St. Lucia Lake
| St. Lucia Lake | ||
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| Geographical location | KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa | |
| Tributaries | Mkuze , Nyalazi, Hluhluwe, Mpate, Mzinene | |
| Drain | Wetland Narrows → Indian Ocean | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 28 ° 0 ′ S , 32 ° 30 ′ E | |
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| surface | 300 km² | |
| length | 40 km | |
| width | 21 km | |
| Middle deep | 1 m | |
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particularities |
Characteristics of a lagoon |
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The St. Lucia Lake ( English Lake St. Lucia or Lake Saint Lucia ) is the largest lake in South Africa .
geography
The lake is part of the estuary of the Mkuze , Nyalazi , Hluhluwe , Mpate and Mzinene rivers . It is part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park , which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site .
Lake St. Lucia is connected to the Indian Ocean in the south by the 21 km long Wetland Narrows . The Wetland Narrows allow water to be exchanged in both directions. As a result, the salt content of the lake fluctuates, which in the southern part can assume the salinity of the ocean, while the northern part contains brackish water or fresh water .
The lake is about 250 kilometers northeast of Durban . The closest town is Hluhluwe west of the lake.
history
The lake was created in recent geological times through changes in sea level and the development of a belt of dunes along the coast. The level of Lake St Lucia was raised above mean sea level. Before the beginning of the Holocene , the length of the lake was 112 kilometers before a sedimentation process that continues to this day began. At Hells Gate on Lake St. Lucia, the sediment layer is 30 meters thick.
Lake St. Lucia was named on December 13, 1575 by the Portuguese navigator Manuel Perestrelo after the holiday of St. Lucia . In 1897 the lake was declared a game reserve , in 1999 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.
From 2001 to 2012 the mouth in the Indian Ocean was closed due to the low water level, the salinity in the northern part had risen to a higher value than in the sea due to high evaporation. In 2012, a trench was built from the mouth of the uMfolozi, which flows south, to the Wetland Narrows , which, together with higher rainfall, allowed the level of the lake to rise and its salinity to normalize. This supply had been stopped 62 years earlier.
Flora and fauna
Due to the variable salt content, the lake offers a habitat for numerous species . Mangrove forests predominate in the southern part , while the banks of the northern part mostly have belts of reeds. With higher salt content, the number of flamingos and pelicans increases . Over 100 species of fish and shrimp spawn in the lake, but otherwise live in the sea.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Description at makakatana.co.za ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed on August 8, 2015
- ↑ a b History of the lake ( Memento of the original from September 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed on August 8, 2015
- ^ BR Allanson (ed.): Lake Sibuya. Springer Science & Business Media., New York 1979, ISBN 906193088-X , p. 16 ( limited preview in Google book search).
- ↑ a b B. R. Allanson (ed.): Lake Sibuya. Springer Science & Business Media., New York 1979, ISBN 906193088-X , p. 18 ( limited preview in Google book search).
- ↑ Report on the measures to increase the level at isimangaliso.com ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed on August 8, 2015
