To explain further, what stops lakes from simply seeping into the dirt, and thus vanishing? As a follow up question, what stops water from getting evaporated, and then the clouds move somewhere else and rain, thus depriving the lake of the water it lost?
In: Earth Science
Most soils have something called the *water table,* which is a way of referring to soils that are completely saturated with water. Most streams, rivers, and lakes exist as visible parts of the top of the water table. The lake doesn’t seep into the dirt because the dirt below it is already saturated with water, and can’t hold any more.
There are exceptions. Most deserts don’t have a water table or if they do, it’s so deep there are no surface manifestations of it.
For your follow up question, this does in fact happen in some cases. Lake Tahoe (CA, NV USA) is a very deep, rainwater-fed lake entirely contained by rock; it’s outlet is the Truckee River, which flows through Reno, NV and then north to Pyramid Lake, where 100% of the water is lost to evaporation.
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