Spectacular images, troubled lake

December 23, 2015 11:04 AM

Ontario photographer Dave Sanford's photos of waves on Lake Erie capture weather conditions on the world's eleventh largest lake. Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, with an average depth of only 62 feet (19 metres). This makes it prone to a weather phenomenon known as a "seiche."

On November 12, 2015, a sieche on Lake Erie forced a halt to shipping traffic:

[T]he National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines a seiche as a standing wave oscillating in a body of water. In the case of Lake Erie, the winds created a standing wave that resulted in a 7.5 foot increase in the water level at Buffalo over a ten hour period on Nov. 12, 2015. At the opposite (western) end of the lake in Toledo, the water level fell by almost the same amount over the same period.

This video shows the effects of the November 12 seiche in Dunkirk, New York.

While its weather can be spectacular, Lake Erie's water quality and ecosystem have been threatened in recent years by eutrophication, toxic algal blooms and invasive species like zebra mussels and the round goby.

There are enough zebra mussels in Lake Erie to filter its water once per week.

The result has been increasing water clarity, to the detriment of the lake's food chain:

Zebra mussels also are filtering the Great Lakes at an amazing rate, making the lake very clear. Most people assume that this increased visibility in the water must mean the water is "cleaner". Not true. All they have done is filter out all the algae which normally would be food for native microscopic organisms.

This increased water clarity allows more sunlight to penetrate Lake Erie's previously murky water, and when combined with nutrients contained in farm and sewage runoff, create "harmful algal blooms."

PBS News Hour: Tiny Mussels Invade Great Lakes, Threaten Fishing Industry

Toxic Algae Blooms in Lake Erie Could Become the New Normal

Scientists predict huge Lake Erie algae bloom

Driven by Climate Change, Algae Blooms Behind Ohio Water Scare Are New Normal

Lake Erie food web (pdf)

More images of Lake Erie, from high above:

Sediments aswirl in Lake Erie

Algae bloom in Lake Erie

Lake Erie, stirred up

posted by mandolin conspiracy (23 comments total)

My family camped near Wheatley Provincial Park for a week last July, and the algae blooms kept everyone out of the lake for three days. The water looked like those old Orbitz drinks and smelled really unpleasant.
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:14 AM on December 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Seems a bit choppy out there today.
posted by freakazoid at 11:42 AM on December 23, 2015

I don't understand the fact that they have Zebra Mussels filtering the water once a day and Algae Blooms at the same time. Aren't algae the thing that the mussels are filtering out of the water?

This stuff is fascinating. Thanks for posting.
posted by Aizkolari at 11:43 AM on December 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

really nice pictures. We've sailed a bit on Lake Erie, and almost got caught in the undertow at Long Point.
posted by Artful Codger at 11:45 AM on December 23, 2015

A 22 foot seiche wave! Holy cow!
posted by Bee'sWing at 11:47 AM on December 23, 2015

Another thing I don't understand: how can the water quality vary so much from Great Lake to Great Lake? I mean, I assume most of the water in Lake Ontario is from Lake Erie, although obviously it is fed by many other rivers and streams, but you don't hear about problem with water quality there like you do in Erie. Is it just Erie's shallowness that creates these problems?
posted by Aizkolari at 11:48 AM on December 23, 2015

Lake Erie can exhibit large seiches when strong winds blow from southwest to northeast. In 1848, a 22-foot seiche resulted in 78 deaths. In 1929, a seiche flooded the Grand Haven, Mich., pier sweeping people off while strong rip currents carried several more away from the beach resulting in 10 deaths. In 1938, a large seiche occurred in Holland, Mich., that swept people from the pier and away from the beach resulting in 5 deaths.

I don't know what a seiche is, but if a Lake Erie seiche can flood Grand Haven and Holland, thats pretty damn scary...
posted by jpdoane at 11:54 AM on December 23, 2015 [5 favorites]

Dave Sanford's photos

Holy Ever-Lovin' Shit
posted by sidereal at 12:03 PM on December 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

This one is particularly unnerving.
posted by naturesgreatestmiracle at 12:08 PM on December 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

source for photos in first link, afaict. contains some text from the photographer.
posted by andrewcooke at 12:18 PM on December 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

I don't understand the fact that they have Zebra Mussels filtering the water once a day and Algae Blooms at the same time. Aren't algae the thing that the mussels are filtering out of the water?

After I hit post I thought yeah, that might be a bit unclear and maybe should have called that out. The link on HABs provides a little more background:

What’s a “toxic algae” outbreak?
Blue-green algae or cyanobacteria possess characteristics of algae – they make chlorophyll-a and use sunlight as an energy source for growth, but have bacterial cells (prokaryotic) rather than algal cells (eukaryotic). They are found in both fresh and salt waters. Some freshwater cyanobacterial blooms can produce highly potent toxins known as cyanotoxins. These blooms are known as “cyano HABS” or toxic algae outbreaks. In Lake Erie, the primary species of cyanobacteria is Microcystis aeruginosa, which can secrete a toxin called microcystin.

