Lake Erie was not calm on this day. Wind generated one to two foot waves that were sweeping the Hamburg Beach making it look and feel more like an ocean beach than a beach on a lake. But that is not unusual on the Great Lakes. Dark ominous clouds were floating over the lake, mostly on their way out of the area as they have caused quite a bit of rain over the last couple days. Rough waters land themselves well to experimenting with shutter speed. For this photograph, the long exposure of 10 seconds calmed the waters down and gave the lake a whole different look, the look of a calm lake before a storm.

Lake Erie is one of the Great Lakes and is named after a Native American tribe that lived on its southern shore. It is of glacial origin. Most of the water flows into Lake Erie through the Detroit River from the upper lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron). The outflow from the lake creates another wonder, the Niagara River. The western basin of Lake Erie is the home for about 26 islands, depending on current water levels. Lake Erie also provides for a regional phenomenon - lake effect snow that makes Buffalo, NY infamous for its winter storms.

Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes by water volume, the warmest in summer, the one that freezes the most. It's the eleventh largest lake in the world by surface area. Wind, usually from west to east, can produce large short-term differences in water levels at the eastern and western ends of the lake, the record being more than 16 ft.

I find these facts and their interaction very interesting, and alarming: Lake Erie has more consumable fish than all the other Great Lakes combined. Lake Erie provides drinking water to over 11 million people. It is estimated that over eight billion gallons of sewage were dumped into Lake Erie and its waterways in the Lake Erie Basin in 2004.

References: Lake Erie Facts - Lake Erie Facts and Figures - Lake Erie Waterkeeper Facts