Lake or Pond?

[SSSdave]

Plateau of Ponds, shallow ephemeral by fall glaciated pure bedrock pond:



Grass Bullseye Pond fed by Piute Creek in Humphreys Basin:

[Tom_H]

Plateau of Ponds, shallow ephemeral by fall glaciated pure bedrock pond

I've always called those tarns, but maybe that's not technically correct.

Dictionary.com: tarn: (n) a small mountain lake or pool, especially one in a cirque.

Wikipedia: tarn: (n) a mountain lake or pool formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier.

The first definition specifies small, and leaves room for pools not in a cirque. The second definition allows for small with pool (while also including lake), but requires glacial excavation inside a cirque.

[dave54]

C

Lakes have internal currents and stratified layers. Ponds are uniform.

[balance]

Could I have a D please.

Could I also have a UMB because I don't really know.

[SSSdave]

Tarn is another vague term that is a subset of a lake or pond. Thus all tarns are also either lakes or ponds. I've seen ponds described as tarns outside of cirques and some will describe any shallow ponds in glacial timberline areas as tarns. I think the intent of the term are the small ponds often at the melting toes of glaciers or what at one time were at the toes of a glacier that are often locations in the bedrock where a glacier pushing down a steeper slope meets a more level section that has been gouging out depressions in bedrock. Of course not all glaciers descend from cirques though most do.

In the Sierra my favorite tarns are small ones at the toes of snowfields with glacial rock milk causing waters to be aquamarine among small floating ice bergs. One can see one of those perfect tarns near Lamarck Col by walking north over to the east rib then peering down steep chutes into the huge rock glacier cirque below.

[Cross Country]

I think Dave got it right.
For me personally it's B because i liked to fish.

[Wandering Daisy]

There are tons of seasonal snow-melt ponds that dry up about mid-summer. I would think a "lake" has to hold water year round and probably should not be so shallow that it drastically change shape and size during the season. As for color and vegetation, I have seen some large lakes that are very "organic".

And when does a pond become a puddle?

[Cross Country]

Pretty funny. The good thing is that the Sierra has sooo much to offer that this really doesn't matter. Go Sierra!

[maverick]

Correct answer is "c".

Despite the lack of official characteristics, there are several questions that are used to generally distinguish ponds from lakes:

-Does light reach the bottom of the deepest point of the water body?
-Does the water body only get small waves (i.e., smaller than 1ft/30cm in height)?
-Is the water body relatively uniform in temperature

If these questions can be answered with a “yes,” the water body is likely a pond and not a lake.

http://www.lakescientist.com/lake-facts ... es-differ/

[oldranger]

Correct answer is "c".

Despite the lack of official characteristics, there are several questions that are used to generally distinguish ponds from lakes:

-Does light reach the bottom of the deepest point of the water body?
-Does the water body only get small waves (i.e., smaller than 1ft/30cm in height)?
-Is the water body relatively uniform in temperature

If these questions can be answered with a “yes,” the water body is likely a pond and not a lake.

http://www.lakescientist.com/lake-facts ... es-differ/

You should have asked for the scientific difference between lakes and ponds. Several of us thought of just the names, in which case, the difference is just the the name as many "ponds" in New England scientifically have the characteristics of a "lake."