List of lakes by volume.html
 
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This article lists lakes with a water volume of more than 100 km³, ranked by volume. The volume of a lake is a difficult quantity to measure. Generally, the volume must be inferred from bathymetric data by integration. Lake volumes can also change dramatically over time and during the year, especially for salt lakes in arid climates. For these reasons, and because of changing research, information on lake volumes can vary considerably from source to source. The base data for this article is from The Water Encyclopedia (1990).1 Where volume data from more recent surveys or other authoritative sources has been used it is referenced specifically in each entry.

Contents

The list

Continent colour key
Africa Asia Europe North America Oceania South America Antarctica
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Name Country Region Water volume
1. Caspian Sea2 Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran 78,200 km3 (18,800 cu mi)
2. Baikal3 Russia Siberia 23,600 km3 (5,700 cu mi)
3. Tanganyika Tanzania, DRC, Burundi, Zambia 18,900 km3 (4,500 cu mi)
4. Superior United States, Canada 11,600 km3 (2,800 cu mi)
5. Michigan-Huron United States, Canada 8,260 km3 (1,980 cu mi)
6. Malawi Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania 7,725 km3 (1,853 cu mi)
7. Vostok Antarctica 5,400±1,600 km³ (~1,300 cu mi)
8. Victoria Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda 2,700 km3 (650 cu mi)
9. Great Bear Lake4 Canada Northwest Territories 2,236 km3 (536 cu mi)
10. Issyk-Kul Kyrgyzstan 1,730 km3 (420 cu mi)
11. Ontario United States, Canada 1,710 km3 (410 cu mi)
12. Great Slave Lake4 Canada Northwest Territories 1,580 km3 (380 cu mi)
13. Ladoga Russia 908 km3 (218 cu mi)
14. Titicaca Bolivia, Peru 710 km3 (170 cu mi)
15. Van5 Turkey Southeast Anatolia 607 km3 (146 cu mi)
16. Kivu Rwanda, Congo 569 km3 (137 cu mi)
17. Erie United States, Canada 545 km3 (131 cu mi)
18. Khövsgöl Mongolia 480 km3 (120 cu mi)
19. Onega Russia 295 km3 (71 cu mi)
20. Maracaibo6 Venezuela 280 km3 (67 cu mi)
21. Toba7 Indonesia (Sumatra) 240 km3 (58 cu mi)
22. Turkana Kenya 204 km3 (49 cu mi)
23. Vänern Sweden 180 km3 (43 cu mi)
24. Nipigon Canada Ontario 165 km3 (40 cu mi)8
25. Tahoe United States California, Nevada 151 km3 (36 cu mi)
26. Dead Sea Jordan, Israel, Palestine 147 km3 (35 cu mi)
27. Albert Uganda 132 km3 (32 cu mi)
28. Winnipeg Canada 127 km3 (30 cu mi)
29. Nettilling Canada Nunavut (Baffin Island) 114 km3 (27 cu mi)
30. Balkhash Kazakhstan 112 km3 (27 cu mi)
31. Athabasca Canada Alberta-Saskatchewan 110 km3 (26 cu mi)
32. Nicaragua Nicaragua 108 km3 (26 cu mi)

In 1960, the Aral Sea was the world's twelfth largest known lake by volume, at 1,100 km3 (260 cu mi). However, by 2007 it had shrunk to 10% its original size, and this was divided into three lakes, none large enough to appear on this list.9

By continent

References

  1. ^ van der Leeden; Troise; Todd (1990), The Water Encyclopedia (2nd ed.), Chelsea, MI: Lewis Publishers, p. 198–200 
  2. ^ The Caspian Sea is generally regarded by geographers, biologists and limnologists as a huge inland salt lake. It is endorheic (having no outlet), and can be compared to other large (but still much smaller) endorheic salt lakes, such as the Aral Sea, Great Salt Lake and Lake Van. However, the Caspian's large size means that for some purposes it is better modeled as a sea. Geologically, the Caspian, Aral, Black and Mediterranean seas are generally all seen as remnants of the ancient Tethys Ocean. Politically, the distinction between a sea and a lake may affect how the Caspian is treated by international law.
  3. ^ Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world and the largest freshwater lake by volume.
  4. ^ a b Hebert, Paul (2007), "Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories", Encyclopedia of Earth, Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment, http://www.eoearth.org/article/Great_Bear_Lake,_Northwest_Territories 
  5. ^ Degens, E.T.; Wong, H.K.; Kempe, S.; Kurtman, F. (June 1984), "A geological study of Lake Van, eastern Turkey", International Journal of Earth Sciences (Springer) 73 (2): 701–734, doi:10.1007/BF01824978, http://www.springerlink.com/content/x5285613642v3665/ 
  6. ^ Lake Maracaibo is generally regarded as a lake, but is seen by geologists as an inlet of the Caribbean Sea. It lies approximately at sea level, is somewhat salty and is connected to the Caribbean via a channel at its northern end.
  7. ^ Although some parts of Indonesia are often regarded as belonging to Oceania, Sumatra and Lake Toba are generally placed in Asia.
  8. ^ Calculated from estimated mean depth of 55m and area of 3,009 km2 published in Cudmore-Vokey, Becky; Crossman, E.J. (December 2000), "Checklists of the Fish Fauna of the Laurentian Great Lakes and their Connecting Channels", Canadian Manuscript Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans) 2550: 11, http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/254370.pdf .
  9. ^ Philip Micklin; Nikolay V. Aladin (March 2008). "Reclaiming the Aral Sea", Scientific American. Retrieved on 17 May 2008. 

See also
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