The Bathymetry of Deep Creek Lake
Determining an accurate bathymetry (map of depths around Deep Creek Lake) should be high on the list of priorities in order to assess the usefulness of various suggested projects that deal with managing the water level of the lake. A good map can be used to assign boat slips, to place docks, to assess the need for dredging and calculate how much material to remove, to calculate the volume of water available to produce power, and many other uses.
Here we provide an overview of what I've been able collect and produce regarding establishing an accurate bathymetry.
- The data collected by DNR in the spring of 2012 (616,275 data points) have been used to create bathymetric maps of coves. The details of that process and various maps can be found here.The measurements were taken at "full pool" meaning at the highest water level the lake is usually allowed to go to, namely 2,461 ft. The reference level used for the depth measurements is 2,462 ft AMSL, essentially the level of the spillway at the dam. The minimum water level that could be measured by DNR's equipment is approximately 3 ft. A map of the whole lake, can be found here.
- DNR's 2012 Bathymetry Map of Deep Creek Lake (49.3 MB) comprises the whole lake. Comparisons between our and DNRs appear to be reasonable. More detailed evaluations are being performed.
- The USGS and DNR did bathymetric studies in the fall of 2007 and late summer of 2008 respectively. The result was a combined map of the bathymetry of Deep Creek Lake. This map is based on around 145,875 measurements. (0.4 MB)
- The data collected by DNR in 2012 were 'massaged' to produce bathymetric maps of many coves of Deep Creek Lake. A bathymetric map of the whole lake is shown here. Because of the size of the lake a lot of detail cannot be presented in a single map, but this does show that the coves are shallow and that the lake bed contains a slope from south to north. This is one of such maps of the bathymetry of Deep Creek Lake. This map is based on a subset of the over 600,000 data points. (8.7 MB)