Today is Poetry Friday and Robyn Hood Black is hosting at Life on the Deckle Edge. Be sure to stop by to see what she has in store for us. Thank you, Robyn, for hosting! I hope everyone is healthy and safe.
When I feel agitated, as I have been this week by yet more over-the-top political chaos, it helps to go outside and find peace in nature. Yesterday my husband and I went to a favorite place called Green Lake, a “meromictic” lake that is always a deep blue-green. It is protected by trees and so is usually calm, with trees and sky reflected photographically in its surface. The lake is 195 feet deep, created by a glacier long ago in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
What is a meromictic lake?
Briefly, it is a lake of three layers that never mix. Compared to the top surface layer, the bottom layer has a low oxygen content, a high salt content, and little light. A middle layer separates the two extremes. Depending on the oxygen, light and salt content, different organisms survive in the the three layers.
Most lakes, the great majority, are “holomictic” meaning that its surface and deep waters mix at least once a year. Meromictic lakes don’t mix because they are deep, have steep sides, and because the bottom waters are heavier, with salt. The Black Sea is the largest meromictic lake in the world.
I was there on a perfect fall day. The brighter leaves have fallen from trees around the lake, replaced by brown and rust colors. Beautiful changes. Here’s a haiku I wrote to share today.
Meromictic lake-- like neighbors in a highrise its waters find peace.
Our hike around the lake was peaceful as I hope our country will be, at least relative to recent times, soon.
Have a wonderful day and weekend. I hope you all find peace wherever you go.
Thanks again, Robyn Hood Black, for hosting!
A fascinating post, Janice. Gorgeous photo and haiku. Thank-you for sharing.
Janice, I had no idea about this type of lake. How incredible that it could have such diverse habitats coexisting peacefully. Your lake and your haiku give me hope.
Fascinating about meromictic lakes! Who knew? Beautiful photo and haiku that calmed me down. Hoping for peace and co-mingling soon.
This science is new to me, too, Janice. I love learning about it & then your picture & poem. What a perfect day you describe. I have a near lake I visit, too, love the ducks there & as you wrote, the peace!
Thanks for the fun lake lesson, Janice. I had no idea that “the Black Sea is the largest meromictic lake in the world”! Your haiku reaches new heights with its deep insight. 🙂
A bright Blue new word!
And a lake visit to drink in, it’s so relazing.
Plus, a clever poem.
Can’t ask for anything more, dear Janice.
Lots of applause & more calm scenes to you, this weekend & forever.
Jan/Bookseedstudio
I loved hearing about Green Lake, Janice. I used to go there as a child. I remember the lovely color and glad to see that it is still as scenic as ever. I enjoyed your haiku and captured it for my Abundant Autumn Gallery as a memento of my hometown.
Thanks, Carol! I’m glad you can use my pic for your gallery. I love hearing from a one time sister Syracusan.
Oh, that’s pretty cool. I never knew this kind of lake. I’m intrigued and so happy to learn this today. Wow. Yes, I agree…agitation can be cured by time at a lake. This whole week of “not letting him get my goat,” has been a lesson in patience. Really, it’s like being held hostage for 68 more days.
Gorgeous images, in your words and photo – I love learning new things, especially about the mysteries and wonders of nature. I did not really know its influence and pull on the human spirit until I started writing regularly and – lo and behold – nature began to speak. In fact, it was speaking all along… I have learned to listen. Meromictic lakes – I will hold onto this – how waters that don’t mix can create something so beautiful.
I love your positive image of meromictic lakes as peacefully coexisting high rise dwellers…but I’m thinking our country will need to move towards a more holomictic model so that we don’t isolate ourselves in our silos. I’m thinking specifically of what I’ve heard of social media users moving to platforms that are echo chambers for their way of thinking.
I agree, totally, Mary Lee. Meromictic might work for some lakes, making for a pretty picture, but the majority of them are holomictic and their waters mix and share.
Nature helps, for sure, and so does learning new vocabulary words! Thanks for meromictic!
Thank you so much for teaching me something new today, Janice, and then summarizing so beautifully with your haiku! A bright spot on my rounds today, for sure.
I like how you took the pure green science of meromictic waters and mixed urban humans in! Thanks for the lesson and the poem.
Beautiful post, and I’m just so delighted to learn this delicious new word, ‘meromictic.’ Thanks all around, Janice.