Lakes: Their Birth, Life, and Death

by John Richard Saylor

“Lakes is my favorite kind of natural meticulously researched, timely, comprehensive, and written with imagination and verve.”—Jerry Dennis, author of The Living Great Lakes
 
Lakes might be the most misunderstood bodies of water on earth. And while they may seem commonplace, without lakes our world would never be the same. In this revealing look at these lifegiving treasures, John Richard Saylor shows us just how deep our connection to still waters run.  
 
Lakes is an illuminating tour through the most fascinating lakes around the world. Whether it’s Lake Vostok, located more than two miles beneath the surface of Antarctica, whose water was last exposed to the atmosphere perhaps a million years ago; Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, the world’s deepest and oldest lake formed by a rift in the earth’s crust; or Lake Nyos, the so-called Killer Lake that exploded in 1986, resulting in hundreds of deaths, Saylor reveals to us the wonder that exists in lakes found throughout the world. Along the way we learn all the many forms that lakes take—how they come to be and how they feed and support ecosystems—and what happens when lakes vanish. 




 

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Audiobook, Geology, Environment, Geography

240 pages, Hardcover

Published June 7, 2022

About the author

John Richard Saylor, PhD, is a professor of mechanical engineering at Clemson University. He has spent the better part of his career studying phenomena that occur at the interface between air and water. In addition to lakes, his scientific interests include the physics of drops, bubbles, and waves, and he has applied his research to applications such as the use of water sprays and ultrasonics to clean diesel exhaust and methods for using radar to study raindrops. He was a student at the Santa Fe Science Writing Workshop in 2017 and was a literary artist resident at the Herlene Wurlitzer Foundation in 2018. He lives in Clemson, South Carolina

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This gave me more pertinent vocabulary and chemical aptitudes than I was expecting.

And I learned multitudes about fresh water lake processes and terminology. And most especially in their birthings and within the essentials of the turnover sequences.

Much else about my region's lakes I already knew. Still it increased my love of lakes all told. Interesting about Reelfoot!

I still remember the day I swam in Lake Tahoe. And the little girl who was about 9 with the blue lips who swam too.

Lakes are the best! I recommend getting to know some.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up at random and am very glad I did. Who would ever guess that there are so many interesting things to learn about lakes. It gave me dinner conversation material for a week. Some parts were more science heavy (the portion on lake gases come to mind) than others, but overall the book was very accessible to the non-scientist. The author has done an excellent job writing an engaging book on a subject that most everyone is very familiar with but likely takes for granted.

[Jonathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure who the audience for this book is: the jacket copy makes it sound like a general interest science book, but the contents are more like a literature review or a textbook, which is to say very technical with occasional interesting anecdotes sprinkled in. Disappointing read for me.

2/5

[Laken Bose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book and after reading the cover flap thought I would get the history of a few specific lakes. Instead I have now received the knowledge of all lakes! Lakes is a slow read at times, not because it is boring but because you will want to pause and google every lake example discussed. This book felt like reading a college research article at times but I loved that about it and am looking forward to examining my areas lakes this summer.

[Erin M · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surprisingly little talk about lakes! Crazy!

[C. Ian Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprised how interesting and exciting I found this boook.

However, not a god dam pun in the whole chapter on dams.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just have to say that if you read the title of this book and totally nerded out about all the things you can learn from it, you’ll be happy to know that it delivers! When I was offered the opportunity to read and review this book, I was super excited because I love when I get to take a deep dive and learn a lot about one small thing. Every single time this happens I am always blown away by how much I don’t know and how much there is about the topic that I hadn’t even thought of. This is obvious, of course, but you never know what you don’t know!

This book is divided into three parts regarding lakes—birth, life, and death. Fun fact: Did you know the study of lakes is called limnology? As you might expect, this book has some pretty in-depth discussions regarding lakes and the things related to lakes—their formation, their chemical makeup, the physics related to lakes and water, different aspects of how they are formed, etc. Some of it is pretty heavy. Its science and physics and Saylor expects you to read up on that, although he explains things really well and in a manner that is definitely understandable, he will not be dumbing it down for you. I appreciated that, actually, even if I didn’t always get what was going on 100%. I expected that.

I really enjoyed the examples that were given in this book. I had no idea how many fascinating things there were about different lakes, nor why some of them are the way they are. I was particularly excited because there were some lakes that I know quite well because they are located close to where I live. It’s always fun to learn about things that are personally related to you. This is one of my complaints about the book, though. I would have liked more examples of lakes. In fact, I would have been very happy to just have a long list of lakes and all of their different interesting and unique things about them. I was into it, y'all!

