Central American nations are generally too small to harbor really large lakes. But Canada and the United States lead the world in large lakes. The chart below lists the ten largest North American lakes, ranked by surface area against freshwater lakes around the world. In other words, Lake Superior is the second largest lake in the world in terms of surface area. The five Great Lakes combined cover a truly vast area, though their combined volume is roughly equal to that of Russia s Lake Baikal.
Lake Superior is larger than any of the four smallest Central American nations.
However, Nicaragua s Lake Nicaragua is the world s 20th largest lake. Area Length Maximum depth Name and location sq. The chart below features North America s 14 longest rivers, all longer than 1,000 miles. Notice that most of Canada s largest rivers flow into the Arctic Ocean or water bodies connected to the Arctic Ocean , while most of the United States largest rivers ultimately empty into the Atlantic Ocean. River Source Outflow mi.