Marlaine Ege, age 12, of Duluth, Minnesota, for her question:

How does a lake differ from a sea?

In bygone days, local hits of geography were named by the folks who lived in the neighborhood. They might name a small hill Grand Mountain if there were no genuine mountains close enough to compare. They might name a fairly sizeable lake The Might Sea  if they were too far away from the real sea to grasp their mistake. A few generations ago, geographers were bothered by some of these lingering errors from the past. They tried to correct them, but a few confusions remain to this day.

Strictly speaking, a sea must contain salty water that connects directly or indirectly with the global ocean. A lake Is a body of water surrounded by land and such over sized puddles usually are filled with fresh water from streams and springs. However, a few inland lakes contain salt water, perhaps sealed off from the sea by dramatic earth movements. They are lakes and their salt water does not qualify them as genuine seas.