Puslinch Lake - Largest NA Kettle EarthCache

This cache has been archived.

Bush_Doc: Regrettably, the lake no longer allows members of the public to visit so I guess its time to say goodbye to this one. No public parking anymore and numerous no trespassing signs around. No point in getting people in trouble. Thanks to all who visited.

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Hidden : 9/26/2010
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

Puslinch Lake is a kettle lake located in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. The lake is a glacialfluvial feature formed in the landscape during the last continental glaciation about 13,000 years ago. It formed when a large block of ice calving from the front of the receding glacier and left a large hole in the landscape. Puslinch Lake is not just any kettle lake, but the largest kettle lake in Canada and North America.

Kettles are glacilafluvial features formed in the landscape as a result of large blocks of ice calving from the front of the receding glacier and becoming partially to wholly buried by outwash sediments from the glacier. Glacial outwash is generated when streams of meltwater flow away from the glacier and are deposited as broad outwash plains. When the blocks of ice imbedded in the outwash plain melt, a depression or kettle hole is formed in the landscape. If the elevation of the depression is below the water table, the result is a kettle lake. Most kettle holes are less than two kilometers in diameter, although some in the U.S. Midwest exceed ten kilometers. Puslinch Lake is the largest kettle lake in Canada and North America spanning 160 hectares (380 acres). Given that the continential ice sheet was estimated to be on the order of 2 miles thick (about 5 km high), imagine the size of the chunk of ice that once filled this lake. The lake is relatively shallow, typically less than 2 m in depth. The maximum depth is approximately 5.5 m corresponding to only about 0.4% of the entire lake. The lake has very limited inflow and outflow. Consequently it sometimes undergoes periods of eutrophication with associated algal bloom, low oxygen level, and associated fish kills. There are 16 species of fish present in the lake; some have been introduced. The lake supports a population of banded killifish, one of only a few known populations in the whole Grand River basin.

To log this earthcache e-mail the answers to the three questions to the cache owner, before posting your log.
1. Estimate the total volume of water in Puslinch Lake assuming an average depth of 2 m.
2. Measure the elevation of the lake with your GPS and calculate the elevation of the bottom of the lake at the deepest part.
3. Assuming an average annual precipitation of 800 mm falling on the lake (assuming no evaporation) calculate the volume of water that flows out of the lake each year.


I ask only that you physically visit the cache site and log the cache on the day you visited.
This cache has been placed by a Central Ontario Geocacher!

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