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
I think the misunderstanding you have is that you believe water just seeps into the ground and disappears forever. That’s not correct.
When water lands on your lawn, for example, it may seep into the soil, but it’s not going very far. Most of that water will be making it’s way underground to the nearest ditch, steam, river. The water doesn’t (much) go into the bedrock. And anywhere that it does, it will reach an aquifer which is already full of water from the millions of years of this happening.
Also after a very short amount of rain, the soil is full, and will absorb no more water. After that, the water is going to start ‘flooding’ by an inch or so and flowing overland to the nearest stream.
As for evaporatolion, it does evaporate, but slowly, and lakes are fed by streams and rivers. They in turn feed bigger rivers. A huge amount of the rain that lands in the USA east of the rockies eventually winds up in the Mississippi River this way, via various streams and lakes along the way.
Lately, in any place where a lake’s evaporation or draining is faster than it’s inputs, there isn’t a lake anymore. They dry up. So if you see a lake, that means that it’s currently in or very close to it’s equilibrium, where inputs = outputs.
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