page_title: Great Lakes
section_title: Bathymetry
hierarchical_section_title: Great Lakes / Geography / Bathymetry
caption_attribution_description: English: Great Lakes bathymetry and surrounding area shaded relief map. Lakes are contoured with interval 100 m. Lake Superior is incomplete. The map was created using the Generic Mapping Tools, GMT, version 5.1.1.
context_page_description: The Great Lakes or the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the upper mid-east region of North America, that connect to the Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lawrence River. In general, they are on or near the Canada–United States border. They are lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. Hydrologically, there are only four lakes, because lakes Michigan and Huron join at the Straits of Mackinac. The lakes form the basis for Great Lakes Waterway.
  The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total area, and second-largest by total volume, containing 21% of the world's surface fresh water by volume. The total surface is 94,250 square miles, and the total volume is 5,439 cubic miles, slightly less than the volume of Lake Baikal. Due to their sea-like characteristics the five Great Lakes have also long been referred to as inland seas. Lake Superior is the second-largest lake in the world by area, and the largest freshwater lake by surface area. Lake Michigan is the largest lake that is entirely within one country.
context_section_description: As the surfaces of Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Erie are all approximately the same elevation above sea level, while Lake Ontario is significantly lower, and because the Niagara Escarpment precludes all natural navigation, the four upper lakes are commonly called the "upper great lakes". This designation is not universal. Those living on the shore of Lake Superior often refer to all the other lakes as "the lower lakes", because they are farther south. Sailors of bulk freighters transferring cargoes from Lake Superior and northern Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to ports on Lake Erie or Ontario commonly refer to the latter as the lower lakes and Lakes Michigan, Huron, and Superior as the upper lakes. This corresponds to thinking of lakes Erie and Ontario as "down south" and the others as "up north". Vessels sailing north on Lake Michigan are considered "upbound" even though they are sailing toward its effluent current.
caption: Great Lakes bathymetry. [18][19][20][21][22][23]
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