Lakes and Their Hydrodynamics

This chapter is split into two broad sections. The first deals with lakes – more specifically their categorization, their characteristics, and the quality of their water. The chapter briefly presents the seven main different formation processes, as tectonic activity, volcanic activity, glacial activity, fluvial action, Aeolic action, anthropogenic action, and marine action. The lakes are characterized by low flow velocity and relatively low inflows and outflows. Vertical stratification appears in deep lakes, while shallow lakes are considered well mixed in the vertical axis. Lakes act as a sink for all types of nutrients, toxins, and all organic suspended materials from different types of sources. The second section focuses on the hydrodynamics within lakes, dealing with the very specific nature of flow that is peculiar to these large bodies of what often appears to be still water. The main hydrodynamic processes in lakes are inflows and outflows, wind shear, vertical circulation, thermal stratification, and gyres and seiches.