Largest Lake in the World - Largest in the United States Largest Lake in the World & Largest Lake in the United States Caspian Sea map: Map of the Caspian Sea - World's largest landlocked water body (by surface area). Image by CIA. Which Lake is the World's Largest? There are a few different ways to define the world's largest lake. Are you interested in the lake with the largest surface area? Or, the lake with the greatest water volume? And, do you want to consider saltwater seas in your comparison? "Which lake is the world's largest?" is not a simple question to answer. So, we will explore the question from a few different perspectives. World's Largest Lake (by volume): Lake Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake in terms of volume. It contains about 5,521 cubic miles of water (23,013 cubic kilometers), or approximately 20% of Earth's fresh surface water. This is a volume of water approximately equivalent to all five of the North American Great Lakes combined.

While Lake Baikal is extremely deep, its surface area is only about 12,248 square miles (31,722 square kilometers), putting it in seventh place worldwide in terms of surface area. Lake Baikal map: Map of Lake Baikal - World's largest freshwater lake (by volume). Image by CIA. World's Largest Lake (by surface area): The salty Caspian Sea has the greatest surface area of any lake at 143,200 square miles (370,886 square kilometers). Lake Superior, on the United States/Canada border, is the named freshwater lake with the greatest surface area at 31,700 square miles (82,103 square kilometers). However, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron can technically be considered a single lake because they both have the same surface elevation and they are connected by the Mackinac Strait (which is not a river because the water does not have a consistent flow direction). So, Lake Michigan-Huron could be considered the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area.

It has a total surface area of 45,410 square miles (117,611 square kilometers), which is significantly larger than Lake Superior. The total water volume in Lake Michigan-Huron, at 2,026 cubic miles (8,443 cubic kilometers), is much smaller than the volume of Lake Baikal. Great Lakes map: Map of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan-Huron - World's largest freshwater lakes (by surface area). Image by CIA. Largest Lake in the United States (by volume): The largest lake in the United States on the basis of water volume is Lake Superior with a volume of 2,904 cubic miles (12,104 cubic kilometers). Largest Lake in the United States (by surface area): Lake Superior is the single named lake with the largest surface area in the United States at 31,700 square miles (82,103 square kilometers). However, as mentioned above, if you consider Lake Michigan and Lake Huron as a single lake, then Lake Michigan-Huron has the largest surface area at 45,410 square miles (117,611 square kilometers).

Fun Lake Facts for Kids - Interesting Information about Lakes Lake Facts for Kids Enjoy learning about lakes with our fun facts for kids. Read about the Great Lakes of North America, how lakes are formed, how deep lakes can get, different types of lakes, where the highest lake in the world is located, and much more. A lake is an inland body of relatively motionless water that usually has a river or stream feeding into or draining out of it. Lakes differ to lagoons and estuaries due to the fact they are not connected to the ocean. A lake is also larger and deeper than other inland water bodies such as ponds. The study of inland water bodies and ecosystems is called Limnology. A lake usually contains freshwater but some can be saltwater. Each lake has a larger catchment area (drainage basin, watershed) which is a large encompassing land area where surface water from rain, snow/ice melt, or rivers converges into the lower lying lake. Water in most lakes flows in and out via rivers and streams. Lakes that only lose water by evaporation or underground seepage are called endorheic lakes. The lowest lake in the world is the Dead Sea that borders Israel and Jordan.

The surface level of which is 418 metres (1,371 ft) below sea level. It is also one of the saltiest lakes in the world. The highest lake in the world is the crater lake of Ojos del Salado at 6,390 m (20,965 ft) above sea level. The mountain lake sits on the border of Chile and Argentina . The deepest lake in the world is Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia . It is 1,637 m (5,371 ft) at its deepest point. Excluding the Caspian Sea it is the also the largest lake by volume in the world. The longest lake in the world is Lake Tanganyika in Africa at 660 km (410 mi) it is also the 2nd largest by volume of water and the 2nd deepest. The Caspian Sea has characteristics of being both a sea and a lake. The saltwater sea used to be connected to the world's oceans but became landlocked around 5.5 million years ago.

