Holomictic lake
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Holomictic lakes are
lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
s that have a uniform temperature and density from surface to bottom at a specific time during the year, which allows the lake waters to mix in the absence of
stratification Stratification may refer to: Mathematics * Stratification (mathematics), any consistent assignment of numbers to predicate symbols * Data stratification in statistics Earth sciences * Stable and unstable stratification * Stratification, or st ...
.


Details

Holomictic lakes mix at least occasionally, in contrast to
meromictic lakes A meromictic lake is a lake which has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, holomictic lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters. The term ''meromictic'' was coined by the Austr ...
. Most lakes on Earth are holomictic; meromictic lakes are rare, although they may be less rare than commonly thought. Amictic lakes are sealed off by ice and never mix. There are four types of holomictic lakes: *
Polymictic Polymictic lakes are holomictic lakes that are too shallow to develop thermal stratification; thus, their waters can mix from top to bottom throughout the ice-free period. Polymictic lakes can be divided into cold polymictic lakes (i.e., those tha ...
(mixing many times annually) * Cold
Monomictic Monomictic lakes are holomictic lakes that mix from top to bottom during one mixing period each year. Monomictic lakes may be subdivided into cold and warm types. Cold monomictic lakes Cold monomictic lakes are lakes that are covered by ice thro ...
(mixing once annually; exhibiting negative stratification) * Warm Monomictic (mixing once annually; exhibiting positive stratification) * Dimictic (mixing twice annually) * Oligomictic (mixing less than once annually)


See also

*
Thermocline A thermocline (also known as the thermal layer or the metalimnion in lakes) is a thin but distinct layer in a large body of fluid (e.g. water, as in an ocean or lake; or air, e.g. an atmosphere) in which temperature changes more drastically with ...
*


References


External links


"Circulation: annual patterns of dimictic lakes" at Encyclopædia Britannica Online
Lakes by type {{geo-term-stub