The Great Lakes

Name ______Date ______

The Great Lakes

One of the greatest natural resources in the world is located in North America and shared by the United States and Canada: the Great Lakes. Five lakes in this chain of freshwater lakes and rivers are considered “Great”: • Lake Superior • Lake Erie • Lake Michigan • Lake Ontario • Lake Huron

One lesser lake in this chain, Lake Saint Clair, is not one of the “Great” Lakes because of its small size. Four rivers are also important parts of this vital chain: • Saint Mary’s River • Detroit River • Saint Clair River • Niagara River

Niagara Falls, one of the most spectacular waterfalls on earth, is included in this system, where Lake Erie connects to the Niagara River and flows into Lake Ontario.

Altogether, the Great Lakes chain holds 18% of all the fresh water in the world. It is estimated that the system was formed at the end of the Pleistocene period, about 10,000 years ago. The area was carved by glaciers. As the glaciers retreated north, the basins that were left filled with fresh water, creating the Great Lakes chain as we know it today.

The lakes and rivers in this chain form the largest body of fresh water in the world, at a total size of 95,000 square miles. From the farthest western end of Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota to the eastern edge of Lake Ontario, the distance is 1,160 miles. The lakes are connected to each other by a series of rivers and one smaller lake. At the farthest end of the chain, Lake Ontario is connected at its eastern end to the Saint Lawrence River, which flows for another 1,182 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. From the upper waters at Lake Superior through the heartland of North America to the Atlantic Ocean, this entire chain of lakes and rivers, including the Saint Lawrence River, is 2,342 miles long.

The Great Lakes system, including the five Great Lakes, its four connecting rivers, and the smaller connecting lake, is bordered by eight states and two Canadian provinces. It is from these land areas that the lakes get their water, which is known as their watershed. • Illinois • Minnesota • Pennsylvania • Quebec • Indiana • New York • Wisconsin • Ontario • Michigan • Ohio

The Canadian province of Ontario has a shoreline on each of the lakes except one: Lake Michigan. In fact, Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake that is completely surrounded by the United States. The state of Michigan borders all the lakes except one, Lake Ontario. Each of the other states have shorelines on only one of the lakes, except Wisconsin, which touches two lakes: Lake Michigan on the state’s eastern side, and Lake Superior on the state’s northwestern edge.

It is estimated that 60 million people live in the Great Lakes region. The major cities are: • Buffalo, New York • Duluth, Minnesota • Toronto, Ontario • Chicago, Illinois • Gary, Indiana • Windsor, Ontario • Cleveland, Ohio • Hamilton, Ontario • Detroit, Michigan • Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Questions:

1. How many Great Lakes are there? a. Six b. Four c. Five d. Seven e. Eight

2. Which one of these states is not a part of the Great Lakes chain? a. Illinois b. Michigan c. Vermont d. New York e. Indiana

3. Which one of these American cities is not located on the Great Lakes? a. Cleveland b. Detroit c. Chicago d. Minneapolis e. Duluth

4. Which one of these Canadian cities is not located on the Great Lakes? a. Toronto b. Hamilton c. Montreal d. Windsor

5. It is estimated that ____ people live in the Great Lakes region. a. 25 million b. 50 million c. 60 million d. 3 million

6. Canada touches on all the Great Lakes except one: a. Lake Erie b. Lake Superior c. Lake Michigan d. Lake Huron e. Lake Ontario

7. What does the watershed do for the lakes? ______

Great Lakes - Answers 1. C 2. C 3. D 4. C 5. C 6. C 7. The short answer is that the watershed provides the water that drains into the lakes from the surrounding land. Any answer that covers the fact that the watershed is the water source is sufficient.