It is often classed as a lake due to a lakes definition which would make it the largest lake in the world at 370,400 km² (143,244 mi²). Located on the border of the United States and Canada are the Great Lakes of North America. They include 5 lakes: Michigan, Huran, Erie, Ontario, and Superior which together contain around 21% of the world's freshwater supply. Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lake and also has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world at 82,000 km² (31,700 mi²). Finland has the nickname "Land of the Thousand Lakes" as there are over 187,000 lakes in the country. Most freshwater lakes on Earth are found in Northern areas of the Northern Hemisphere, Canada for example is estimated to have around 2 million lakes. There are many natural processes that can form lakes. The advancement and retreat of glaciers over millions of years can leave behind bowl-shaped depressions which fill. Lakes can also form by tectonic related changes of the landscape, or by landslides that cause water blockages.

Crater lakes and calderas are formed in volcanic craters. Oxbow lakes are small, crescent-shaped lakes created by the meandering of rivers over time. A lot of lakes today are artificially made to generate hydro-electric power , for domestic water supply, for industrial or agricultural use, or for aesthetic and recreational purposes. One of the lakes on Saturn's moon Titan called Kraken Mare is a massive 388,500 km² (150,000 mi²) making it larger than the Caspian Sea. The liquid is not water though (Titan's average temperature is -181 °C (-293.8 °F) so water would be frozen), instead it is a lake of liquid gas (methane and ethane).

Lake Baikal, Russia Length of Lake Baikal: 394 miles (635 km) Width of lake: 30 miles (48 km) Depth of lake: 5,380 feet (1,640 m) Lake Baikal sits in Southern Siberia in Russia, located between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, near the city of Irkutsk. Also known as the "Blue Eye of Siberia," it contains more water than all the North American Great Lakes combined. At 1,637 meters (5,371 ft), Lake Baikal constitutes the deepest lake in the world, and the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, holding approximately 20 percent of the world's total surface fresh water. View Larger Map Like Lake Tanganyika, Lake Baikal formed in an ancient rift valley and therefore has a long, and crescent shape with a surface area (31,500 km²) less than half that of Lake Superior or Lake Victoria. Baikal serves as home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds found only in the lake zone.

UNESCO designated Lake Baikal a World Heritage Site in 1996. At more than 25 million years old, it has been declared the oldest lake in the world.[4] The successful dive of Mir-1 and Mir-2 mini-submarines to the deepest place in Baikal on 29 July 2008, at over one mile, has opened the prospect of new discoveries of ancient lake life. Geography and hydrography The peninsula of Svyatoy Nos.While known as the "North Sea" in historical Chinese texts, Lake Baikal had been located in the then Xionu territory. Lake Baikal had been out of the public eye until the Russian government built the Trans-Siberian railway between 1896 and 1902. The scenic loop encircling Lake Baikal needed 200 bridges and 33 tunnels. As under construction, F.K. Drizhenko headed a hydrogeographical expedition that produced the first detailed atlas of the contours of Baikal's depths.

The atlas demonstrated that Lake Baikal has more water than all of North America's Great Lakes combined—23,600 cubic kilometers (5,662.4 cu mi), about one fifth of the total fresh water on the earth. In surface area, the much shallower Great Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan in North America, as well as by the relatively shallow Lake Victoria in East Africa exceeded it. Known as the "Galápagos of Russia," its age and isolation have produced some of the world's richest and most unusual freshwater fauna of exceptional value to evolutionary science.Lake Baikal lies in a rift valley created by the Baikal Rift Zone where the crust of the earth pulls apart.

