I am dizzy from trying to wrap my head around this. What the heck is a planar space? Is that a fancy way of saying three dimensions? I suck at geometry.
So, essentially, a 3000 acre lake is not all that big (relatively speaking)?
A lake that is, say, 20 square miles is about the size of the Dillon reservoir?
Work with me here-I’m challenged in this area! Gorillaman --I am struggling to find the words to describe what we are getting at. I actually had a similiar feeling when I stood on the coast of Washington State and could only see Pacific Ocean. While I grew up looking out at the Atlantic (back towards Europe or depending on where we were on Cape Cod, back towards Boston) and felt nothing but “at home”–standing on a beach near Seattle felt like standing on the end of the Earth(sorry Pacific rim). I felt uncomfortable-as if I were actually on the edge of all that is known.
(perhaps I should stop travelling or look into medication!)
anyway, I found it strange to feel claustrophobic while in Nebraska (although I attribute that to not being able to have a sight line what with all the corn in the way. I wanted a rise, a hill–hell, a hillock–to get above the green-ness)–how does one feel claustrophobic when one is surrounded by space? I can’t say, but I felt it.
I have also felt amazingly small and insignificant-like a speck–while driving thru Wyoming and western Nebraska–all that sky and nothing, I mean nothing, but plain.
Who needs drugs? heh. IMO, all of these have in common unexpected landscapes that shook (for me anyway) up my expectations as to scenery and geographical context. I did not feel this way in UK or Europe or Canada or Caribbean, come to that. It must have something to do with trees (or lack thereof) and flat terrain-and lack of significant landmarks, such as lakes/oceans.
This is not a criticism of the Western states–I saw much beauty. It just was alien to my (inner) worldview.
(sorry for hijack)
Well, the Los Angeles aqueduct goes into pipes about 60 miles north of here. Morth of there it is epen water, either a canal or the Owens River. The California aqueduct crosses US 395 about 80 miles south. Lake Isabella is 50 miles west and Lake Mead is a couple of hundred miles east.
I’m sure there are others that can beat those numbers by at least a little.
Good question, and probably at the core of what it takes to make “big water” if the “can’t see across it” concept is to be applied. Somewhere else I have read or heard that (depending on the altitude one is at) the curvature of the earth makes it hard to see beyond 15-20 miles. In the simplest case, that of a boat on the open sea, the distance may be as little as 10 miles. In mountainous settings, from one peak to another peak in the distance, that distance can be extended to much greater lengths. (I have heard of a spot in southeast Tennessee that brags of being able – on clearer days – to see 200 miles away.) In fact, the whole idea behind the “see seven states” attraction of Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga is based on these greater distance spottings of peaks in neighboring states. I also believe these distances are being shortened by smog and other pollution nowadays.
Offhand, I’d suspect Great Salt Lake, Lake Okeechobee, and maybe a few others that I can’t name at the moment, of fitting the bill. Those spots of water that are big enough to show up as all blue on a map of the USA would be worth checking out to see how close to 15 miles across they are. There may be lists of those bodies of water somewhere on the internet. All I can attest to is that the manmade lakes in this part of the country, primarily along the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, are never that wide. More on the order of a couple of miles across at any one point, maybe a little wider. And I’m having trouble thinking of a natural lake in this part of the country that would rival those manmade ones in size. Reelfoot Lake, in northwest Tennessee not too far from the Mississippi River, which was formed by an earthquake on the New Madrid fault in the early 1800’s, is natural in the sense that it’s not a dammed up reservoir. But it’s plenty easy to see across, and isn’t all that deep either.
I tried to find something authoritative concerning the distance one is able to see, and about all I could find was this link even though there are others that approach the issue from similar standpoints.
I haven’t been able to locate a link to that place in Tennessee where you’re supposed to be able to see 200 miles, but the “see seven states” plaque at Rock City seems to suggest a distance of 120 miles to some point in Virginia and Kentucky. The “on a clear day” disclaimer is a serious one!
We drove down Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah Park and at one of the pulloff points there was a plaque saying that in earlier times one could see the Washington Monument in DC from that point. On the order of 80 miles away. Now you’re lucky to see 30 miles. It’s disgusting.
