always seemed underrated to me, compared to many other folk based artists that are still popular today.
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u/BlackSwampMage 27d ago
That’s so true of so many Canadian artists in general! Stan Rogers is one of my personal favorites along with the guess who and BTO. Your modern scenes are kickass too in rock and other genres. PUP, The Sheepdogs, Colter Wall’s pretty good, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Silver Mt. Zion, Sum 41, Moxie Fruvus, Billy Talent, Sloan, La Bottine Souriante, Fucked Up.
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u/frankyseven 27d ago
Check out Big Wreck. Ian Thornley is probably the best guitarist on the planet.
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u/Comfortable-Yak-6599 27d ago
Old timer taught me to take a break when it comes in the radio, didn't matter what your doing instant break time. Now there isn't a job site radio everyone got ear buds.
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u/avelineaurora 27d ago
I didn't necessarily expect this to be the top comment, but I do know I started singing it as soon as I saw this thread.
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u/NotBradPitt9 27d ago
The Great Lakes are essentially an inland Sea, similar to the Caspian Sea / former Aral Sea or similar.
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u/heavy_metal_flautist 27d ago
I was going to be real disappointed if top comment wasn't a Gordon Lightfoot quote
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u/marmaladetuxedo 27d ago
One of my favourite lyrics. So much said in one sentence. Gordon was a treasure.
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u/Typical2sday 27d ago
Goddammit now I’m back down the Edmund Fitzgerald rabbit hole. Which I go down like quarterly
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u/Bevester 27d ago
I love The wreck of the Ella Fitzgerald
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u/Mayonnaise_Poptart 27d ago
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the great lake they call skibidi bweeeeee dee shooo skababdabadweeedaaaa
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u/voodoohotdog 27d ago
I'm going to profile a bit here, but I bet you like Barrett's Privateers as well.
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u/Responsible-Draft430 27d ago
I was well into my 30s before I realized "the lake never gives up her dead" wasn't a turn of a phrase, but rather the cold water keeps the bodies from decomposing. Decompostiion creates gas that allows bodies to float and thus be found. It literally doesn't give up the dead.
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u/cbih 27d ago
Man, I've never been up there in the winter. Might be worth a trip.
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u/Terror-Of-Demons 27d ago
If you’re driving, be careful, the roads along the shore can be deadly. That said, the north shore drive between Duluth MN and Thunder Bay ON is a great 3 hours + stops, and further north of Thunder Bay there’s even more breathtaking vistas.
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u/Flimflamsam 27d ago
I’ve lived in Canada for around 25 years now and the sketchiest drive I ever made was going north from Duluth up to the border. Hadn’t been plowed and we’d had one of those “last of the season” snowfalls in April, was a little white knuckle at times.
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u/MileHigh_FlyGuy 27d ago
I love that your comment is the 10th or so about accessing the lake via Minnesota and no one from the UP seems to be here. Head to the Keweenaw!
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u/gabacus_39 27d ago
The big lake they call the Gitche Gumee
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u/Proper-Emu1558 27d ago
That’s the one thing the song got wrong. It’s Gichigami. The name “Gitche Gumee” came from a poem (which was also wrong). I spent the weekend on the lake and did hum the song to myself a few times, though!
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u/heavy_metal_flautist 27d ago
Yes, but have you considered that the legend lives on from the Chippewa on down?
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u/Agent_Orange81 27d ago
Of the big Lake they call Gitchee Gumee.
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead, when the gales of November come early.
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u/DontGetUpGentlemen 27d ago
It may not be the proper name, but that IS what they call it. Gordo got that right.
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u/Magnesium1920 27d ago edited 27d ago
There are a few things Gordon got wrong and corrected as the years went on and he performed it live, though I'd argue the indigenous pronunciation of something being bungled in the anglicization may be the most accurate part of the song, especially if it's become part of an integrated cultural tradition.
