How come bodies of water (lakes, rivers, wetlands, oceans even…) exist above ground instead of the water simply being absorbed by the earth?
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One big misconception about lakes is they’re like a cup of water. They get filled and stay that way. Nothing is further from the truth. All lakes are constantly being fed by springs or other flowing waters. At the same time, all lakes have an outflow down a river, stream or into a swampy area which acts like a broad slow moving river. If the rate of drainage in a low lying area is less than it’s rate of fill then you get water building up. If the rate equals out then you simply have a river or stream. And rivers and streams do lose some water through seepage into the ground but the water is moving too fast for any significant loss of water per volume flowing over an area.
Now a couple geological conditions help lakes reatin their water. Chiefly, the bottoms of a lake is either made up of tight nonporous soil like clays or is part of the bedrock itself. If the bottom of an area with a large inflow of water is not like that, that’s when it becomes a swamp because the soil becomes oversaturated.
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