“Lakes is my favorite kind of natural history: meticulously researched, timely, comprehensive, and written with imagination and verve.”—Jerry Dennis, author of The Living Great Lakes

Lakes might be the most misunderstood bodies of water on earth. And while they may seem commonplace, without lakes our world would never be the same. In this revealing look at these lifegiving treasures, John Richard Saylor shows us just how deep our connection to still waters run.

Lakes is an illuminating tour through the most fascinating lakes around the world. Whether it’s Lake Vostok, located more than two miles beneath the surface of Antarctica, whose water was last exposed to the atmosphere perhaps a million years ago; Lake Baikal in southern Siberia, the world’s deepest and oldest lake formed by a rift in the earth’s crust; or Lake Nyos, the so-called Killer Lake that exploded in 1986, resulting in hundreds of deaths, Saylor reveals to us the wonder that exists in lakes found throughout the world. Along the way we learn all the many forms that lakes take—how they come to be and how they feed and support ecosystems—and what happens when lakes vanish.

    Introduction
Part I. Birth
1. Glaciers: The Master Creator
2. Volcanic Lakes: An Inherited Violence
3. Dams: Natural and Manmade
4. The Carolina Bays
5. Oriented Lakes
6. Subglacial Lakes
7. Salt Lakes
Part II. Life
8. Lake Overturning
9. Dissolved Gas: Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide
10. Ice
11. Surface Tension
12. Evaporation
Part III. Death
13. Death by Human
14. Tectonics
Metric Conversions