{"id":2814,"date":"2025-11-19T09:56:43","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T14:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/?p=2814"},"modified":"2025-11-29T21:55:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T02:55:21","slug":"discussing-the-death-and-life-of-the-great-lakes-with-dr-tammie-gerke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/2025\/11\/discussing-the-death-and-life-of-the-great-lakes-with-dr-tammie-gerke\/","title":{"rendered":"Discussing \u201cThe Death and Life of the Great Lakes\u201d with Dr. Tammie Gerke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Clare Sherman — <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Tammie Gerke recently hosted the National Parks: Talk Series\u2019 final installment for the semester. While previous geology-focused Zoom meetings have been informative lectures, today\u2019s event took the form of a book discussion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dan Egan\u2019s The Death and Life of the Great Lakes<\/em> blends the geological aspects of North America\u2019s Great Lakes\u2014Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario\u2014with details of how human impact has shaped their ecosystems. From meddling actions and errors, invasive species such as lamprey and Asian carp have caused mass chaos in the Great Lakes, disrupting the native ecosystem. The potential restoration of native species, and whether or not human interference should continue, are also explored in the final section of the novel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Gerke began by encouraging the attendees, most of whom were returning participants, to share their takeaways from the book. With pages of notes on hand, one participant quizzed Dr. Gerke and the attendees on interesting facts from the book. His questions highlighted fascinating knowledge of the Great Lakes, including the fact that the combined surface area of the lakes, around 94,000 square miles, is comparable in size to Great Britain; also, over 6,000 shipwrecks occurred on the Great Lakes. In mentioning that over 20% of the Earth\u2019s surface freshwater is held in the five Great Lakes, the participant inspired Dr. Gerke to dive deeper into the impressiveness of this statistic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over two-thirds of our planet is water. However, Dr. Gerke pointed out that approximately 97% of it is saltwater. Of the small percentage of freshwater that remains, the majority is groundwater.  Surface water accounts for only 0.03% of all water on Earth, underscoring the Great Lakes as especially valuable to our freshwater supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While getting the group involved in a Jeopardy-style game, a participant specifically honed in on Erie Canal facts from Egan\u2019s book, revealing that the manmade Erie Canal is 360 miles long, 40 feet wide, and only 4 feet deep. In its first year of business, a considerable 7,000 boats sailed across it, and after 10 years, money collected from tolls covered the cost of its construction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the Erie Canal\u2019s fun facts, Dr. Gerke touched on Egan\u2019s discussion of the former Great Black Swamp that resided in Northwestern Ohio. The marshland was drained and converted into farmland, where an onion business soon boomed. However, the draining backfired when harsh winter winds steadily disrupted the exposed soil. That failure, Gerke explained, ties into the formation of early conservation laws in the early 20th century that address careless agricultural practices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar disruptive acts were explored throughout the book, and one appreciative attendee called them \u201ca good representation of [how] what you do now will impact the future.\u201d Other participants expressed how strongly the book\u2019s content resonated with them because of their proximity to the Great Lakes. Having a deep connection with the lakes is a privilege not often appreciated, said Gerke, who recounted her experiences on the lakes and her memories of the water\u2019s clarity changing over time. As Ohioans with significant respect for the Great Lakes, the group praised Egan for including real accounts of surrounding populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the discussion wrapped up, a participant recommended further reading on the Great Lakes: The Fourth Coast: Exploring the Great Lakes Coastline,<\/em> by Mary Blocksma.  This book uses a mix of facts, storytelling, and travel advice to examine the coastline of the Great Lakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering the National Parks Talk Series is coming to an end for the semester, Dr. Gerke unveiled that the geological topic guiding next semester\u2019s events will be volcanoes. She ensured that each person attending the day\u2019s event suggested a volcano they were especially interested in, with Iceland\u2019s recent volcanic activity an interest of several attendees. The events will run from February to April, and will similarly alternate between lectures and book discussions.\u00a0
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Tammie Gerke ended the day\u2019s session with gratitude for the participants who have joined her this semester, wishing them a happy holiday season. Wanting the meetings to reflect participants\u2019 geological curiosities, she encouraged anyone who has suggestions for future meetings to reach out to her at gerketl@miamioh.edu<\/a> or to John Burke at burkejj@miamioh.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Clare Sherman — Dr. Tammie Gerke recently hosted the National Parks: Talk Series\u2019 final installment for the semester. While previous geology-focused Zoom meetings have […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":9443,"featured_media":2815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-communities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9443"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}