five great lakes located near Pittsburgh
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The Great Lakes — Superior, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Erie — make up the largest body of fresh water on Earth, accounting for one-fifth of the freshwater surface on the planet at 6 quadrillion gallons. The area of all the Great Lakes is 95,160 square miles (246,463 square kilometers) and span 750 miles (1,200 km) from west to east. The square mileage is larger than the state of Texas.
The lakes, called "the nation's fourth seacoast," are on the U.S. and Canadian border, touching Ontario in Canada and Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. As of 2017, more than 30 million people live in the Great Lakes basin, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This equates to 10 percent U.S. residents and 30 percent Canadian residents. More than 3,500 species of plants and animals inhabit the Great Lakes basin, as well, including 170-plus species of fish.
Today, the Great Lakes are popular recreation spots for boating, fishing and other recreational activities, and they still serve as an important mode of transportation of goods, but they have not always been in their current form. About 14,000 years ago, the Great Lakes area was covered with a glacier that was more than a half-mile (1 km) thick. As the glacier melted, it slowly moved toward Canada and left behind a series of large depressions that filled with water. These formed the basic shape of the Great Lakes, and about 10,000 years ago the Great Lakes took the form that is familiar today.
While the area had been inhabited for a very long time before European explorers arrived, Étienne Brûlé (circa 1592-1632), an advance man for the French explorer Samuel de Champlain (circa 1567-1635), is generally credited as the first European to discover the Great Lakes. Brûlé is believed to have reached Lake Huron around 1615, and went on to explore Lake Ontario, according to the Canadian Museum of History.
The lakes, called "the nation's fourth seacoast," are on the U.S. and Canadian border, touching Ontario in Canada and Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. As of 2017, more than 30 million people live in the Great Lakes basin, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This equates to 10 percent U.S. residents and 30 percent Canadian residents. More than 3,500 species of plants and animals inhabit the Great Lakes basin, as well, including 170-plus species of fish.
Today, the Great Lakes are popular recreation spots for boating, fishing and other recreational activities, and they still serve as an important mode of transportation of goods, but they have not always been in their current form. About 14,000 years ago, the Great Lakes area was covered with a glacier that was more than a half-mile (1 km) thick. As the glacier melted, it slowly moved toward Canada and left behind a series of large depressions that filled with water. These formed the basic shape of the Great Lakes, and about 10,000 years ago the Great Lakes took the form that is familiar today.
While the area had been inhabited for a very long time before European explorers arrived, Étienne Brûlé (circa 1592-1632), an advance man for the French explorer Samuel de Champlain (circa 1567-1635), is generally credited as the first European to discover the Great Lakes. Brûlé is believed to have reached Lake Huron around 1615, and went on to explore Lake Ontario, according to the Canadian Museum of History.
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