2012: Lake George, NSW #6 - a photo on Flickriver

2012: Lake George, NSW #6

            Lake George (or Weereewa in the indigenous language) is a lake in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. It is about 40 kilometres north-east of Canberra along the Federal Highway en route to Sydney.

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. Lake George has in previous Ice Ages been much larger and deeper.
 
The thickness of sediment beneath the lake exceeds 250 metres (820 ft), according to a Bureau of Mineral Resources Canberra drilling program 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.
 
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.

Wine grapes are grown along the western edge of the lake, on the escarpment. Sheep are grazed on the lake when it is dry or nearly so.

The 140 megawatt Capital Wind Farm completed in 2009 is located along the south-eastern side of Lake George.

The Capital Wind Farm is located in New South Wales, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) north east of Canberra, just southeast of Lake George and north of Bungendore. The wind farm cost around A$220 million, and was built as part of the Kurnell Desalination Plant project to offset the power usage of the desalination plant:
 
"The wind farm has been designed to produce more than enough energy to operate the desalination plant to cover the days when there is less wind. It will increase the supply of wind energy in NSW by over 700%. It is a massive boost to the renewable energy sector and an environmentally sensible way to offset the power needs of the desalination plant."
 
— Sydney Water 

From Wikipedia

Taken on: September 15, 2012

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nature

lake george

nsw

new south wales

australia

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australian capital territory

september 2012

Capital Wind Farm

Endorheic lake

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Sets appears in: • it's only natural... • Snapshot of Australia more » • 2012: NSW, Canberra & Floriade • looking up: clouds and sky • trees everywhere • 100+ views • i like it « less

Camera: Canon EOS 1000D, f/14.0, 1/200 sec, 54mm, ISO 400 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 1000D
Aperture:	f/14.0
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	54mm
ISO:	400
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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