Lake SuperiorThe world's largest freshwater lake by surface area
The largest sheet of fresh water on Earth.
- Surface area
- 82,100 km²
- Water volume
- 12,100 km³
- Max depth
- 406 m
See its true size
One shared area scaleBoth outlines share one area scale. The bars compare water volume.
Reference data: Encyclopædia Britannica: jezioro Bajkał (2024).
Simplified outlines: Natural Earth (public domain), reprojected to one shared scale.
among the 18 lakes in this section
Lake Superior is the largest by area. Baikal has about 39 percent of Superior's surface area but holds almost twice as much water because it is much deeper.
The map intuition
The largest freshwater lake, so surely it holds the most water.
About the lake
Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by area: 82,100 km², more than the whole of Austria. It fills a basin gouged by the ice sheet and sits highest of the Great Lakes.
Although it exceeds every other freshwater lake in surface area, its volume of 12,100 km³ is well below that of the much smaller but deeper Baikal. Map area and water volume describe different aspects of a lake.
- Mean depth
- 147 m
- Surface elevation
- 183 m a.s.l.
- Location
- USA / Canada
- Type
- glacial lake
Where the lake is
Lake Superior: Questions
The largest freshwater lake by area, yes (82,100 km²). The Caspian Sea is bigger but is a salt lake. By volume Superior trails Baikal and Tanganyika.
Its maximum depth is 406 m and its mean depth is 147 m. It is the deepest Great Lake, but still much shallower than rift lakes such as Baikal and Tanganyika.
About 12,100 km³, or roughly half the volume of Baikal, despite having more than twice the surface area.
Sources and data year
Outline: Natural Earth, public domain. Simplified and reprojected.