The Yenisei River basin, Lake Baikal, and the settlements of Dikson, Dudinka, Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk.At 636 kilometers (395.2 mi) long and 79 kilometers (49.1 mi) wide, Lake Baikal has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in Asia (31,494 km²), constituting the deepest lake in the world (1,637 metres, previously measured at 1,620 metres). The bottom of the lake measures 1,285 metres below sea level, but below that lies some 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) of sediment, placing the rift floor some 8–9 kilometers (more than 5 miles) below the surface: the deepest continental rift on Earth. In geological terms, the rift, young and active, widens about two centimeters per year. The fault zone experiences frequent seismic activity. New hot springs appear in the area and notable earthquakes happen every few years. It drains into the Angara tributary of the Yenisei.

Its age, estimated at 25–30 million years, makes it one of the most ancient lakes in geological history. Unique among large, high-latitude lakes, its sediments have been unscoured by overriding continental ice sheets. U.S/ and Russian studies of core sediment in the 1990s provide a detailed record of climatic variation over the past 250,000 years. Geologists expect longer and deeper sediment cores in the near future. Lake Baikal has been confirmed as the only fresh water lake with direct and indirect evidence of gas hydrates existing. The lake is completely surrounded by mountains, with the Baikal Mountains on the north shore and the taiga technically protected as a national park. It contains 22 islands; the largest, Olkhon, measures 72 kilometers (44.7 mi) long. The lake has as many as three hundred and thirty inflowing rivers, the main ones draining directly into Baikal include the Selenga River, the Barguzin River, the Upper Angara River, the Turka River, the Sarma River and the Snezhnaya River. The Angara River serves as its single drainage outlet.

Despite its great depth, the lake's waters have excellent oxygenation throughout the water column compared to the stratification that occurs in such bodies of water as Lake Tanganyika and the Black Sea. Olkhon, the largest island in Lake Baikal, constitutes the fourth-largest lake-bound island in the world. [2] [1] One fifth of the world's water is contained in a single lake, Lake Baikal in Russia's southern Siberia. The lake is relatively small in suface area, ranking ninth in the world. It is 394 miles long and 30 miles wide, but it is extremely deep. It reaches a depth of 5,380 feet and contains about 5,500 cubic miles of water; more than the total contents of North America's Great Lakes. The lake is also incredibly old. It was formed about 20 million years ago after a rift formed in the earth's crust. Hot springs on the lakebed indicate the area is still geologically active. Annually the region's seismic stations register up to 200 earthquake tremors In the winter the lake is frozen solid and local people drive out across the frozen landscape to fish through holes they drill in the ice.

In places where the ice was formed in calm conditions it is transparent and the fish can be seen swimming below. Although the ice is strong, daily temperature flucuations cause intricate patterns of cracks that form gaping crevasses as much as three feet wide. In summer the ice splinters into tiny slithers, creating prisms of light that dance across the water. After the ice melts, the water can be so clear you can see down 130 feet or more. Many animals living here are unique to Bailal, such as the Baikal seals and golomyanka fish that gives birth to live young. The fish can endure an amazing amount of pressure, at a drpth of 3,280 to 4,593 feet it can move quite freely, whereas at such a depth even a cannon cannot shoot because of the enormous pressure. [3] Scientists are still debating the lake's origin. Some are trying to prove that it emerged as a result of tectonic processes of orogenesis, while others consider it as having been formed as a result of the earth's crust gradually subsiding. So far nobody has been proved right. The Baikal area is a veritable treasure trove of mineral resources.

Sables thrive in the region's taiga; valuable fur animals live in the surrounding mountains and valleys; and birds and fish abound in the forests and rivers of the area. The nearby Dauro-Mongolian steppes are very fertile. There are hot springs in the vicinity of Lake Baikal, the water of which is of excellent quality. The lake acts as a powerful generator and biofilter producing this water. "Blue eye of Siberia," Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia. This crescent-shaped lake is more than 900 miles from the nearest ocean (the Pacific) and is about 400 miles long and 50 miles wide. Rimmed by mountains, and nearly surrounded by forests, it's one of the most beautiful lake settings in the world. While it's the 7th largest lake on the globe in regards to surface area, in terms of volume of water, Lake Baikal has no peers. Its greatest depth is 5,022 feet - the world's deepest lake. [1] Interestingly, Lake Baikal is gradually getting bigger.