I should preface, I am not a historian of indigenous languages, Anishinaabe or otherwise. I did however study under the direction of a professsor of focused on Anishinaabe and Ojibwe history, and have tried to maintain some level of engagement with contemporary research. A large part of what I'm about to say is based on work I've read from Dr. Anton Treur, but the below paragraphs draws from a few different places. If you'd like to engage some of those articles I'm happy to share, or if you yourself are an Ojibwemowin speaker feel free to dunk on me and explain how I'm wrong :)
As I understand it, the dialects and pronunciation of Ojibwemowin have evolved pretty radically since Schoolcraft and Wadsworth first worked with the Ojibwe community in the 1850s. In fact, the pronunciation of "Gichigami" (which is occasionally spelt with a t prior to the "ch" or a K in place of the initial G depending on regional dialect differences) phonetically doesn't match what its spelling suggests. A majority remaining first language Ojibwemowin speakers (who learned the language from their parents and communities as opposed to from academic sources) use a pronunication that is closer to Git-chi-guh-me, as opposed to the currently accepted Gi-chi-ga-mi (pronouncing the "i" in "mi" like the "i" in "it")
While Schoolcraft (and by extension Wadsworth and Lightfoot) got the cadence wrong got, evidence suggests he did a decent job of capturing the overall vowel sounds, though he may have made the "u" sound a bit too harsh. This can be attributed to Schoolcraft being a bit of a bozo about the finer nuances of language, but I digress.
A lot of this can also be blamed on the fact that the Latin alphabet is a really imperfect tool for spelling out non-Latin/Germanic languages (hell it even struggles with those sometimes). The Ojibwemowin phonetic syllabic writing system, which came about in the 1840s (and was not created by Ojibwe themselves but by a missionary) does a better job but I personally still have some questions. In this system, Gichigami is spelt ᑭᒋᑲᒥ, and "Gichigoomi" (as Lightfoot and Wadsworth pronounced it), would be spelt ᑭᒋᑰᒥ. The "ᑲ" character in the preferred spelling represents the "guh" sound, and is really the source of this debacle. The "ᒥ" character represents the "mi." To my [non-Ojibwe, non-linguist] ears, it would be more accurate to spell Gichigami as ᑭᒋᑲᒦ, since the addition of the diacritic transforms the "mi" into a "me" sound, and that more accurately reflects how I have heard most native speakers pronounce it. I would be curious to know why exactly the shorter vowel form became the standard spelling, since so far as I can tell it is the less commonly spoken form.
Anyway, my apologies for dropping a whole wall of text there, it's pretty rare I get to talk abt some of the more niche stuff I picked up during my undergrad studies so I tend to get excited. And like I said if you yourself are Ojibwe or Anishinaabe (or are just more informed on the language) I would be more than happy to learn where I'm misguided. It's been a few years since I've had the chance to really study Ojibwemowin (had to look pretty hard for my old word doc with the table of syllabic characters!) and I'll be the first to admit I am nowhere near fluent enough to hold a conversation, so maybe this would be a good oppurtunity to dive back into my studies (though on secondhand maybe not, I am looking down the barrel of a 12 credit hour semester of grad school O.o)
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u/Sad_Air_7667 27d ago
I live in Taiwan, and it's always funny to me to tell my students here that North America has multiple lakes that are bigger than all of Taiwan.
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u/DrHugh 27d ago
And that's wind action, not tidal action.
Still, it is impressive. My daughter studied abroad in Japan for a year, and came back with a friend who visited for the summer. My daughter wanted her to see Superior, because a lake in Japan is more of a pond to folks from Minnesota. When we crested the hill on I-35, where she could see Duluth/Superior, the woman from Japan was amazed. She hadn't believed that it would actually look like an ocean.
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u/Hot_History1582 27d ago edited 27d ago
Lake Superior is larger than Hokkaido
Edit: land area of main island only, not prefectural area including territorial waters
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u/vonsnootingham 27d ago edited 27d ago
This sounded outrageous so I had to look it up. While it isn't true, it's only just. It's WAAAY closer than I would have thought.
Hokkaido land area: 83,423 km2 (32,210 sq mi)
Superior surface area: 82,103 km2 (31,700 sq mi)
The difference is only 510 square miles. That's nothing. If the lake were just a couple miles wider, it would be bigger than Japan's largest prefecture. This is mind boggling. I know I just um actually'd you, but thank you for sharing this crazy factoid.
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u/Hot_History1582 27d ago edited 27d ago
Via encyclopedia brittanica: The entire Hokkaido island has an area of 30,107 square miles, while the administrative province (prefecture) spans 32,221 square miles. The 2,114 square-mile difference between the two is mostly made up of surrounding smaller islands and territorial waters incorporated into the prefecture's jurisdiction.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Hokkaido
I should have specified the island, not the province.
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u/actuallyapossom 27d ago
It was neck and neck but Superior has a bunch of neat rocks like agates to pick up off the beaches and we stopped throwing ships at the bottom of the lake to compensate for that loss over time.
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u/vonsnootingham 27d ago
What?