So, different algae than the type important lower down on the food chain. As a non-scientist, I also understand that it has to do when it blooms very quickly - in massive quantities - thanks to a confluence of temperature, nutrient content in the water (phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizers and soaps being a big contributor to that) and more sunlight penetration to speed along photosynthesis (a result of the zebra mussels making the water clearer, resulting in more sunlight getting through, all the better for the types of algae blooming to photosynthesize with). So it's kind of a vicious cycle.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:21 PM on December 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

My dad was a lawyer and had a case in Toronto dealing with land development and possible erosion of the lakefront shoreline caused by seiche wave action. According to the expert testimony, Lake Ontario gets seiche wave action, but it's of the order of a foot or so. 22 feet!?
posted by parki at 12:23 PM on December 23, 2015

I mean, I assume most of the water in Lake Ontario is from Lake Erie, although obviously it is fed by many other rivers and streams, but you don't hear about problem with water quality there like you do in Erie. Is it just Erie's shallowness that creates these problems?

The shallows of Lake Ontario are a continuous problem for water quality. The beaches near Toronto spend a lot of the summer time closed because of algae and bacteria contamination.
posted by srboisvert at 12:30 PM on December 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't understand the fact that they have Zebra Mussels filtering the water once a day and Algae Blooms at the same time. Aren't algae the thing that the mussels are filtering out of the water?

The thought is that the zebra mussels prefer to filter out the green algae, but do not consume the blue-green algae (which is actually cyanobacteria, not algae) which cause these toxic blooms. So basically, the mussels are opening up the lake to a complete lack of competition from other phytoplankton, so the nasty kind takes over under the right conditions.


Another thing I don't understand: how can the water quality vary so much from Great Lake to Great Lake? I mean, I assume most of the water in Lake Ontario is from Lake Erie, although obviously it is fed by many other rivers and streams, but you don't hear about problem with water quality there like you do in Erie. Is it just Erie's shallowness that creates these problems?

From my understanding, it's due to the fact that it's more shallow and warm than the other Great Lakes. Because of the shallowness, light also penetrates a larger percentage of the water column, so there's generally more phytoplankton. The region also has a lot of issues with agricultural runoff that aren't as prevalent surrounding the other Great Lakes, given that the landscape is, by and large, much more forested in those parts.
posted by giizhik at 12:30 PM on December 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

I worked on a natural gas drilling barge on Lake Erie for a summer during college and remember a few rough storms. During one, the welds on the derrick started cracking and it began swaying with a sort of hula action. We had a weird night, not knowing if the derrick would topple onto our sleeping quarters and we had no way off the barge until the weather settled down. Another time, when I was off shift, a fishing boat sank in sight but there was no way to help.

Other times Lake Erie could be feakishly still, "piss on a plate". You could spit over the side and watch the wave spread out for yards. Then the flies came. These tiny, nasty little biting horseflies. In all, I'm not fond of Lake Erie.
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:39 PM on December 23, 2015 [13 favorites]

Aizkolari, looking at the wiki article on the Great Lakes, the volume of water in Erie is tiny compared to the other lakes. And it has very densely populated shores compared to the other lakes.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:39 PM on December 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Those are astonishingly beautiful photos in the first link. I often dream of far-away, alien worlds and occasionally am reminded of how alien this one right here can be, in parts.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:05 PM on December 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Lakes Ontario and Huron often see seiches as well. The ridge in the middle of Lake Superior generally keeps seiches from getting very large. Lake Michigan can see large seiches, but you need northerly or southerly winds, and the prevailing winds are westerly.
posted by eriko at 1:54 PM on December 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wow, lots of pareidolia in these for me...
posted by jim in austin at 3:16 PM on December 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

This one is particularly unnerving

Is it just me or is there a demonic skull in that photo?
posted by sevenyearlurk at 6:10 PM on December 23, 2015

Lake Erie, it's said, gives up her dead pretty easily when the winds of November turn gloomy.
posted by GuyZero at 7:46 PM on December 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Then the flies came. These tiny, nasty little biting horseflies.

Those'll be blackflies. Horseflies are so called, it's fair to assume, because they're as big as horses.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:23 PM on January 2, 2016

They weren't what we'd call a black fly in Ontario but looked like house flies/small horseflies and google's telling me they were stable flies, which I never saw before or since.
posted by bonobothegreat at 10:22 PM on January 2, 2016