Lake Ontario

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"text": "Lake Ontario is a massive freshwater lake in North America.

It is the easternmost of the five Great Lakes. While it has the smallest surface area of the group, it holds more water than Lake Erie. The lake is the 13th-largest lake in the entire world. It sits along an international border. The Canadian province of Ontario lies to the north, west, and southwest. The U.S. state of New York borders the south and east. Many large cities sit near its shores. Toronto, Hamilton, and Kingston are major Canadian cities. Rochester and Watertown are major American cities. The name Ontarí'io likely comes from the Huron language. Most people translate it to mean \"beautiful lake.\"\n\nWater flows through the lake in a specific hydrologic chain.

The Niagara River is the primary inlet. This river carries water from Lake Erie into Lake Ontario. The Saint Lawrence River serves as the main outlet. This river connects the lake to the Atlantic Ocean. It also forms part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. This system allows large ships to travel through the region.

To manage the water, people use control dams. The Long Sault control dam and the Moses-Saunders Power Dam regulate the levels. These dams help control how much water stays in the lake. Water levels change every year due to seasonal shifts. They also change over many years because of precipitation trends.\n\nGeography and geology shaped the lake over a very long time. The lake basin was carved by the Wisconsin ice sheet. This massive sheet of ice moved during the last ice age. It pushed through an old river valley. This action left behind landforms like drumlins, kames, and moraines.

As the ice melted, it created a stage called Lake Iroquois. During that time, the lake was much higher. It even drained through Syracuse, New York, into the Hudson River. When the ice finally left the St. Lawrence valley, the lake became a bay of the Atlantic Ocean. This happened because the outlet was below sea level. Today, the land is still rising. This is called post-glacial rebound. The weight of the old ice once pushed the land down. Now, the land in the St. Lawrence area rises about one millimeter per century. This causes the lake bed to tilt southward. This tilting can lead to shoreline erosion on the south shore.\n\nClimate and weather create unique conditions around the lake. [IMAGE:File:Downtown from Ward's Island (1174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174102174