Great Lakes Study: High Climate Change Sensitivity (PeakOilNews)

Jan.17, 2009 in Drought, Pollution, Public Works, Water Conservation, Water Crisis, Water Management, Water Technology

(Jan. 16, 2009, Peak Oil News)

…new evidence by scientists from the University of Rhode Island and colleagues in the U.S. and Canada, published recently in the journal Eos, indicates that the water level in the lake system is highly sensitive to climate changes.

“In the distant past, there were great fluctuations in the water level of the Great Lakes, but it was thought to have been related entirely to the advance and retreat of the glaciers,” said URI geological oceanographer John King, who led the study with URI visiting scientist Michael Lewis, emeritus scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada. “But the last time lake levels fell dramatically – down to 20 meters below the basin overflow outlets – it was due to dry climate conditions.”

That event, which occurred between 7900 and 7500 years ago in the early Holocene period, caused the lakes to become disconnected as their overflow rivers, including the Niagara River, ran dry.

…King worries about the economic impact to the Great Lakes region if the present climate changes lower water levels significantly. Navigation, water usage and hydropower would be severely affected.

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