Tarn (lake)

A tarn (or corrie loch) is a mountain lake or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. It is formed when either rain or river water fills the cirque. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn.

Etymology

The word is derived from the Old Norse word tjörn meaning pond. Its more specific use as a mountain lake emerges as it is the commonly used term for all ponds in the upland areas of Northern England. Here, it retains a broader use, referring to any small lake or pond, regardless of its location and origin (e.g. Talkin Tarn).

In Scandinavian languages, a tjern or tjärn, tärn or tjørn is a small natural lake, often in a forest or with vegetation closely surrounding it or actually growing into the tarn.

Gallery

Lake Tear of the Clouds (tarn) in the Adirondack Mountains, New York, photo c. 19th century

Lake Tear of the Clouds (tarn) in the Adirondack Mountains, New York, photo c. 19th century

Veľké Hincovo, the largest and deepest tarn in Slovakia

Veľké Hincovo, the largest and deepest tarn in Slovakia

Tarn

Tarn may refer to:

Geographical features

Places

Transport

Other uses

People with the name

Tarn (department)

Tarn (French pronunciation: ​[ta:ʁ] or French pronunciation: ​[taʁn]; Occitan: Tarn) is a French department located in the Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France named after the Tarn river. Its prefecture and largest city is Albi.

The inhabitants of Tarn are known, in French, as Tarnais (women: Tarnaises).

History

Tarn is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790, through application of the Law of 22 December 1789. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc, and comprised the dioceses of Albi and Castres (which found themselves merged in 1817).

The new department had five districts: Albi, Castres, Lavaur, Gaillac, Lacaune. The capitals (now prefectures) were, alternatively, Albi and Castres but, from 1790 to 1797, the capital was only Albi; in 1797, the capital was moved to Castres.

In 1800, Albi became again the capital of the department and the arrondissements were created; the department had four arrondissements: Albi, Castres, Gaillac and Lavaur. In 1926, the arrondissements of Gaillac and Lavaur were eliminated.

Tarn (river)

The Tarn (Occitan: Tarn, Latin: Tarnis, possibly meaning 'rapid' or 'walled in') is a 381-kilometre (237 mi) long river in southern France (régions Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées), right tributary of the Garonne.

The Tarn runs in a roughly westerly direction, from its source at an elevation of 1,550 m (5,085 ft) on Mont Lozère in the Cévennes mountains (part of the Massif Central), through the deep gorges and canyons of the Gorges du Tarn (that cuts through the Causse du Larzac), to Moissac in Tarn-et-Garonne, where it joins the Garonne 4 km (2.5 mi) downstream from the centre of town.

Its basin covers approximately 12,000 square kilometres (4,600 sq mi), and it has a mean flow of approximately 140 cubic metres per second (4,900 cu ft/s).

The Millau Viaduct spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau, and is now one of the area's most popular attractions.

Main tributaries

The tributaries of the Tarn include:

Lake

A lake is an area of variable size filled with water, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land, apart from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean (except for sea lochs in Scotland and Ireland), and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are also larger and deeper than ponds, though there are no official or scientific definitions. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams, which are usually flowing. However most lakes are fed and drained by rivers and streams.

Natural lakes are generally found in mountainous areas, rift zones, and areas with ongoing glaciation. Other lakes are found in endorheic basins or along the courses of mature rivers. In some parts of the world there are many lakes because of chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last Ice Age. All lakes are temporary over geologic time scales, as they will slowly fill in with sediments or spill out of the basin containing them.

Many lakes are artificial and are constructed for industrial or agricultural use, for hydro-electric power generation or domestic water supply, or for aesthetic or recreational purposes.

Lake (surname)

Lake is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include:

The Ramble and Lake

The Ramble and Lake is a main feature of Central Park in New York City. Part of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's "Greensward" plan (1857), The Ramble was intended as a woodland walk through highly varied topography, a "wild garden" away from carriage drives and bridle paths, to be wandered in, or to be viewed as a "natural" landscape from the formal lakefront setting of Bethesda Terrace (illustration below) or from rented rowboats on the Lake. The 38-acre (150,000 m²) Ramble embraces the deep coves of the north shore of the Lake, excavated between bands of bedrock; it offers dense naturalistic planting, rocky outcrops of glacially scarred Manhattan bedrock, small open glades, and an artificial stream (The Gill) that empties through the Azalea Pond, then down a cascade into the Lake. Its ground rises northwards towards Vista Rock, crowned by Belvedere Castle, a lookout and eye-catching folly.

Geography

The Park's most varied and intricately planted landscape was planted with native trees— tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica); American sycamore; white, red, black, scarlet, and willow oaks; Hackberry; and Liriodendron – together with some American trees never native to the area, such as Kentucky coffee tree, yellowwood, and cucumber magnolia, and a few exotics, such as Phellodendron and Sophora. Smaller natives include sassafras. Aggressively self-seeding black cherry and black locust have come to dominate the Ramble. A 1979 census of The Rambles' trees, taken by Bruce Kelly, Philip Winslow, and James Marston Fitch, found 6000 trees, including 60 specimen trees of landscape value.