The Lake Count Crowns Canada. It Can't Split the Great Lakes.

The lake count crowns Canada. It can't split the Great Lakes. Open HydroLAKES, the global lake inventory built at McGill University by Mathis Messager, Bernhard Lehner and their colleagues, and about 880,000 of its 1,427,688 lake and reservoir records carry Canada's name: about 62% of the whole inventory, more than every other country combined. Then find Lake Superior in the same table and read the country beside its name: United States of America. So do Huron, Erie and Ontario, the three other Great Lakes the border crosses. Canada's shore has not moved. The inventory gives a shared lake to one country, the one holding the pixel at its outlet, and its own documentation says that at a border the choice may be arbitrary. This is the documented story of the count behind a familiar headline: how ice and the rock of the Canadian Shield made the basins, why a ten-hectare floor lets a pond and Lake Superior each count as one, what a pour point is and why it decides which country a shared lake belongs to, and what happens to Canada's lead when the floor rises, the reservoirs come out, and the four shared lakes change sides. In this video: HydroLAKES version one: 1,427,688 lake and reservoir records worldwide, each at least ten hectares, a square about 316 m a side Canada: 879,987 records, about 62% of the total and more than all other countries put together; Russia just over 201,000; the United States just over 100,000 Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario: the border crosses all four, and each record carries the country value United States of America; Michigan lies wholly in the US The pour point: one pixel at each lake's outlet, chosen by the drainage grid; the documentation says the assignment can be arbitrary at a border Superior against Erie, from the US EPA's table: 82,100 sq km against 25,700, three times the surface; 12,100 cubic km against 484 at low water, 25 times the volume Lake Baikal: over 23,000 cubic km, which the USGS calls equivalent to all the Great Lakes together, and one entry in a count Environment and Climate Change Canada: Canada is often said to hold some 20% of the world's freshwater; about 7% of the global supply is renewable; more than half of it drains north to the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay Raise the floor to one sq km: 91,452 Canadian records remain, about 49% of the world's, first but no longer more than all the others combined; Russia just under 35,000; nearly nine in ten Canadian records are smaller than that Ten sq km: 7,160 Canadian records; a hundred sq km: 584; a thousand sq km: 45 against Russia's 26; Canada first at every floor, its share falling from nearly 62% to about 25% Remove the 203 identified reservoirs: 879,784 records, still first at every floor Move the four shared Great Lakes to Canada, or count them for both countries: the lead moves by four either way Key figures: 879,987 Canadian records, 62% of 1,427,688; four shared Great Lakes, all carrying the American label; 25 Eries in one Superior; and a lead that holds at five size floors. Timeline: the ice, the meltwater, the ten-hectare rule, the pour point, the four shared lakes, the five size floors, and the shore of Superior again. Watch next:    • Two in Three Canadians Live Within 100 km ...   Two in Three Canadians Live Within 100 km of the US: the census count, and the 90% that never was    • Canada Was Warned About This Land. It Farm...   Canada Was Warned About This Land: the Palliser Triangle, farmed anyway Chapters: 0:00 The shore of Superior 1:49 The Shield from above 4:00 How a basin holds water 6:48 The ten-hectare rule 8:29 Why two counts differ 10:36 The pour point 11:40 Huron, Erie and Ontario 12:55 A map that misleads 13:32 Three ways to count a shared lake 15:22 Michigan and Huron 16:07 Counting is not measuring 17:25 Superior against Erie 19:27 Baikal and the Caspian 20:34 Renewable supply 22:13 Raising the floor 24:54 The four shared lakes 26:01 Back on Superior 27:41 The record Every claim in this video is drawn from the documented record: the HydroLAKES Technical Documentation, version 1.0 (Lehner and Messager, McGill University), and the HydroLAKES points file, every count re-traced by script; the US Environmental Protection Agency's Physical Features of the Great Lakes; the US Geological Survey; Environment and Climate Change Canada's water FAQ; Parks Canada (Georgian Bay Islands); the US National Park Service (Voyageurs); the International Boundary Commission. The line on the Shield's ancient rock is general background, not a single measurement. Living persons are described by their published work only. Subscribe and turn on notifications. Tell us in the comments: when a lake crosses a border, which rule would you use for the count: one lake to the country with the outlet, one lake to each shore, or a fraction to each side? #Canada #Geography #GreatLakes #LakeSuperior #HydroLAKES #CanadianShield #Lakes #Ontario #Glaciers #Border