It rests in the biggest continental trough or rift in the Earth's surface, and this rift has been widening at a rate of about 3/4 inch (2 cm) per year. Lake Baikal is so astonishing big that if were drained, and if all of the world's rivers were diverted so as to empty into the huge trough, it would take a full year to refill it! Not only does Lake Baikal contains 1/5 of all of the world's supply of unfrozen, fresh water, but it could satisfy the drinking water needs of everyone on Earth for almost 50 years. Though more than 330 rivers and streams feed Lake Baikal, only the Angara River is an outlet. The Angara empties into the Arctic Ocean, more than 1,500 miles away. Lake Baikal is estimated to be nearly 25 millions years old, making it possibly the world's oldest lakes. Additionally, of the 1,800 or so fauna and flora that are found in and around the lake, about 2/3 of them are indigenous - a higher percentage anywhere, except for the Antarctic lakes.

While most of the lake's unique fauna are microscopic invertebrates, the Baikal seal is one of the lake's most popular indigenous mammals. Unfortunately, Lake Bailkal's once pristine waters are no longer that way, but even though the water is now tainted by pollution, it's still remarkably clear. Tiny crustaceans act to purify the lakes's waters so that it's possible to see a bright object on the lake bottom in 500 feet of water! However, while the lake water is still clear now, a real concern is that the buffering effect of the lake's well-oxygenated waters may be overwhelmed by toxins and industrial waste in the near-future. Until timber began to be widely harvested from Lake Baikal's slopes in the early 1900s, it's said that the lake's water was clean enough to be consumed without filtering. As large tracks of forests were removed with the growth of lumber and pulp industries, tons of silt and sediment washed into the lake. Since the 1960s, industrial pollution has been the biggest problem. More than 100 factories can be found close by the lake.

Perhaps the worst polluters are factories that use chlorine to turn wood pulp into cellulose, which is used in the manufacturing of cardboard packaging. This chlorine slowly but surely makes its way into the lake. As a result of this chemical pollution, not only have some fish species declined but so have smaller life forms that are crucial in keeping the lake healthy. Pollution from the largest cites near the lake, Irkutsk to the southwest and Ulan Ulde to the southeast, are also causing problems. In addition, another source of pollution comes from the burning of coal in several power plants adjacent to the lake. Since Lake Baikal contains such a large volume of water, and only a single river outlet, the contaminants that are present now will be there for years to come. A number of initiatives have been proposed over the years and a few laws have been passed to prevent blatant pollution practices. However, as of now, many of these laws have little bite. They may impede polluters but they can't stop them. The people who live near Lake Baikal, of course, don't want to see their beautiful lake threatened by pollution.

A few groups are doing what they can to promote awareness of the lake's fragility and are active in efforts to remove litter and reduce industrial effluent. But, because the Russian economy has been in dire straits since the break up of the Soviet Union a decade ago, the government's emphasis has been on trying to fix the economy, and environmental issues receive relatively little backing, financial or otherwise. Closing down a lake-side factory in violation of pollution ordinances, and thus eliminating perhaps thousands of jobs, will just further cripple the region's economy. It'll be sometime before things get better. Even the few government and scientific institutes that in the past have been responsible for monitoring this impressive lake's health, now have few resources to do so. [4] World Largest Freshwater lake "Caspian Sea"-- Last Weekend Deepwater Photography - YouTube World Largest Freshwater lake "Caspian Sea"-- Last Weekend Deepwater Photography Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Published on Jul 29, 2016 Lake Superior World's Largest Lake (by surface area): The salty Caspian Sea has the greatest surface area of any lake at 143,200 square miles (370,886 square kilometers). Lake Superior, on the United States/Canada border is the named freshwater lake with the greatest surface area at 31,700 square miles (82,103 square kilometers). The Caspian has characteristics common to both seas and lakes. It is often listed as the world's largest lake, although it is not a freshwater lake. It contains about 3.5 times more water, by volume, than all five of North America's Great Lakes combined. Largest Lakes in the World by Area, Volume and Depth Share By Matt Rosenberg This page includes three lists of the world's largest lakes. They are ranked by surface area, volume, and depth. The first list is surface area: Largest Lakes by Surface Area 1. Caspian Sea - Asia - 371,000 sq km (143,000 sq mi)* 2.