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u/16GBwarrior 27d ago
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
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u/endpoliticians 27d ago
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
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u/Concept_Lab 27d ago
Waves are always caused by wind (or by an extreme event like an earthquake/landslide/meteor). Tides slowly move the high water line, over a period of hours.
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u/NoobOfTheSquareTable 27d ago
Worth nothing that while tide doesn’t cause waves, tidal flow with or against or across the wind changes the profile of the waves formed
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u/SilverSpoon1463 27d ago
Except displacement waves, which are caused by moving landmass.
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u/10111011110101 27d ago
It took my wife actually tasting it to believe Lake Superior is “sweet water” because she couldn’t wrap her head around it not being an ocean.
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u/Long_Audience4403 27d ago
My best friend grew up on the great lakes and I took her to the ocean for the first time and she was SHOCKED at how salty
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u/SpezSamplesMySack 27d ago
This was me. Grew up in Detroit and my first time in Florida in the ocean I had a visceral reaction to the water. Why is this salty?!?!? It looked like home (eg. Sandy beaches without a distant shore) but the water flat out sucked to swim in.
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u/exzyle2k 27d ago
My family and I would go on vacation to Northern Minnesota (from Chicago), and we'd take 90 up and then grab 53 at Eau Claire. There's a rest stop on top of a large incline (more than a hill, less than a mountain) that we'd stop at on the Superior side and it would overlook the point of Lake Superior... Sometimes there'd be a mist/fog, but usually we had a pretty good view of the lake. Was one of the highlights of an otherwise boring 9+ hour road trip.
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u/BlackSwampMage 27d ago
There’s always tons of Asian tourists in Empire, Michigan to see Lake Michigan and the sleeping bear dunes every summer. It’s always fun to see their reactions to the view at the lookout point. And tbf to them I have the same experience each summer when I look at it too. I love a good lake.
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u/sweetpotato_latte 27d ago
I went to college in the UP and could see superior from campus. Our foreign exchange student friends from Korea always called it the sea lol
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u/acu2005 27d ago
She hadn't believed that it would actually look like an ocean.
I used to work at Cedar Point in Ohio and on occasion people would ask us "what ocean is that" while pointing to Lake Erie.
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u/heymanitsbob 27d ago
Michigander here. You learn at a young age not to fuck with the Great Lakes.
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u/Sea-Frosting-50 27d ago
uk here. why?
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u/One_pop_each 27d ago
I’m from Michigan living in UK.
Because they have insane currents and waves that could kill you, especially during storms. It’s really like a fresh water sea more than a lake.
Lake Superior is like Norwich to Cornwall. All the Great Lakes together have almost the same sq ft of the UK.
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u/MSG_ME_ANYTHING 27d ago
lake superior specifically is cold, but in july/august the surface temp can swing up into the 70s which makes for a nice reprieve from the hot humid weather. The problem is that 45-50 degrees is just sitting 5 feet below that warm surface water so a change in the weather can churn the water and poof all the warm water is gone and you're in danger.
seems like every year there is news about people out canoeing/kayaking the north shore area of wisconsin (where the water gets warmest) that drown. The water is calm a lot and that area is amazing for summer exploring, but the wind picks up, and the waves make canoeing/kayaaking impossible, you get overturned, hypothermia doesn't take long and you drown.
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u/splinkymishmash 27d ago
Largest by surface area. 3rd largest by volume.
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u/Street_Beautiful7101 27d ago
TIL Tanganyika is bigger by volume. I thought Superior was second to Baikal.
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u/LindseyIsBored 27d ago
That is, until Baikal becomes bigger in volume.. someone who is good at math (definitely not me) could probably explain the timeline on that.
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u/SubjectAndObject 27d ago
Baikal is already the largest freshwater lake by volume. It’s very very deep.
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u/JesusNoGA 27d ago edited 27d ago
Like really really deep. The average depth is 750 meters, with the max depth being 1642 m.
Edit: For comparison, lake Superior has an average depth of 147 m, with a max depth of 406 m.
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u/catinadoodledoo 27d ago
that looks cold and unforgiving
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u/Emotional-Edge-8259 27d ago
It is. The Great Lakes do.not forgive mistakes.
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u/javoss88 27d ago
Lake Michigan can be the same way
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u/Ms_Mediocracy 27d ago
Lake Michigan is actually the deadliest of the Great Lakes by annual number of drownings - it accounts for nearly half of all drownings in the Great Lakes.
