Ancient lake

An ancient lake is a lake that has consistently carried water for more than 1 million years. Many have existed for more than 2.6 million years, the full Quaternary period. Ancient lakes continue to persist due to plate tectonics in an active rift zone. This active rift zone creates lakes that are extremely deep and difficult to naturally fill with sediment. Due to the prolonged life of Ancient lakes (1-30 million years old), they serve as models for isolated evolutionary traits and speciation.

Ancient Lakes vs Younger Lakes

There are 6 major types of lakes (Listed below). The majority of lakes dry up as the result of the filling with lacustrine deposits; sediment deposited from a river into a lake over thousands of years. Factors that influence the water level decreasing includes fluvial-lacustrine sediment build up, evaporation, natural drainage and geophysical processes. Ancient Lakes have such a prolonged life when compared to younger more traditional lakes due to the local active rift zones and subsided sections of land called grabens.