Lake Superior - North America - 82,100 sq km (31,698 sq mi) 3. Lake Victoria - Africa - 68,800 sq km (26,563 sq mi) 4. Lake Huron - North America - 59,600 sq km (23,011 sq mi) 5. Lake Michigan - North America - 57,800 sq km (22,316 sq mi) 6. Lake Tanganyika - Africa - 32,900 sq km (12,702 sq mi) 7. Great Bear Lake - North America - 31,328 sq km (12,095 sq mi) 8. Baikal - Asia - 30,500 sq km (11,776 sq mi) 9. Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa) - Africa - 30,044 sq km (11,600 sq mi) 10.

Great Slave Lake - North America - 28,568 sq km (11.030 sq mi) Source: The Times Atlas of the World Largest Lakes by Volume 1. Baikal - Asia 23,600 cubic km** 2. Tanganyika- Africa - 18,900 cubic km 3. Superior - North America - 11,600 cubic km 4. Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa) - Africa - 7,725 cubic km 5. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance Lake Michigan - North America - 4900 cubic km 6. Lake Huron - North America - 3540 cubic km 7. Lake Victoria - Africa - 2,700 cubic km 8. Great Bear Lake - North America - 2,236 cubic km 9. Issyk-Kul (Ysyk-Kol) - Asia - 1,730 cubic km 10. Lake Ontario - North America - 1,710 cubic km Source: Wikipedia Deepest Lakes in the World 1.

Lake Baikal - Asia - 1,637 m (5,369 ft) 2. Lake Tanganyika - Africa - 1,470 m (4,823 ft) 3. Caspian Sea - Asia - 1,025 m (3,363 ft) 4. O'Higgins Lake (San Martin Lake) - South America - 836 m (2,742 ft) 5. Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa) - Africa - 706 m (2,316 ft) Source: Wikipedia * Some consider the Caspian Sea not to be a lake but it is surrounded by land and thus meets the generally accepted definition of a lake. ** Lake Baikal holds one-fifth of the world's freshwater. EEK! - Lake Superior . Lake Superior The Great Lakes make up 20 percent of the Earth's available (not in the ice caps) surface fresh water and half of that water is stored by Lake Superior. Superior is the cleanest and clearest of the Great Lakes.

Thanks to low amounts of nutrients, sediments, and organic material, you can see about eight feet under the water - great for exploring. Lake Superior is located on the northern edge of Wisconsin and stretches between the Upper Peninsula of Michigan north to Ontario Canada. It also spans west to the eastern edge of Minnesota. Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes by surface area and volume. It is like a mini-freshwater ocean, you can't even see the other side from the Wisconsin shoreline. This Great Lake doesn't have tides like the ocean; however, periodically the water levels rise and fall by as much as one foot due to a phenomenon called a "seiche" (SAYSH, a French word that means "to sway back and forth"). This happens when water piles up on one side of the lake because of wind or high barometric pressure and then shifts back to the other side. Small seiches occur all the time, but sometimes strong ones can cause ships to bang together in harbors, or leave them high and dry for a few minutes. Check out these facts...

