Wollaston Lake
| Wollaston Lake | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Geographical location | NW of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan | |
| Drain |
Fond du Lac River → Mackenzie River Cochrane River → Churchill River |
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| Places on the shore | Wollaston Lake | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 58 ° 14 ′ N , 103 ° 17 ′ W | |
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| Altitude above sea level | 398 m | |
| surface | 2 286 km² | |
| Maximum depth | 71 m | |
| Middle deep | 20.6 m | |
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particularities |
lies on the watershed and drains into different oceans via two different river systems |
|
The Wollaston Lake is a glacial incurred lake in northeastern Saskatchewan in Canada .
It covers an area of 2286 km² (including the islands even 2681 km²) and is the largest lake in the world that naturally drains in two different directions. The Fond du Lac River leaves the lake in a north-westerly direction and flows into Lake Athabasca . This in turn drains into the Arctic Ocean via the Mackenzie River . The Cochrane River flows from the lake on the northeast side and flows into Reindeer Lake . From there the water flows over the Churchill River into Hudson Bay . The lake is therefore exactly on the watershed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.
The lake has an average depth of 20.6 m and a maximum water depth of 71 m. Its content is estimated at 75 km³. The water level is 398 m above sea level and its shore length is 1475 km. The catchment area of the lake is 23,310 km². The lake is frozen over between November and June.
The only settlement on its shore is named after the lake: Wollaston Lake. About 800 residents live here. The place is connected to the outside world by a landing strip ( Wollaston Lake Airport ). A year-round drivable road, the Saskatchewan Highway 905 leads past the west bank of the lake to La Ronge . The connection to the place on the eastern bank is made in winter, when the lake is frozen, via the ice and in summer by a ferry .
Wollaston Lake was discovered around 1800 by the explorer Peter Fidler after 1807 and was used by fur traders to connect the watercourses of the Churchill and the Mackenzie, which saved the laborious portage . In 1821 the explorer John Franklin named the lake after the English chemist and physicist William Hyde Wollaston .
To the living in the lake fish species include pike and lake trout , Arctic grayling and walleye .
Treated leachate from the Rabbit Lake uranium mine is discharged into Hidden Bay on the lake's southwestern shore.
swell
- LakeNet
- International Lake Environment Committee Foundation - Statistical data on the lake
- Natural Resources Canada - The Atlas of Canada - Lakes ( Memento from January 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Brief description of the place
- Environmental protection program
notes
- ↑ cf. Manuel Reimann: Canada and the Hudson's Bay Company : The Journey of Peter Fidler 1807.Diplomica, Hamburg 2015, especially p. 2, p. 50
