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Lake Eyre (pronounced "air") is the lowest point in Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, at approximately (AHD
Australian Height Datum

The Australian Height Datum is a geodetic datum for altitude measurement in Australia. According to Geoscience Australia, "In 1971 the mean sea level for 1966-1968 was assigned the value of zero on the Australian Height Datum at thirty tide gauges around the coast of the Australian continent....
) below sea level, and, on the rare occasions that it fills, it is the largest lake
Lake

A lake is a terrain feature , a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin and moves slowly if it moves at all....
 in Australia. It is the focal point of the vast Lake Eyre Basin
Lake Eyre Basin

The Lake Eyre Basin is a drainage basin that covers one-sixth of all Australia. It is one of the largest internal drainage systems on Earth, and covers 1,140,000 square kilometres, including much of inland Queensland, large portions of South Australia and the Northern Territory, and a part of western New South Wales...
 and is found some 700km north of Adelaide
Adelaide

Adelaide is the List of Australian capital cities and most populous city of the Australian States and territories of Australia of South Australia, and is the fifth-largest city in Australia, with a population of more than 1.1 million....
.

lake was named after Edward Eyre who was the first European to sight it in 1840. The lake is located in the deserts of central Australia, in northern South Australia
South Australia

South Australia is a States and territories of Australia of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories....
.






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Lake Eyre (pronounced "air") is the lowest point in Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
, at approximately (AHD
Australian Height Datum

The Australian Height Datum is a geodetic datum for altitude measurement in Australia. According to Geoscience Australia, "In 1971 the mean sea level for 1966-1968 was assigned the value of zero on the Australian Height Datum at thirty tide gauges around the coast of the Australian continent....
) below sea level, and, on the rare occasions that it fills, it is the largest lake
Lake

A lake is a terrain feature , a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin and moves slowly if it moves at all....
 in Australia. It is the focal point of the vast Lake Eyre Basin
Lake Eyre Basin

The Lake Eyre Basin is a drainage basin that covers one-sixth of all Australia. It is one of the largest internal drainage systems on Earth, and covers 1,140,000 square kilometres, including much of inland Queensland, large portions of South Australia and the Northern Territory, and a part of western New South Wales...
 and is found some 700km north of Adelaide
Adelaide

Adelaide is the List of Australian capital cities and most populous city of the Australian States and territories of Australia of South Australia, and is the fifth-largest city in Australia, with a population of more than 1.1 million....
.

Geography

The lake was named after Edward Eyre who was the first European to sight it in 1840. The lake is located in the deserts of central Australia, in northern South Australia
South Australia

South Australia is a States and territories of Australia of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories....
. The Eyre Basin
Lake Eyre Basin

The Lake Eyre Basin is a drainage basin that covers one-sixth of all Australia. It is one of the largest internal drainage systems on Earth, and covers 1,140,000 square kilometres, including much of inland Queensland, large portions of South Australia and the Northern Territory, and a part of western New South Wales...
 is a large endorheic
Endorheic

An endorheic basin is a closed drainage basin that retains water and allows no outflow to other bodies of water such as rivers or oceans. Normally the water accruing in drainage basins flows out through surface rivers or by underground diffusion through Permeability rock to the oceans....
 system surrounding the lakebed, the lowest part of which is filled with the characteristic playa
Playa

A playa is a dry or Ephemeral lakebed, generally extending to the shore, or a remnant of, an endorheic lake. Such flats consist of fine-grained sediments infused with alkali salts....
 salt pan
Salt pan (geology)

Natural salt pans are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts, and should not be confused with salt evaporation ponds....
 caused by the seasonal expansion and subsequent evaporation of the trapped waters. Even in the dry season there is usually some water remaining in Lake Eyre, usually collecting in a number of smaller sub-lakes on the playa.

