Lake George - minus the Lake!

[HAZZA]

Hi all - I stopped off at the lookout to Lake George on the weekend (on the way to Canberra to visit my daughter) and took this shot with cloud and fog moving in - thought I would post a bit about it below as it is quite interesting - I have actually seen this lake full in the 90"s - c& c welcome - best viewed in full size

Source - Wikipedia - Lake George is an Endorheic lake, as it has no outflow of water to rivers and oceans.

The lake is believed to be more than a million years old. Originally, small streams drained its catchment into the Yass River, but then the Lake George Escarpment rose due to major crustal movement along a strong fault line, blocking this drainage and forming the lake.[1] Lake George has in previous Ice Ages been much larger and deeper.[citation needed]

The thickness of sediment beneath the lake exceeds 250 metres (820 ft), according to a Bureau of Mineral Resources Canberra drilling programme in the 1982/83 summer. The oldest sediments, which lie some distance above the bedrock, were dated at 3–5 million years using spore and pollen analysis and magnetic reversal stratigraphy.[citation needed]

At 25 km (16 mi) long and 10 km (6.2 mi) wide, Lake George is long, largely flat and extremely shallow, with a very small catchment. Resultant evaporation rates as well as a tendency for strong winds to blow the water back on itself explain the mysterious filling and drying episodes on both short term (hours) and long term (years) time scales that have been observed.

The lake's depth when full can range from 1.5–4.5 metres (4 ft 10 in–14 ft 9 in); however in many areas it is only around 0.8–1.0 metre (2 ft 7 in–3 ft 3 in) deep. Its deepest point has been measured as 7.5 metres (25 ft). When full, the lake holds about 500,000,000 cubic metres (1.8×1010 cu ft) of water. Between the late 1980s and mid-1990s, the lake lapped the Federal Highway on its western edge.
The 140 megawatt Capital Wind Farm completed in 2009 is located along the south-eastern side of Lake George.

1/250, av11, iso 100

[FootLoose]

Nice shot, Harry. Rather than dry, it seems the water has levitated this time -- as fog. I saw it full back in the '60s when I was a kid. My father told me how it could drain completely dry, but at the time I couldn't see how that was possible for such a big lake.

What does the folklore say? When Lake Eyre is full, Lake George is empty, and v.v. Like the water drains back and forth across the continent..

[HAZZA]

Thnx Greg - yes it was rather eery - way to the left of this scene there was actually some blue sky - managed to get a few shots before the rain hit.

[casper]

hi Harry,
I like it, particularly at full size. I like the banding composition, with the wind farm separating the cloud and fog, and the contrast of the dry lake bed in the foreground. The wide crop and the fog band drags my eye across the shot, inspecting the turbines along the way. Canberra is a great spot for a wind farm, lowers by body temperature just looking at this picture. Is that frost in the left foreground?
- Noel

[HAZZA]

hi Harry,
I like it, particularly at full size. I like the banding composition, with the wind farm separating the cloud and fog, and the contrast of the dry lake bed in the foreground. The wide crop and the fog band drags my eye across the shot, inspecting the turbines along the way. Canberra is a great spot for a wind farm, lowers by body temperature just looking at this picture. Is that frost in the left foreground?
- Noel

Thanks Noel - appreciate the feedback - I think it would have been frost a bit earlier - was a pretty chilly morning.
I think I pulled over to take the shot at the right time - other times I have been past it hasn't been as inspiring

Thanks again