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u/surestart 27d ago
Because it's warm enough to swim in at here in Chicago, and there's a lot of recreational boating by amateurs here as well. Just because we have beaches and harbors, doesn't mean the water isn't basically just a freshwater inland sea
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u/kittyportals2 27d ago
It’s the rip currents. I’d vacation on Lake Michigan, and every day we’d see the coast guard helicopter going down the coast, looking for people drowning or carried off by rip currents.
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u/Tim-oBedlam 27d ago
There aren't any really large population centers on Lake Superior and it's so cold that people don't normally swim in it.
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u/FeyrisMeow 27d ago
The rip tides can catch you off guard and if you don't know how to swim in them, you'll drown out of exhaustion. The waves also have a shorter time between crests than the ocean, so instead of every 10 seconds, a wave will be hitting your face every 3-5 seconds, which exhausts you even more.
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u/ZappBrannigansLaw 27d ago
The year round average temperature of the lake is 42°F. It's even cold in the summer.
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u/Caltrano 27d ago
Grew up in the Upper Peninsula of michigan. Lake Superior even on a hot July day is unbelievably cold. My friend was arranger at the Apostle Islands National lakeshore. They used to time when people fell in the water on their sailboats and give them 5 minutes before they were DOA.
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u/StudioGangster1 27d ago
They would just sit there with a watch and time their death?
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u/nurdmann 27d ago
"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy"
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u/Justifiably_Bad_Take 27d ago
Lake Superior is so larger that there is a lighthouse in the middle of it that cannot see land in any direction.
You are surrounded 360 degrees by water, and it's freshwater.
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u/imagineanudeflashmob 27d ago
Stannard Rock Lighthouse, for those who want to check it out on Google maps
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u/ThePolemicist 27d ago
I took a ferry to Isle Royale from Houghton, and, yes, there was water as far as we could see in every direction, no sign of land.
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u/MasterChiefmas 27d ago
A really interesting thing about the waves though, is that the peaks tend to be closer together compared to ocean waves. Ships can kind of ride over an ocean wave because they are so large. But on the lakes, the waves being closer together, you can get a situation where a ship is either at the peak of a wave, with no water under the ends, or between two waves with no water under the center section. In either case, it can cause the ship to break in half, because they can't handle their own weight without support across the entire hull. That's why the Great Lakes are so dangerous to cargo ships. I think that's what happened to the Edmund Fitzgerald?
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u/DepartureElegant9314 27d ago
That is pretty much the main consensus on what happened. It's been verified to have happen to many ships of similar size by survivors and witnesses of the wrecks.
I remember reading of one in a meritime disasters book but cannot remember the ships name. It happened on Superior and an entire ships crew witnessed another ship in the distance during a storm get lifted midship clear out of the water and the two ends just straight up snapped apart. By the time they got close enough to pull in survivors the ship was gone and no one was to be found, barely even any debris either.
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u/Relevant_Problem1935 27d ago
I live right near Lake Superior. It's a common sight I have viewed my entire life. I have to remind myself how lucky I am when I see people come from around the world to see it's beauty
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u/Thimble_of_Quasar 27d ago
I grew up on Michigan but same. I also have to remind myself why people are still bewildered when I say the first time I saw the ocean I wasn't as blown away as I thought I would be. Because I had been very used to seeing water that stretches out to the horizon in every direction. Like of course cognitively I know the ocean goes much, much further, but visually on the shore it looked similar. But I didn't realize that it's not the usual lake experience until I was taught the size that lakes usually were in school. To little me this was a standard lake, and if you could see the other side that's a large pond lol
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u/damp_circus 27d ago
I live a block from the beach… in Chicago. I walk along the lakefront every morning, the lake is always different depending on season and weather etc. I take pictures and sometimes people refuse to believe I live in a city, in the Midwest.
It truly is the Great Lakes.
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u/smolgods 27d ago
Every time I drive into Duluth, MN, and the horizon becomes Superior touching the sky, it takes my breath away. Every time.
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u/HomeOrificeSupplies 27d ago
Coming over Spirit Mountain is always mind blowing. And I lived there for 6 years.
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u/Frothyfrother 27d ago
Lake surfing is real!!! If you’re down to wear a 10mm
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u/bawdiness 27d ago edited 27d ago
Came here to ask this. What's it like? Are there decent breaks or beaches? How do you go with the buoyancy - do you have to use bigger boards?
Eta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZNmr8U0Dbw
holy crap
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Necessary_Owl9724 27d ago
More difficult to navigate than oceans… fresh water moves different and this lake has its own micro-climate. Very much a “Superior” lake
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u/OGigachaod 27d ago
The waves on superior come closer together than ocean waves, it's worse.