During the rainy season the rivers from the northeast (in outback
Outback

The Outback refers to remote arid areas of Australia, although the term colloquially can refer to any lands outside of the main urban areas....
 Queensland
Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
) flow towards the lake through the Channel Country
Channel Country

The Channel Country of Queensland, Australia, is located in the remote south west of the state. It is a series of ancient flood plains with rivers which flow intermittently....
. The amount of water from the monsoon
Monsoon

A monsoon is a seasonal prevailing wind that lasts for several months. The term was first used in English in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and neighboring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the region....
 determines whether water will reach the lake and if it does, how deep the lake will get. In strong La Niña years the lake can fill. Since 1885 this has occurred in 1886/1887, 1889/1890, 1916/1917, 1950, 1955, 1974-1976 , with the highest flood of 6m in 1974. Local rain can also fill Lake Eyre to 3-4m as occurred in 1984 and 1989. Wave built shingle terraces on the shore suggest that during the Medieval Warm Period
Medieval Warm Period

The Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Climate Optimum was a time of warm climate in the Atlantic Ocean region, lasting from about the tenth century to about the fourteenth century....
 and centuries immediately prior Lake Eyre possibly held permanent water at levels above those of 1974. Torrential rain in January 2007 took about six weeks to reach the lake but put only a small amount of water into it.

When recently flooded the Lake is almost fresh and native fresh water fish, including boney bream (Nematolosa erebi), the Lake Eyre Basin sub-species of golden perch
Golden perch

The golden perch, Macquaria ambigua, is an Australian native freshwater fish, primarily of the Murray River-Darling River river system.The genus name for golden perch ? Macquaria ? derives from the Macquarie River where the first species in the genus was collected....
 (Macquaria ambigua) and various small hardyhead species (Craterocephalus spp.) can survive in it. The salinity increases as the 450mm salt crust dissolves over a period of six months resulting in a massive fish kill. When over 4m deep the Lake is no more salty than the sea and salinity increases as the water evaporates with saturation occurring at about 500mm depth. The Lake takes on a "pink" hue when saturated due to the presence of beta-carotene
Beta-carotene

?-Carotene is an organic compound - a terpenoid, a red-orange pigment abundant in plants and fruits. As a carotene with ?-rings at both ends, it is the most common form of carotene....
 pigment caused by the algae Dunaliella salina
Dunaliella salina

Dunaliella salina is a type of halophile pink micro-algae especially found in sea salt fields. Known for its anti-oxidant activity because of its ability to create large amount of carotenoids....
.

Typically a 1.5 m (5 ft) flood occurs every three years, a 4 m (13 ft) flood every decade, and a fill or near fill four times a century. The water in the lake soon evaporates
Evaporation

Evaporation is the slow vaporization of a liquid and the reverse of condensation. A type of phase transition, it is the process by which molecules in a liquid State of matter spontaneously become gaseous ....
 with a minor and medium flood drying by the end of the following summer.

Yacht club


The Lake Eyre Yacht Club is a dedicated group of eccentrics who sail on the lake's floods, including recent trips in 1997, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2007. A number of 6 m Trailer Sailers sailed on Lake Eyre in 1975, 1976 and 1984 when the flood depth reached 3–6 m.

See also

  • Lake Eyre Basin
    Lake Eyre Basin

    The Lake Eyre Basin is a drainage basin that covers one-sixth of all Australia. It is one of the largest internal drainage systems on Earth, and covers 1,140,000 square kilometres, including much of inland Queensland, large portions of South Australia and the Northern Territory, and a part of western New South Wales...
  • Pluvial lake
    Pluvial lake

    A pluvial lake is a lake that experiences significant increase in depth and extent as a result of increased Precipitation_ and reduced evaporation....
  • List of lakes
    List of lakes

    This list of major or noteworthy lakes is sorted alphabetically by continent. Once a main article exists for a country, that link will replace the list here for reasons of order and article organization....
  • List of world's largest lakes
    List of world's largest lakes

    Lakes with a surface area of more than 4,000 km?, listed by area.Note: The area of some lakes can vary considerably over time, either seasonally or from year to year....


External links

  • NASA Earth Observatory
    NASA Earth Observatory

    The NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing organization of the NASA of the United States .It is the principal source of free satellite imagery and other scientific information about Earth for consumption by the general public....
     pages on Lake Eyre: ,