What happens to lakes over time?

All lakes, even the largest, slowly disappear as their basins fill with sediment and plant material. The natural aging of a lake happens very slowly, over the course of hundreds and even thousands of years. But with human influence, it can take only decades. A lake's plants and algae slowly die.



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Twice a year, unseen forces churn water from the depths of our deeper lakes and deliver oxygen and nutrients essential to aquatic life. This temperature-driven process of lake “turnover” allows aquatic life to inhabit the entirety of the lake as oxygen becomes more available.

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Exorheic, or open lakes drain into a river, or other body of water that ultimately drains into the ocean. Endorheic basins fall into the category of endorheic or closed lakes, wherein waters do not drain into the ocean, but are reduced by evaporation, and/or drain into the ground.

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A lake has turned over when water temperatures are the same from the surface to the bottom. The process can take days or even months to complete, depending on lake shape and depth, and air and water temperatures.

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Still Water Lakes and reservoirs are examples of non-moving waters, or rather, less fast moving water. Even lakes and reservoirs have places where water enters and exits. Most lakes formed naturally thousands of years ago as glaciers gouged depressions in the landscape, which later filled with water.

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Most lakes have at least one natural outflow in the form of a river or stream, which maintain a lake's average level by allowing the drainage of excess water. Some lakes do not have a natural outflow and lose water solely by evaporation or underground seepage, or both.

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In temperate latitudes, many lakes that become stratified during the summer months de-stratify during cooler windier weather with surface mixing by wind being a significant driver in this process. This is often referred to as autumn turn-over.

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Lake aging is the natural process by which a lake fills in over geologic time with erosional materials carried in by tributary streams, with materials deposited directly from the atmosphere, and with materials produced within the lake itself.

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It may surprise you to know there is no technical difference between lakes and ponds, according to the National Park Service(Opens in a new window). However, a general rule of a thumb is if a body of water is large and deep it's a lake and if it's short and shallow it's a pond.

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Lakes lifespans are limited, as rivers dump their sediment into them and dead plant material builds up on the lake bottom. Most lakes are less than 10,000 years old.

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Great Lakes that have completely frozen include Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake to have never frozen entirely.

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