Surface Area: 31,700 square miles Water Volume: 2,934 cubic miles of water Shoreline length: 2,726 miles (including islands) Population living around the lake: 474,150 (Unites States) 155,675 (Canada) Land use near the lake: 68 percent forest Mineral rich area: iron, gold, silver, copper, zinc Gemstone rich: agates, amethyst, greenstone, thomsonite and even some diamonds Not only is Lake Superior the largest of the Great Lakes, it also has the biggest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world. It holds about 3,000 cubic miles of water - enough to fill all the other Great Lakes plus Lake Erie three times over. The average depth of Superior is about 500 feet. It is the deepest (1,335 feet) of the Great Lakes. If you go swimming there in the hottest part of the summer, you'll soon learn that Lake Superior is also the coldest of the Great Lakes - brrr, icy cold at an average temperature of 40ï¿½ F (4ï¿½C).

The water temperature sets the climate for the area, making winters warmer and summers cooler. Fall is the season for "northeasters" or strong winds and rain. This is what caused most of Lake Superior's 350 shipwrecks. The lake weather also causes "lake effect" snowfalls along the shores of Wisconsin and Michigan because the air cools and releases moisture as it rises - dropping more snow in addition to typical Midwestern weather patterns. Also during most winters, the lake is 40 to 95 percent covered by ice. Wind usually keeps the center of the lake open. It occasionally frezes over completely. Superior stretches approximately 350 miles from west to east, and 160 miles north to south, with a shoreline almost 2,800 miles long. That is the same distance as driving from Duluth Minnesota to Miami Florida. The land area surrounding the lake also provides Lake Superior with water in the form of rain and snowmelt runoff from Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario Canada. Most of the land around Lake Superior is heavily forested. Not many people farm near the lake because the temperatures are cool and the soil is poor.

You won't find many people living along the lake either, except in port cities where the ships load and unload. Did you know that Lake Superior is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the St. Lawrence Seaway? The 2,343 mile (3,770 kilometer) trip takes about seven days by boat from Duluth/Superior, the busiest inland port in the country, with more than 1,000 vessels visiting each year. Lake Superior was the location of the famous Nov. 10, 1975 shipwreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This large cargo ship sank during an intense storm on a regular trip from Superior, Wisconsin, to Detroit Michigan, carrying 26,000 tons of iron ore. Lake Critters More than 78 species of fish have been recorded in Lake Superior. Some of the species you'll find in this lake include: Bloater Seaway System - Recreational Boating - Cruising the Seaway Recreational Boating Facts and Figures on the Great Lakes The familiar shape of the Great Lakes is plainly visible from the moon.

Covering more than 94,000 square miles and draining more than twice as much land, these freshwater wonders of the world hold about 6 quadrillion gallons of water. Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world. Lake Michigan has the world's longest freshwater beach. All five of the Great Lakes rank among the world's 18 largest. Spread evenly across the mainland U.S.A, the lakes would cover it in about 9.5 feet of water. From the east, access to the Great Lakes is through the St. Lawrence Seaway from Montreal, on the St. Lawrence River. By the time a ship reaches Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, it has risen 600 feet, the height of a 60-storey skyscraper, through a series of 15 locks, and traveled 2,342 miles from the Atlantic Ocean - more than the distance across the Atlantic itself. The Great Lakes basin includes eight U.S. states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York) and the Canadian province of Ontario.

The Great Lakes states are home to 4.2 million recreational boats, with another 1.2 million registered in Ontario. Each Lake harbors between 45 and 100 species of fish, pursued with zeal by commercial and recreational fishers. There are 110 U.S. state parks located directly on the water, and 38 Canadian provincial parks, as well as the American Isle Royale National Park, four U.S. National Lakeshores, and five Canadian national parks.

