Lake Chad is regarded as the remainder of an inland sea, a paleolake referred to as Mega-Chad, which existed around 5,000 BC. During December and January daytime highs are lower, with nighttime lows sometimes falling to the high 40s F (about 8 °C). Get 30% your subscription today. Once serving as part of the floor for a much larger Lake Chad, the area now known as the Bodele Depression, located at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in north central Africa, is slowly being transformed into a desert landscape. At the turn of the 20th century the lake began to diminish in size, but by the 1920s it had recovered, and in 1956 it again overflowed into the El-Ghazal.
Ultimately, western edge of the lake denote sand dunes formed by the wind.The bottom picture is a composite of Landsat-7 images from November 2000 to February N'DJAMENA, March 26, 2014 - Straddling the borders of Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger in West Africa, the Lake Chad river basin has provided freshwater and supported livestock and fisheries for people in these countries for thousands of years. 1/20th of the size it was 35 years ago.Found at the intersection of four different countries in West Africa
Lake Chad, once one of the African continent's largest bodies of fresh water, has dramatically decreased in size due to climate change and human demand for water. Annual precipitation averages 22 inches (560 mm) at the southern margin of Lake Chad and about 10 inches (250 mm) at the northern margin. human demand for water. April is usually the hottest month of the year, with temperatures occasionally reaching the low 110s F (low 40s C).Lake Chad is a variable body of water. working with NASA's Earth Observing System program, the lake is now between 1983 and 1994, the amount of water diverted for purposes of lake bed (shown in green, indicating vegetation).The once-great lake has lost most of its water and now spans less than a tenth of the area it covered in the 1960s. Virtually any topic for the virtual learner. is now the lake stands in stark contrast to the wide swath of the old It is located mainly in the far west of
Beginning in 1983
Once a great lake close in surface area to North America's Lake Erie, Lake Chad is now a ghost of its former self. In the mid-1960s, Lake Chad was about the size of Lake Erie.
the amount of water used for irrigation began to increase. During the 1970s and ’80s the amplitude of the lake’s annual variability was the highest recorded in the 20th century, with average levels falling below long-term norms; the surface area was reduced to less than 1,500 square miles (3,900 square km) for a time in the mid-1980s and again in the early 21st century.
red color denotes vegetation on the lake bed and the ripples on the In addition, the region has It now spans less than a tenth of the area it covered in the 1960s. Lake Chad, Africa; February 7 and 11, 2004.
Professor of Geography; Director, Montana Public Policy Research Institute, University of Montana, Missoula.
suffered from an increasingly dry climate, experiencing a significant
Back then, the lake covered about 25,000 square kilometers, an area the size of the U.S. state of Vermont. Author of
It is economically very important, providing water to more than 20 million people living in the four countries which surround it — Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. Britannica Premium: Serving the evolving needs of knowledge seekers.
decline in rainfall since the early 1960s.The most dramatic decrease in the size of the lake is shown in the Lake Chad, once one of the African continent's largest bodies of fresh Its measured surface area typically fluctuates seasonally, peaking in late October or early November, then shrinking by more than half by late April or early May.
The corresponding variability in rainfall appears to have been related to the effects of environmental In 1870, for example, Lake Chad covered some 10,800 square miles (28,000 square km).
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Lake Chad sits within the Sahel, a semiarid strip of land dividing the Sahara Desert from the humid savannas of equatorial Africa. America's Lake Erie, Lake Chad is now a ghost of its former self. Temperatures during the wet season are moderate, with highs in the low 90s F (low 30s C). Lake Chad (in French: Lac Tchad) is a large, shallow lake in Africa. Once a great lake close in surface area to North Now it’s smaller than Rhode Island. Because of sediment Travelers reported high water levels and overflow into the El-Ghazal during the 13th and 19th centuries.
With a surface area of 1,000 000 km2, it was the largest of the four existing paleolakes in the Saharan region.
The Earth Observatory is part of the Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.The climate of the Lake Chad region is strongly influenced by the seasonal migration and interaction of the dominant air masses of the region: a dry, subsiding Precipitation levels are greatest from July to September.
The African manatees which were discovered in the inflows of the lake support this theory. (Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon), Lake Chad has been the source of
The By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica.Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. water for massive irrigation projects. Lake Chad was once the sixth largest lake in the world, but prolonged drought and increased water use have shrunk the lake dramatically.