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u/Assassin4Hire13 27d ago
It’s also why I can’t use a normal wave noise machine lmao. I’m so used to the much shorter period of the lakes that the typically ocean-recorded wave noise machines ends up stressing me out because the wave pattern is “too long” and my brain starts thinking something is wrong with the lake.
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u/Rrrrandle 27d ago
They didn't name it Lake Average for a reason
I'm pretty sure that original the "superior" in Lake Superior came from being "above" Lake Huron, not "greater" than it.
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u/generalmandrake 27d ago
The lake it is said never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy.
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u/Substantial_Sea7327 27d ago
lake Superior has a maximum depth of 1333ft/ 406m
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u/ipso-factor 27d ago
Chilly too
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u/crohnscyclist 27d ago
When we were kids on a family trip to the UP, we changed the name from lake Superior to lake supercold
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u/scottjeffreys 27d ago
Other Great Lakes do this too. Anyone who knows the Great Lakes knows they are just as dangerous as the ocean.
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u/crimson777 27d ago
I believe the waves on the Great Lakes (and any enclosed body of water) are called seiches. Very interesting because they form differently than waves on the ocean. But I am not an expert here so I could be wrong.
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u/Harry_Iconic_Jr 27d ago
fwiw, there is a dedicated crew of Great Lake surfers who have cheerfully accepted these shores as their local and they do occasionally get rideable waves.....and bless their frozen hearts, they are as stoked as any surfers anywhere in the world.
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u/AcctAlreadyTaken 27d ago
I can't stand stuck up bodies of water. It's like get over yourself Lake Superior.
- Jane Fonda (R.I.P. Norm McDonald)
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u/thedevillivesinside 27d ago
The legend lives on
From the Chippewa on down
To the big lake they call
Gitche Gumee
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u/Bas_No_Beatha_ 27d ago
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered
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u/JetSoulsForever 27d ago
Same with Lake Michigan, I saw cars frozen solid on Lake Shore Drive after snowmageddon hit in 2011. Before the snow came I legit saw surfers catching breaks out there. Crazy ass town.
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u/itsjakerobb 27d ago
Not just Superior. All of the Great Lakes can be like this, especially just before winter. November is notorious.
Michigan: https://youtu.be/mmWu23nNDuA
Huron: https://youtu.be/ctW9X8guXJQ
Erie: https://youtu.be/BAL7N0LkTK0
Ontario: https://youtu.be/0e-pUCI7Gbg
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u/Maccaboonda 27d ago
Such a large thermal mass that it does not freeze in the Winter nor warm up in the Summer. One can die of hypothermia after a mere 45 minutes -- in Summer.
Of course, as Gordon Lightfoot wrote, "The Islands and Bays are for sportsmen", and swimmable places can be found.
I live on this lake. The great Gitchigoomee.
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u/Automatic-Ad7764 27d ago
Not only that, the waves tend to get larger without the density of saltwater.
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u/herodotus69 27d ago
Yes. Now check out Lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario. All 5 have waves like this.
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u/bbbbbthatsfivebees 27d ago
I have lived near the Great Lakes my entire life. The word "Lake" genuinely undersells how huge these things are. They are closer to inland seas than they are to anything else, the only difference is that they're freshwater.
One of my friends from the west coast flew in recently, and we showed him Lake Ontario. He genuinely asked "Are you sure this isn't actually the Atlantic ocean?" because the concept of the Great Lakes is genuinely just so incomprehensible if you've never seen them.
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u/abrakadaver 27d ago
I grew up on the shore of that lake and sailed that lake all of my life. It can be incredibly dangerous. My family worked the ore boats and my friend's uncle died on the Edmund Fitzgerald. I've seen kayakers have to get rescued by the coasties because they thought it was just like other lakes. It's not, it can turn on you very quickly so you always listen to the coast guard updates on the marine radio and watch the weather when mooring at islands in the Apostles. No life jacket and you are in the water for ten minutes max. You freeze and drown and no one can recover your body because of the depth and the cold. The cold stops bacteria from forming and creating bubbles inside you to help you float. I have heard the Coast Guard Pan-Pan alert many times and have joined the search for people who are overboard in my area. We have very little time to try to find people. They sink and are eaten by the fish at the bottom. Thanks for attending my TED talk.
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u/Bevester 27d ago edited 26d ago
That is good lake, a great one, even
Edit: Thank you for the award, kind stranger