Everything about Great Slave Lake totally explained
Great Slave Lake (French:
Grand lac des Esclaves) is the second-largest
lake in the
Northwest Territories of
Canada (behind
Great Bear Lake), the deepest lake in
North America at 614 m (2,015 ft), and the
ninth-largest lake in the world. It is 480
km (298 mi) long and 19 to 109 km (12 to 68 mi) wide. It covers an area of 28,400
km² (11,000
sq mi) in the southern part of the territory. Its volume is 2,090 km³ (501.7 cu mi,1.694 billion
acre feet). The lake was named for the
Slavey North American Indians.
The
Hay and
Slave Rivers are its chief tributaries. It is drained by the
Mackenzie River. Though the western shore is forested, the east shore and northern arm are
tundra-like. The southern and eastern shores reach the edge of the
Canadian Shield. Along with other lakes such as the
Great Bear and
Athabasca, it's a remnant of a vast post-glacial lake.
The East Arm of Great Slave Lake is filled with islands, and the area is within
Thaydene Nene National Park. The Pethei Peninsula separates the East Arm into McLeod Bay in the north and Christie Bay in the south. The only community in the East Arm is
Lutselk'e, a hamlet of about 350 people, largely
Chipewyan aboriginals of the
Dene Nation.
History
First Nations were the first settlers around the lake, building communities including
Dettah, which still exists today.
British fur trader Samuel Hearne explored the area in
1771 and crossed the frozen lake, which he initially named Lake Athapuscow (after an erroneous French speaker's pronunciation of Athabaska).
In the
1930s,
gold was discovered there, which led to the establishment of
Yellowknife, the territory's
capital.
In 1967, an all-season highway was built around the lake, originally an extension of the
Mackenzie Highway but now known as
Highway 3.
On
January 24th,
1978, a
Soviet Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite, named
Cosmos 954, built with an on board
nuclear reactor fell from orbit and landed in the lake. With all the ice and snow on the lake the satellite exploded on impact causing its nuclear fuel to fall over the area. The nuclear fuel was picked up by a group called
Operation Morning Light formed with both
American and
Canadian members.
General Information
Other towns around the lake include:
Yellowknife,
Fort Providence,
Hay River and
Fort Resolution.
The lake is at least partially frozen during an average of eight months of the year. During winter, the ice is thick enough for
semi-trailer trucks to pass over. Until 1967, when an all-season highway was built around the lake, goods were shipped across the ice to Yellowknife, located on the north shore. Goods and fuel are still shipped across frozen lakes up the winter road to the diamond mines located near the headwaters of the
Coppermine River, Northwest Territories. A ferry is required to access Yellowknife during spring when the ice isn't present in a solid sheet along Highway 3 where it crosses the Mackenzie River.
The main western portion of the lake forms a moderately deep bowl with a surface area of 18,500 km² and a volume of 596 km³. This main portion has a maximum depth of 187.7 m and a mean depth of 32.2 m. To the east, McLeod Bay and Christie Bay are much deeper, with a maximum recorded depth in Christie Bay of 614 m.
South of Great Slave Lake, in a remote corner of
Wood Buffalo National Park, is the nesting site of a remnant flock of
whooping cranes, discovered in 1954.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Great Slave Lake'.
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