Our planet is made up of a large amount of water, both salty and fresh, and specifically around the 70% of the surface of the planet Earth is water. Most of this water is salty, since it constitutes 96.5% of the planet’s water, and fresh water is only 3.5%.
For all this, it is really important to know things about water on our planet, such as differentiating the different ways in which we can find it retained on the planet. From OneHowTo we want to help you clarify some doubts you may have about what are the differences between lake and lagoon, so if you want to know them, keep reading this article and clear your doubts.
How lakes and ponds are depleted
One of the main differences between lake and lagoon is in the way the water leaves the lake or pond. Both lakes and lagoons are fed by rivers and streams, that is, the water enters the depressions of the land through rivers and / or streams, thus forming lakes and lagoons.
On the other hand, the way in which the water leaves these formations that retain water, is one of the main differences since the lakes have small rivers and streams that drain them although, evidently, much more water enters them than they drain and for this reason a stagnation effect of the water is created, when in reality, although it is a slow process, the water does circulate. On the other hand, the lagoons only lose their water by the effect of evaporation or filtration, since they do not have any river or stream that drains them.
Therefore, another of the differences between lake and lagoon that we can note is that lakes are not stagnant water at all, while effectively the lagoons are stagnant water.
Salt water and fresh water
The type of water that lakes and lagoons contain can be another of the differences that help us to know what type of water formation we are facing during a trip. Normally, although this is not always the case, the lakes are freshwater and the lagoons are saltwater, but we must emphasize that this statement is really very generic since not all lakes are freshwater and not all lagoons are saltwater.
Although, of course, there are many lagoons that are located next to the sea only separated from it by some reefs and sand, so they are salt water lagoons, and the lakes that are far from the sea, in the middle of mountains, Therefore, they are freshwater and, for this reason, it is generalized by saying that one of the differences between lake and lagoon is that lakes are freshwater and saltwater lagoons. In addition, it is also often said that the lagoons contain salty water due to the fact that they tend to evaporate more frequently and that is why they remain mineral waste of various kinds in the land where the lagoon was, being able to confuse us with the salt of the salty water.
The depth and temperature of lakes and ponds
Definitely, one of the clearest differences between lake and lagoon is the depth that they have. In the case of lakes we find that the depth can vary a lot and can become very deep, enough so that in a lake there are different temperature strata in the water, the surface being warmer and the rest of the water cools as we get closer to the bottom of the lake, although this will obviously also depend on the location of the lake on the planet, that is, if it is in a very hot area or in a very cold area.
Instead, generally, the lagoons do not have different temperature strata in its waters since they are not very deep and, therefore, the heat of the sun that reaches the surface of the lagoon can heat all the water that it contains. Due to this shallow depth compared to lakes, plants grow in the lagoons in water, while in rivers they grow only on the banks.
Finally, as a notable difference, there are many more lakes than lagoons in the world. The exact number is not known, but there are thousands of lakes in the world, while we find fewer lagoons, mainly due to the fact that they evaporate and disappear more easily while lakes always have water in and out.
False beliefs about the differences between lake and lagoon
There are some false beliefs about what differentiates a lake from a lagoon, for example, that the lakes are large and the lagoons are small, this is not true. There are lakes and lagoons of all the sizes regardless of whether they are stagnant water at all or not and whether they are fresh or salty water. There are lagoons much larger than some lakes and we can find the largest lake in the world that due to its size is known as the sea, we are talking about the Caspian Sea, which leaves the size of many lagoons far behind.
Another false belief is that the lakes are always in the mountains and the lagoons are near the sea, as we have already commented before, this is false, since although they do abound in this distribution, there are freshwater lagoons in the mountains. and inland plains and there are lakes, both fresh and salt water, near the sea. Therefore, to say that we are in front of a lake or a lagoon by your location It is a bit of a misnomer, since lakes and ponds can be found in various places.
If it has been useful to know what the differences between lake and lagoon, you may also be interested in knowing the differences between other similar terms that can cause confusion:
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