[csvset]

Clouds float over Lake Drummond in The Great Dismal Swamp. (D. Kevin Elliott | The Virginian-Pilot)

See before and after photos of Mountain Lake at Before and After or visit http://www.sivtac.org/mtlake/mtlake.php/

[muawiyah]

Nice piece. Still, Virginia has been glaciated ~ once about 600 million years ago. My yard is composed mostly of glacially formed rocks of all types.

The Appalachian Mountain range was more recently glaciated "upslope" just like every other mountain range in America.

What hasn't happened is the movement of a 2 mile high sheet of ice over top everything bringing in a load of glacial till (dirt, rocks, stuff) to fill in the low spots.

[Roccus]

WV, like MD, has no natural lakes....only impoundments. (resevoirs)

[Paved Paradise]

This is utterly fascinating. Thanks for the wonderful post. How sad to see their lake this way. It’s still beautiful but I love water and I’d be crying.

[Jeff Head]

This link HERE, explains the reasons behind the lake's shrinkage.

It really has much less to do with climate, and everything to do with geology. There's a crack in the underlying sandstone that drains the lake...when the crack widens, or becomes less silted up, the drainage exceeds the rainfall and the lake drains...sometimes remaining that way for years.

Very interesting read...thanks.

[savedbygrace]

Diane Tennant is a heck of a writer. Excellent.

[basil]

Your post is wonderfully interesting. Now, I want to go visit these lakes!

As an aside, in all of the state of Texas, there is only one small natural lake. That is Caddo Lake in east Texas.

I have always found that to be a bit staggering, but it is true.

[KoRn]

More pics of Mountain Lake:

Mountain Lake Shrinking

That's very fascinating how a lake of that size and depth can just drain out and disappear. I hope it fills back up sometime, because that was a very beautiful place.

[Paige]

Great article, thanks for sharing.

[Dudoight]

Fascinating. We in Texas have only one natural lake, Caddo Lake. We share it with Louisiana.

[beefree]

“One theory says a meteorite formed the lake bed”

Very interesting read

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Interesting.

Couldn't one just insert a giant rubber stopper like one would have in one's lavatory?

After all, this is America damit.

[SunkenCiv]

They are altogether different, yet both have been called unique in the world and, on top of that, they are the only natural lakes in Virginia. The rest are man-made. By way of comparison, tiny Maryland has no natural lakes. Minnesota, which is called "The Land of 10,000 Lakes," actually has 11,842, most of them carved by glaciers. Then there is Virginia - big, but unglaciated - with two.

Wow, learn something new every day.

Bush's fault.

[Kimmers]

Really interesting and well written article.......thank you for the post.....

[Moltke]

The most accepted origin theory is a slow-burning fire in the peat, maybe started by lightning, which is not very romantic. But reality can be prosaic, and last summer, nearly 5,000 acres of the swamp burned when logging equipment created a spark. Peat fires burrow deep and smolder sometimes for years.

I've read that these types of fires are a MAJOR source of CO2 going into the atmosphere. Supposedly there is a huge slow burning brown coal deposit in China that puts out more CO2 than the world's cars do. Can anyone confirm this or do I misremember?

[Hot Tabasco]

In search of such mystery and beauty,

This article should have been in breaking news......no really! I should call the author up and tell him to check out the cool drainage ditch that borders the eastern side of my subdivision.......

[Old Professer]

She writes gushingly but she makes poor use of her boots...

[Drawsing]

Tennessee has only one natural lake: Reelfoot. It formed during the great earthquake of 1811.