Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:33 pm by globalturbo
Lake Michigan Is So Clear Right Now Its Shipwrecks Are Visible From The Air
Jade Small | April 29, 2015 | News | No Comments
That’s not a sunken ship in the Bahamas you’re looking at, but an ill-fated vessel in the frigid waters of Lake Michigan. The great lake is currently in a state of springtime transition that occurs each year after the winter ice melts and before the return of summer sediment and algae.
In winter, ice encroaches on Lake Michigan. In summer, sediment and algal blooms from runoff cloud the waters. But on a perfect day earlier this month, the ice had melted to reveal waters so clear, you could see decades-old shipwrecks lying at the bottom of the lake.
Pilots with the U.S. Coast Guard spotted the ships on a routine helicopter flight over the lake and shared the photos on Facebook. It’s common to spot a wreck or two, one pilot told NPR, “but not in the numbers we saw on that flight.” The photos were all taken from the air along a short section of the lake’s north coastline.
In total, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality, some 1,500 ships lie wrecked at the bottom of Lake Michigan. Since the Coast Guard posted the photos, internet sleuths have identified some of the ships. The ship above, for example, is the Rising Sun, a steamer that fell victim to an early season snowstorm in October 1917. Below is the James McBride, a brig that sunk in 1857. See all of the photos below.
Sources:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sunken-ships-lake-michigan-are-visible-ghostly-blue-180955108/?utm_source=facebook.com&no-ist
http://gizmodo.com/old-shipwrecks-are-reappearing-in-lake-michigans-unusua-1700742306
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/29/8512949/lake-michigan-shipwrecks
Thanks to: http://www.the-open-mind.com
Jade Small | April 29, 2015 | News | No Comments
That’s not a sunken ship in the Bahamas you’re looking at, but an ill-fated vessel in the frigid waters of Lake Michigan. The great lake is currently in a state of springtime transition that occurs each year after the winter ice melts and before the return of summer sediment and algae.
In winter, ice encroaches on Lake Michigan. In summer, sediment and algal blooms from runoff cloud the waters. But on a perfect day earlier this month, the ice had melted to reveal waters so clear, you could see decades-old shipwrecks lying at the bottom of the lake.
Pilots with the U.S. Coast Guard spotted the ships on a routine helicopter flight over the lake and shared the photos on Facebook. It’s common to spot a wreck or two, one pilot told NPR, “but not in the numbers we saw on that flight.” The photos were all taken from the air along a short section of the lake’s north coastline.
In total, according to the state Department of Environmental Quality, some 1,500 ships lie wrecked at the bottom of Lake Michigan. Since the Coast Guard posted the photos, internet sleuths have identified some of the ships. The ship above, for example, is the Rising Sun, a steamer that fell victim to an early season snowstorm in October 1917. Below is the James McBride, a brig that sunk in 1857. See all of the photos below.
Sources:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sunken-ships-lake-michigan-are-visible-ghostly-blue-180955108/?utm_source=facebook.com&no-ist
http://gizmodo.com/old-shipwrecks-are-reappearing-in-lake-michigans-unusua-1700742306
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/29/8512949/lake-michigan-shipwrecks
Thanks to: http://www.the-open-mind.com