If you are a nerdy reader like me who enjoys taking a deep dive into a specific topic, this book is totally for you. It’s not a very lengthy book, so I did some binging of it but I also read it interspersed with some lighter faire and it made for a delightful reading experience.

Read my full review here: https://www.readingforsanity.com/2022...

[Laurent Reinhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating work that combines chemistry, physics, biology, geology and many more disciplines into an enthralling narrative on one of Earth's key features. A mechanical engineering professor at Clemson University who specializes in fluid mechanics and the physics of water, Saylor is also an excellent writer and storyteller.
"The ice sheet separates humans from the lake in a way that makes the water almost unknowable. It is as if the liquid water of a lake in winter is transported to a different part of interstellar space, known only to the ice fisherman who, huddled over a hole, experiences the liquid water through his small circular porthole, this wormhole that occasionally transports a fish up from the depths. It is only known by highly trained scuba divers who, like astronauts, venture into the dark winter realm, using lights to turn the blackness into a murky dark blue." p159

[Genna · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If history has taught us anything about lakes it is that they are fragile. They seem immense to us. The enormity of a lake that takes days to cross by boat, tempts us to think that they are invicible—that they are big, and we are small. But history tells us that as big as lakes are, they are not very big. We must recognize that our actions, our population growth, our agricultural methods, all of these are what is big. In comparision to human thirst, even the greatest of lakes are but puddles."

Meticulously researched, yet still engaging for the layperson, Lakes is a fascinating introduction to the world of limnology. I love leaving a book with knowledge and a sense of the author's passion, which is certainly the case here. I particularly enjoyed how the author organized the book around the life cycle of lakes, an approach both practical and creative. The majority of the chemical equations mentioned were over my head, but Saylor's narrative still managed to be enthralling.

[Madeline Crichton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lakes is separated into three sections, discussing the birth, life and death of lakes. Of these sections, I found the birth section to be fascinating. The author discusses everything from glacier erosion, to volcanos to unsolved mysteries about the formation of certain lakes. The life section deals more with physical phenomena of lakes from the process of lake overturning to dissolved gases and surface tension. While this section was interesting, it was a tougher read and less of what I was looking for out of the book. Lastly the section on death of lakes is quite short. I think I would have been interested to hear more ways that a lake can meet its ending, but I did find the section on human caused death to be very interesting and somewhat concerning.

[Lisa Konet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not the type of scientific book I thought it was going to be but it was interesting and did hold my attention. Bad execution. The author could have made his written discussion less boring by making it less of a tedious read.

It really did not answer how lake are born and why they die. I thought the section in between, life was somewhat good. Especially discussing some well know lakes like the 5 Great Lakes of North America. I found the brief section about the death of lakes to be concerning and depressing.

Would I recommend this? I do not know. Perhaps if someone is interested in climatology like I am, this may be related book.

[Caroline “Smitty” Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a wonderful read! saylor does a fabulous job of teaching a layman all about the wonder of lakes. My favorite quotes:

“In comparison to human thirst, even the greatest of lakes are puddles.” in reference to human use of freshwater lakes for drinking water.

and this wild final sentence:
“[your favorite lake] too will be destroyed by the ultimate end of things on earth - the fiery magma lying beneath us all. the place where you and your lake will one day meet again.” extremely unexpected but not unwelcome analysis!

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine. Lakes is the type of book authored by a person who is not within the field, but has a passion to write about a topic they are interested in as a hobby. Or so it seems like it to me. Some ideas are fleshed out poorly, and some ideas are incorrect. One instances is the portion that describes meteorite which is flat out inaccurate at points. However, the book in general brings up solid interesting point about lakes. A few more diagrams would help, but it is fine as it is written.

I would avoid if you're looking at a better survey of lakes.

[Brent Bakken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very educational high-level overview of a part of Limnology; general life-cycle of lakes. Easy to understand and interesting, real life examples of formation and life of specific types of lakes around the world. Only thought is that I wish Saylor was a little more thorough on the "death" of lakes (or the end of their life-cycle) and what happens to the land and geography of the area. A good read overall.

[Lena Nash · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very science language heavy read, so it took me a while, but I'm very glad I read it!

[charlieteuthis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love if it was longer!

[Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent blend of science and storytelling.

