Lake Tai

Lake Tai or Lake Taihu (Chinese: 太湖, p Tài Hú, lit. "Great Lake") is a large freshwater lake in the Yangtze Delta plain near Shanghai, China. The lake belongs to Jiangsu province and the southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. With an area of 2,250 square kilometers (869 sq mi) and an average depth of 2 meters (6.6 ft), it is the third-largest freshwater lake in China, after Poyang and Dongting. The lake houses about 90 islands, ranging in size from a few square meters to several square kilometers.

Lake Tai is linked to the renowned Grand Canal and is the origin of a number of rivers, including Suzhou Creek. In recent years, Lake Tai has been plagued by pollution as the surrounding region experienced rapid economic growth.

Name

Also translated as Tai or T'ai Lake and as Taihu or T'ai-hu Lake.

Formation

Scientific studies suggest that Lake Tai's circular structure is the result of a meteor impact based on the discovery of shatter cones, shock-metamorphosed quartz, microtektites, and shock-metamorphic unloading fractures. Recent studies have dated the prospective impact crater to be greater than 70 million years old and possibly from the late Devonian Period. However, the evidence for now shows no impact crater structure or shock-mineral at Lake Tai. Fossils indicate that Lake Tai was dry land until the ingression of the East China Sea during the Holocene epoch. The growing deltas of the Yangtze and Qiantang rivers eventually sealed off Lake Tai from the sea, and the influx of fresh water from rivers and rains turned it into a freshwater lake.