Water Budget and Lake-Level Stability of Harding Lake in the Interior Alaska

• Main Authors: Kinshiro Nakao, Ryuichi Tanoue, Teiji Oike, Jacqueline Laperriere
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1980
• Subjects: Arctic; Dammed Lake; Harding; alaska range; Brooks Range; Ice; permafrost; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.494.2340; http://eprints.lib.hokudai.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2115/8722/1/7(1)_p13-25.pdf

Harding Lake is situated about 160 km to the south of the Arctic Circle, at latitude 64°25'N and longitude 146°50'W; it is in the cold arid zone of the Interior Alaska lying between the Brooks Range to the north and the Alaska Range to the south; it is a closed dammed lake with none of outlet and inlet rivers. Its morphometric features are: 9.88 km " in area, 43 m in maximum depth and 16 m in mean depth, the lake surface being 217 m above sea level. The basin around the lake is found in the area characterized by discon-tinuous permafrost and a continental climate with in extreme difference in air temperature between summer and winter, the mean annual air temperature and the annual precipitation being respectively _4°C and 370 mm. In a cold arid region, the value of f, which shows the ratio of evapotranspiration and evaporation, was estimated as 0.30 under a stable state during secular change in lake level. In this area, the lake-level stability is affected mainly by variations in precipitation and additionally by the evaporation and the thawing of underground ice in summer. 1.