Lake Benmore is a lake located in the South Island of New Zealand. It was artificially created in the 1960s by construction of Benmore Dam. The lake covers an area of approximately 75 km². Parts of it lie in the Mackenzie, Waimate, and Waitaki districts within the southern portion of the Canterbury Region.
The major rivers with which it is fed are the Ohau, Pukaki and the Tekapo Rivers. Immediately downstream is Lake Aviemore. The lake has New Zealand's largest earth dam as part of the Waitaki hydroelectricity power scheme.
After the lake was created the incidence of seismic shocks increased by a factor of three to six times.
Famous quotes containing the word lake:
“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)