The ice boom is flexible. It is designed to assist in the formation of a stable ice arch at the mouth of the Niagara River. The ice boom will not stop all of the ice from flowing from Lake Erie into the Niagara River.
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The falls could be replaced by a series of rapids. 50,000 years from now, at the present rate of erosion, the remaining 20 miles to Lake Erie will have been undermined. There won't be a falls anymore, but there will still be a river at work.
Lake Erie has a lake retention time of 2.6 years, the shortest of all the Great Lakes. The lake's surface area is 9,910 square miles (25,667 km2). Lake Erie's water level fluctuates with the seasons as in the other Great Lakes.
Air temperatures are the main factor affecting ice cover on the Great Lakes. According to the U.S. National Ice Center, each of the five lakes experienced warmer than average air temperatures in January 2023.
Throughout the past fifty years, Lake Erie has reached a complete ice cover (100% ice coverage) three times – in 1978, 1979, and 1996, and reached 99.8% in 1977. Annual maximum ice coverage for Lake Erie: 1973-2022. Source: GLERL, NOAA.
Evaporation continues throughout the winter. Lake Erie, as the shallowest and southernmost lake, is also the warmest and may not always freeze over. If ice cover is insignificant, the open water continues to lose vapor to the dry winter air, dropping water levels.
During the 1960s, Lake Erie was declared a “dead lake” due to eutrophication and pollution. The children's book, The Lorax, written by Dr. Seuss, actually included the following line referring to fish: “They will walk on their fins and get woefully weary in search of some water that isn't so smeary.
Currents in Lake Erie can be dangerous! Any current flowing faster than 2 mph is considered dangerous. Dangerous currents can exceed 5 mph — faster than an Olympic swimmer can swim.
Why is Lake Erie so important? Erie is the most biologically productive and diverse of all the Great Lakes due to its warm shallow waters. Alongside this astounding biodiversity, more than 11 million people get their drinking water from the Lake Erie watershed.