Caniapiscau Reservoir
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| Caniapiscau Reservoir | |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | |
| Lake type | Artificial |
| Primary sources | Caniapiscau River |
| Primary outflows | Laforge River |
| Catchment area | 36,800 km² (14,210 mile²) |
| Basin countries | Canada |
| Surface area | 4,318 km² (1667 mile²) |
| Max depth | 49 m (161 ft) |
| Water volume | 34.25 km³ (8.2 mile³) |
| Surface elevation | 535 m (1755 ft) |
The Caniapiscau Reservoir (in French, Réservoir de Caniapiscau) is a reservoir on the upper Caniapiscau River in the Côte-Nord administrative region of Québec, Canada. It is the largest reservoir in surface area of the James Bay Project, feeding the Brisay generating station, and the second largest reservoir in Canada.
The natural lakes of the region were formed about nine thousand years ago as glaciers left Québec after having scoured the Canadian Shield for ninety thousand years. The prototype of these lakes was an ice dam lake that drained southwards into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence at a time when areas further north (Nunavik) were still glaciated. As post-glacial rebound elevated the southern part of the Canadian Shield more rapidly than the north, the region began to drain northward into the Caniapiscau River, a tributary of the Koksoak River, and ultimately into Ungava Bay. Since 1984, most of its waters are diverted to the west into the La Grande River watershed and James Bay.
Prior to impoundment, Lake Caniapiscau covered about 470 km² (181 mile²). Now Caniapiscau Reservoir, which fills a depression in the highest part of the Laurentian Plateau of the Canadian Shield, covers 4,318 km², or about four times the size of the natural lakes it flooded during impoundment from 1981 to 1984. The total catchment area is about 36,800 km².
The area surrounding the reservoir is vegetated entirely with taiga, or boreal forest. It is in the zone of discontinuous permafrost and is accessible by bush plane and, since 1981, by a gravel road from James Bay (the Route Transtaïga). At the very end of this road, near the Duplanter spillway, is the former worksite of the Société d'énergie de la Baie-James, named Caniapiscau.