Lake Superior largest of the Great Lakes in surface area and volume, also coldest and deepest largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world 350 miles from west to east, 160 miles north to south shoreline 2,980 miles long average depth - 483 feet contains almost 3,000 cubic miles of water, an amount that could fill all the other Great Lakes plus three additional Lake Eries fish species - 45 second largest of the Great Lakes in volume, with 1,180 cubic miles of water the only Great Lake entirely within the United States 307 miles long north to south, 118 miles wide west to east miles of shoreline - 1,659, including many sandy beaches and the world's largest freshwater sand dunes average depth - 279 feet Lake Huron third largest of the Great Lakes in volume, with 850 cubic miles of water miles of shoreline - 3,827, with shallow, sandy beaches in the south and the rocky, islanded shores of Georgian Bay in the north; has the longest shoreline of the Great Lakes, counting its 30,000 islands 206 miles

 long west to east, and 183 miles wide from north to south average depth - 195 feet Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron is the largest freshwater island in the world Lake Erie shallowest of the Great Lakes (averaging only 62 feet) and overall the smallest by volume (116 cubic miles) 241 miles long east to west, 57 miles wide, north to south 871 miles of fertile shoreline, intensively farmed and the most densely populated of the five lake basins not as deep as the other lakes, Erie warms rapidly in the spring and summer and is often the only Great Lake to freeze in winter warmest and most biologically productive of the Great Lakes - 100 fish species; the walleye fishery is considered the best in the world Marblehead Lighthouse, built in 1822, is the oldest active light tower on the Great Lakes Lake Ontario holds almost four times more water than Lake Erie, 393 cubic miles average depth 283 feet 193 miles long, west to east, and 53 miles wide, north to south 726 miles of shoreline Canadian shoreline is heavily urbanized 

90 fish species Lake Superior Facts SIZE, DEPTH, WATERSHED, WATER QUALITY, etc 1.

Lake Superior is, by surface area, the world's largest freshwater lake. 2. The surface area of Lake Superior (31,700 square miles or 82,170 square kilometers) is greater than the combined areas of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. 3. Lake Superior contains as much water as all the other Great Lakes combined, even throwing in two extra Lake Eries. Its volume is second only to Russia's Lake Baikal. 4. Lake Superior contains 10% of all the earth's fresh surface water. 5. There is enough water in Lake Superior (3,000,000,000,000,000--or 3 quadrillion-- gallons) to flood all of North and South America to a depth of one foot. 6. The deepest point in Lake Superior (about 40 miles north of Munising, Michigan) is 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the surface. 7. Over 300 streams and rivers empty into Lake Superior. 8, The average elevation of Lake Superior is about 602 feet above sea level. 9.

The Lake Superior watershed region ranges in size from 160 miles inland near Wabakimi Provincial Park to only 5 miles inland from Pictured Rocks National Seashore. 10. The Lake Superior shoreline, if straightened out, could connect Duluth and the Bahama Islands. 11. The average underwater visibility of Lake Superior is 27 feet, making it easily the cleanest and clearest of the Great Lakes. Underwater visibility in places reaches 100 feet. Lake Superior has been described as "the most oligotrophic lake in the world." 12. The lake is about 350 miles (563 km) in length and 160 miles (257 km) in width. 13. In the summer, the sun sets more than 35 minutes later on the western shore of Lake Superior than at its southeastern edge. 14. Lake Superior has over 400 islands, the largest of which is Isle Royale, with a size of 207 square miles. 15. Waves of over 40 feet in height have been recorded on Lake Superior. 16.

Travel by car around Lake Superior covers a distance of about 1,300 miles. 17. The largest underwater formation in Lake Superior is the Superior Shoal, which rises from a depth of over 1,000 feet to within 20 feet of the water surface over a distance of just three miles. 18. Sudden changes in winds or barometric pressure around Lake Superior can produce seiches, a phenomena which results in water levels rising or falling as much as six feet along a coast in a short period of time. 19. Water in Lake Superior is retained, on average, 191 years. GEOLOGY, FLORA AND FAUNA, CLIMATE, etc. 1. Lake Superior is one of the earth's youngest major features, at only about 10,000 years of age--dating to the last glacial retreat. By comparison, the earth's second largest lake (by surface area, and largest by volume), Lake Baikal in Russia, is 25 million years old. 2. Fifty-eight orchid species are native to the Lake Superior basin. In North America, only Florida has more native orchid species. 3.