[Faith O'Toole · Rating 5 out of 5]

some chapters are a little long winded. but overall such a fascinating book! wish it was longer!

[Dobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book on the “re-shelve” cart at my local library. Sounded interesting so I brought it home with me. I was not disappointed. It was a very concise, easy to read, and well written book about Lakes. I was genuinely surprised how intricate and deep (no pun intended) the topic was. Who knew big puddles could be so fascinating.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lakes have the potential to be fascinating; they inhabit my whole life, from a man made lake made of run off from a nearby cemetery where I live to gorgeous forested and high altitude tundra lakes to sea level lakes of my childhood. We went to beaches on weekend days and lakes for week long vacations. And this book starts off well with the geography of some interesting lakes like the 500,000 Carolina bays, Alaska’s oriented lakes, sub glacial lakes. Brine lakes on the sea floor. Interesting facts and figures I did not know and I googled maps and videos. But. It got very boring and technical quickly, unfortunately, so a slog to finish.

The Lakes Handbook (2004) the number of lakes on Earth larger than 2.47 acres in area is slightly more than eight million. But research published two years later in a paper where Iowa State University’s J.A. Downing was the lead author, used new data sources and analysis methods and came up with 304 million. Partly this dramatically higher number was due to defining a “lake” as a water body larger than 0.247 acres. But even when considering lakes larger than 2.47 acres (the same as for The Lakes Handbook), Downing’s work yields 26.6 million lakes, a figure over three times larger.

There is Lake Nyos in Cameroon, a lake that accrued dissolved carbon dioxide in its depths for untold years, and then exploded in 1986, releasing about a quarter of a cubic mile of gas and killing over a thousand people in the process. There are lakes that lay beneath a sheet of ice a mile or more thick in the Antarctic, at least one of which is as big as Lake Ontario, and so isolated that the organisms living there have not been exposed to the atmosphere for over 100,000 years, a time when mastodons still roamed the earth. And there are the Carolina bays, a series of over 80,000 lakes located in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States, all of them perfectly elliptical, for some unknown reason, all of them oriented in the same direction, as if pointing to something important.

Humans build a lot of lakes, and we have been doing this for an extremely long time. The oldest known dam is the Jawa dam, located in what is now northern Jordan. It is estimated to have been built at the beginning of the third millennium BC. Perhaps only 200 years later, Egypt’s Sadd el-Kafara dam was built. Though both are quite old, evolving archeological research as well as the level of technologies exhibited at these sites suggest a much longer history of dam-building, perhaps stretching back as far as the seventh millennium BC.

According to the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD), the oldest functioning dam is the Proserpina Dam in Extremadura, Spain, which was built by the Romans around AD 130 and is still in use today. And ICOLD lists at least 20 dams built before AD 1500 that are still in use.

The upper layer, called the epilimnion, is mixed up by wind and wave action, and so it is a layer that is warmer, well-oxygenated, and generally of close-to-uniform temperature. But the epilimnion comprises only the upper portion of the lake, only the region where sunlight and wind have an impact. You may have experienced the existence of the epilimnion when swimming in a lake during the summer. Away from the shore, if you dive any distance downward, you may experience a sudden temperature drop as you travel from the epilimnion into the cooler hypolimnion.

[Garrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is all over the place, it uses a lot of scientific jargon but also explains basic concepts like photosynthesis. It debates the merits of various scientific theories on the formation of aligned lakes but then says that “I guess the continents will eventually collide and that will destroy lakes” This book has a few interesting stories to tell but is filled with obvious padding to barely get it a full book length.

[Rev · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up from the library on a whim because I stumbled across it in the New Nonfiction section while I was picking up other books. I didn't really know what to expect, because I usually stick to things like human history and paleontology when it comes to nonfiction, but I was surprised by how interesting this book ended up being. Lakes, for me, are just a thing that is, I hadn't considered how they were made and what occurred during their "lifespan". The potential death of a lake was something I had heard of talked about with regards to environmentalism as well.

Can definitely recommend this one, I really enjoyed it.

[Heather B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so interesting. It wasn't something I could burn through, but would sit with a chapter here and there. This is an educational book, but it's not dry at all. My favorite part was understanding how a glacier can flow. Solid book for curious minds.

[Reading For Sanity · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this review and others at https://www.readingforsanity.com/2022...

[Brian Jarsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought-provoking and informative. Just what I wanted.

[Kristijan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book.