NSF PR 97-66 - October 24, 1997
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Scientists Conduct First Large-Scale Study of Lake
Superior
When the ice creaks, groans, and finally breaks up
on Lake Superior next spring, a team of limnologists
and oceanographers will launch a five-year study of
a dramatic near-shore current in the lake. The current
is called the Keweenaw Current because of its proximity
to Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula, and is considered
the strongest current of its kind in the world.
The $5.3 million study is funded by the National Science
Foundation (NSF), and is dubbed KITES, for Keweenaw
Interdisciplinary Transport Experiment. In KITES,
researchers from six institutions will conduct one
of the largest studies ever undertaken on Lake Superior.
"Lake Superior contains some 10 percent of the freshwater
on earth," explains program director Larry Clark of
NSF's ocean sciences division, which funded the project.
"That's more water than all of the lower lakes combined.
Lake Superior also has the largest area of any lake
on this planet. But, despite those facts, Lake Superior
has not been adequately studied, in part because of
the daunting environment it presents for researchers.
KITES marks the first time that such an array of resources
has been applied to Superior. What we learn from a
comprehensive study of Lake Superior will have direct
relevance to our understanding of many of the physical
features of the world's coastal oceans."
Scientists working on the KITES project will identify
the physical processes that control the current's
position and strength, and investigate how the current
affects the distribution of nutrients, and therefore,
plankton and fish, in a 150-mile study region. They
will place current meters in Lake Superior as well
as analyze its water chemistry, collect samples of
plankton and juvenile fish and sample sediment distribution
and transport along the western shore of Michigan's
Keweenaw Peninsula from the Wisconsin border to the
northernmost point in Michigan.
"The Keweenaw Current forms a semi-permeable barrier
along the 'coast' of Lake Superior that inhibits material
from shore and from rivers flowing into the lake from
crossing into Superior's central basin," explains
limnologist Sarah Green of Michigan Technical University
(MTU) in Houghton, the project's coordinator. "We
expect the effects of this barrier to be apparent
throughout the entire Lake Superior ecosystem."
Adds the project's associate coordinator, scientist
Elise Ralph of the University of Minnesota's Large
Lakes Observatory, "Currents running parallel to shore
are common in the oceans and in lakes, so what we
learn here will help us understand similar processes
in other aquatic environments. We have an excellent
site to identify the effects of such a massive current."
It's been estimated that the Keweenaw Current, at
its peak flow, carries as much water as the outflow
of the Mississippi River. KITES scientists say that
water movement in the current is the primary means
by which materials are transported from the lake's
western to eastern basins, and is therefore likely
to be important in processes throughout Lake Superior.
Other institutions involved in KITES are the University
of Washington in Seattle, the University of Georgia,
the University of Maryland and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
KITES is also supported in part by the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
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