Abraham Lake (North Saskatchewan River)
| Abraham Lake | |||||||||
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| Coordinates | 52 ° 13 '25 " N , 116 ° 25' 38" W | ||||||||
| Data on the structure | |||||||||
| Lock type: | dam | ||||||||
| Construction time: | 1972 | ||||||||
| Height of the barrier structure : | 90 m | ||||||||
| Power plant output: | 120 MW | ||||||||
| Operator: | TransAlta | ||||||||
| Data on the reservoir | |||||||||
| Water surface | 52 km² | ||||||||
| Reservoir length | 33 km | ||||||||
| Catchment area | 3 700 km² | ||||||||
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The Abraham Lake is a reservoir of the North Saskatchewan River in Clearwater County in the western Canadian province of Alberta . It is the largest man-made lake in Alberta.
geography
The water surface of Abraham Lake extends over approx. 52 km² and is approx. 33 km long. The David Thompson Highway runs along the left bank of the lake . The reservoir is located in the eastern outskirts of the Canadian Rockies at an altitude of 1312 meters above sea level. On the west bank rise from north to south of Abraham Mountain , Elliott Peak and Mount Ernest Ross , to the east of Mount Michener . Abraham Lake is located within the administrative division of Alberta in the west of Clearwater County about 25 km east of the border with Banff National Park . The Douglas Fir Natural Area borders the eastern shore of the lake . About 35 km to the northeast is the hamlet of Nordegg, the closest inhabited settlement.
Bighorn Dam
Abraham Lake was created by damming the North Saskatchewan River at the Bighorn Dam, which was built by TransAlta in 1972 . The dam is located at Windy Point on the west bank of the lake and is 90 meters high. The hydropower plant at Bighorn Dam is used to generate energy from hydropower and has an output of 120 megawatts. It generates 408,000 megawatt hours of energy annually , making it TransAlta's most powerful hydropower plant.
fauna
The fish species found in the lake are dolly varden trout , rainbow trout , cutthroat trout , brook trout , American char , long-nosed white fish , Alaskan sucker , Couesius plumbeus (Lake chub), Catostomus commersonii (white sucker), Catostomus platyrhynchus (mountain sucker) and Prosopium williamsoni (mountain whitefish).
Origin of name
The lake is named after Silas Abraham, born in 1871, who was a resident of the North Saskatchewan River valley at the end of the 19th century. The name was selected in a naming competition that was advertised by the government of Alberta.
Methane bubbles
Abraham Lake is known for a natural phenomenon that can be observed there in winter. Bacteria at the bottom of the lake emit methane all year round , which rises within the water column . In winter, the gas reaches colder layers of water where it freezes into milky bubbles. Due to the high wind speeds in the region, the ice that forms on the lake is very clear, so that the resulting bubbles can also be observed from the surface. Because of this, Abraham Lake has become a popular destination for photographers.
Web links
- Abraham Lake in the Natural Resources Canada database
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Marco Fontana, Kevin Gardiner, Mike Rodtka: Upper North Saskatchewan River and Abraham Lake Bull Trout Study, 2002 - 2003. Alberta Conservation Association, accessed July 28, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Tulika Bose, Daniel Kavanaugh: Lake Abraham - An Ethereal Landscape of frozen bubbles. In: BBC.com . February 19, 2019, accessed July 28, 2019 .
- ↑ Douglas Fir Natural Area on albertaparks.ca
- ↑ Abraham Lake on travelalberta.com
- ↑ a b Bighorn Dam on TransAlta.com
- ^ Minnewanka and Bighorn Dam Breach Studies and Inundation Mapping on canprojects.com
- ↑ Charles Dennis Tebby: Fishes of Abraham Lake (reservoir) and the upper North Saskatchewan River, Alberta. 1974, Retrieved July 28, 2019 .
- ↑ Travel Nordegg (archive link)