Lake Superior produces the greatest lake effect snows on earth. (Significant lake effect snows are a rare phenomenon, occurring--besides on the Great Lakes--only on the east shore of Hudson Bay and the west coasts of two Japanese islands.) Lake effect snows extend 20 to 30 miles inland, primarily on the Ontario shore southeast of Marathon, and from Sault Ste. Marie to the Wisconsin-Michigan border. Average annual snowfall in Michigan's Keweenaw exceeds 200 inches in places. 4. Lake Superior has been at its modern elevation for only about 2,000 years, when elevations of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron dropped, creating a rapids at Sault Ste. Marie. 5. Lake Superior has its origins in the North American Mid-Continent Rift of 1.1 to 1.2 billion years ago, which produced a huge plume of hot mantle where the present lake sits. The crust tore apart, leaving an arc-shaped scar stretching form Kansas through Minnesota, then down to Michigan. 6. Within its borders, Lake Superior has both the thickest, and nearly the thinnest, crust found anywhere in North America. 7.

When European explorers visited Lake Superior in the 1600s they reported giant sturgeons (up to nine feet in length) and pike of greater than seven feet in length. 8. The largest tributary of Lake Superior, Ontario's Nipigon River, was in the 1800s the finest brook trout water in the world. It produced the world record brook trout of 14.5 pounds. 9. Some of the world's oldest rocks, about 2.7 billion years of age, can be found on the Ontario shore of Lake Superior. 10. The average annual water temperature of Lake Superior is 40º F. It only very rarely freezes over completely, and then usually just for hours. The last complete freezing of Lake Superior occurred in 1979, although the lake was almost completely frozen over in 2014. 11. Migrating birds of prey funnel down Lake Superior's north shore in great numbers each fall. On a single day at Duluth's Hawk Ridge as many as 100,000 birds of prey might pass by. 12.

Lake Superior rests mostly on Precambrian rock at the southern edge of the Canadian shield, the largest exposure of such bedrock on the planet. 13. Sliver Islet, a Lake Superior island off Ontario's north shore, was the site for 15 years in the 1800s of the world's richest silver mine. 14. Lake Superior contains nearly 70 million diporeia (shrimplike creatures) with a total biomass greater than that of the human population in the entire Lake Superior basin. 15. Lake Superior is home to 88 species of fish. KidZone Geography - Ontario Ontario, Canada © Contributed by Leanne Guenther Ontario is the second largest Canadian province (in terms of area) and can be found on the map between Manitoba and Quebec. Toronto is the capital city of Ontario. Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, is also in Ontario. Ontario joined the Canadian Confederation in 1867. Ontario includes part of "the Great Lakes". The Great Lakes consist of Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Ontario and Lake Superior.

Lake Superior is the largest of the great lakes and also has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world. The border between Canada (Ontario) and the United States runs through Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Lake Michigan is entirely in the United States. Environmental management of the Great Lakes is a joint effort between the two countries. Check out our brief photo tour of Ontario if you'd like to see more of the scenery of the province. You can find out a lot of interesting information about Ontario at . Ontario scenery on-line jigsaw puzzles The Provincial Flag The Ontario provincial flag was adopted on May 21, 1965. The Canadian Red Ensign is used with the Union Jack in the upper left hand corner and the Ontario shield of arms on the right side in the middle. The Provincial Flower The white trillium was adopted as the official flower of Ontario in 1937. The white trillium blooms in late April and early May. It begins white, but turns light pink as it ages. The flower is followed by red berries that ripen to a blue-black color. The Provincial Bird The common loon (or Great Northern loon) is Ontario's official bird.

It was adopted as the provincial bird in June 23, 1994. It is also the bird pictured on the Canadian $1 coin. The common loon is water bird that lives on quiet fresh water lakes and rivers. It is well recognized for it's haunting call.

Question: Which lake has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world?
Answer: Lake Superior