Lake Michigan Causes Of Erosion

Lake Michigan is the world’s third largest lake by surface area. It is the world’s sixth largest lake. Though we consider Lake Michigan and Lake Huron separate lakes, because they are connected by the straights of Mackinaw, by definition they are considered one lake (great-lakes.net). Michigan is more than four million years ago, glaciers covered and moved across what is now the United States Mid-West. Michigan experienced the last great ice sheet. This glacier was a mile thick and four million miles square (michigan.gov). The glacier went as far north as the Hudson Bay and as far south as the Ohio Valley. As it moved, millions of tons of earth moved with it. Fourteen thousand years ago, the earth was ground into glacier dust from
Erosion caused by waves can be as subtle as the gentle wave constantly hitting the shoreline, or it can be a violent interaction between lake Michigan or inland lakes and the earth around them during ever during severe storms. In Michigan, there are primarily two types of material found on the shoreline. Bedrock, which is the harder of the two, known a consolidated substance and the effects of the water cause less erosion. Then there are the items like sand and clay, which are move and deposited elsewhere on a regular basis. These substances are known as unconsolidated material. Erosion of the landscape can be caused by three distinct processes. Each process is unique in the way it works. Terrestrial erosion has to do with the land. Slumping is the downward movement of those unconsolidated materials. It is usually caused by groundwater putting pressure on soil particles. An example of this is a mudslide. Another form of terrestrial erosion is known as “Soil creep”. It is the gradual slide downward from and elevated area. If you think of this as rocks falling away a piece at a time. Marquette Mountain is a good example of this. Each year the mountain is open to skiing, but as the snow melts and turns to water that pressure moves soil downward in small amounts at a time to the base of the mountain. You can see the results as you drive by on highway 553. Large rocks and
Our economy is dependent on good clean water. Unfortunately, we have not always been the best stewards of our resources. The water is no exception. Recently Flint, Michigan has been in the news. The inhabitants of that city were forced to drink bottled water when the city’s water was found to contain large quantities of lead in it. As part of an effort to reduce, spending the city started using water from the Flint River. The Flint River was contaminated long before the switch came. In an article dated 02/26/2016 by theverge.com, Tim Carmody stated “Before processing, the water itself is polluted from four sources: natural biological waste; treated industrial and human waste; untreated waste intentionally or accidentally dumped into the river; and contaminates washed into the river by rain or snow”. Three years later the residents of Flint are still drinking bottled water and are dealing with the consequences of decisions made in the past. According to mich.gov, women and small children should be careful when they eat fish. They have published booklets in several languages to explain the hazards of eating too