The Manicouagan Reservoir reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Manicouagan Reservoir

Helping orphans the way you would do it
Lake Manicouagan as seen from earth orbit. Image courtesy NASAEnlarge

Lake Manicouagan as seen from earth orbit. Image courtesy NASA

Manicouagan Reservoir (also Lake Manicouagan) is a annular lake in northern Quebec, Canada, the remnant of an impact crater made approximate 210 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic period. Recent research has shown that the impact melt within the crater has an age of 214±1 Ma.

The lake was created by flooding from the massive Manicouagan or Manic (Manic 1, Manic 2...) series of hydroelectric projects undertaken by Hydro-Quebec, the provincial electrical utility, during the 1960s. The complex of dams is also called the Manic-Outardes project because the rivers involved are the Manicouagan and the Outardes.

The Manicouagan lake acts as a giant hydraulic battery for Hydro-Quebec. In the peak period of the winter colds the lake surface is usually lower since the turbines are run all the time at peak load, to meet the massive electrical heating needs of the province. The surface of the lake also knows record low levels in the extreme periods of heat in New England during the summer, since in that period Hydro-Quebec sells electrical energy to the joint New England grid and individual utilities in the United States.