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Where do mountain lakes get their water?
Why do mountain top lakes never go dry? I was wondering because this place we travel to has a huge lake up by the peak and it never seems to go down. Even after all the snowmelt and during the dry season it just stays full but constantly has water running out of it by streams. So where does it get its water when it’s not raining and there’s no snow melt going into it?
The one I'm referring to is in Northern California, So I know there's no glacier feeding it. I'm just curious because as we drive up to it I always see this waterfall that comes from a rather large stream/small river that flows from it, I just wondered when all the snow was gone how it continues to hold that level when nothing appears to be feeding it and there's always something leaving it. Even an underground spring does not seem to be an option since it would need to run uphill to feed it.
3 Answers
- SkookumLv 77 years agoFavorite Answer
Snow melt, glaciers, and springs. Springs can supply water year-round. The aquifers that supply springs can hold massive amounts of water. (A spring is a site where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface.)
It would be instructive for you to read about aquifers at the source below, because you won't understand the sources of mountain streams and lakes without understanding aquifers:
- poornakumar bLv 77 years ago
Precipitation as snow & from glaciers.
Some longest glaciers outside the Polar regions are located in Asia (Himalayas & associated mountain ranges). "Fedchenko" glacier issuing from the lofty Pamir peak Pik Abu Ali Ibn Sino (6940m) & fed by Pik Yevgenii Korzhenevskoy (7105m), Gora Muzdzhilga (6289 m), Pik Karpinsky (6612m), Pik Garmo (6602m), Muztagh ata is the longest at 77km. about a seven hundred km, to the south is the next in length, "Siachen" (72km) glacier which is a km less in length - in Karakorum range. keeping company with Siachen are Hispar (61km), Biafo (59km) & Baltoro (57km).
High Latitude lakes include the mighty Baikal (deepest at 1 mile or more & the most voluminous ), Balkash, Icy cool (-Issykul), karakul, Songuz & Sarez. A Glacier's length is from the mounatin slope where it gets born to where there is a fresg water snout at its end like Gangotri's "Gaumukh". More than a hindred such lakes are scattered mostly all over in Tibet Xinjiang.
Source(s): GoogleEarth, Wiki, "K2", by Jim Curran; Hodder & Stoughton - BillLv 77 years ago
Some mountain lakes get water from glaciers. A mountain lake can be very deep and hold water for a long time.
