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Longest freshwater lake in the world and third largest of any kind by volume. [18] 7: Baikal Russia: Fresh 31,722 km 2 12,248 sq mi 636 km 395 mi 1,642 m 5,387 ft 23,610 km 3 5,660 cu mi Deepest lake in the world and largest freshwater lake in the world by volume. [19] 8: Great Bear Lake Canada: Fresh 31,153 km 2 12,028 sq mi 373 km 232 mi 446 m
Collectively, Earth's lakes hold 199,000 km 3 of water. [7] Most lakes are in the high northern latitudes, far from human population centers. [8] [9] The North American Great Lakes, which contain 21% of the world's fresh water by volume, [10] [11] [12] are an exception. The Great Lakes Basin is home to more than 35 million people. [13]
Pangong Tso; Lake Baikal – Lake Baikal is located in Siberia in southeastern Russia, just north of Mongolia. Considered the oldest surviving freshwater lake on the planet, it is also the deepest body of water in Asia at 5,315 feet (1,620 m), and the largest freshwater lake by volume, containing 20% of the planet's fresh water.
However, because it is also the deepest lake, [6] with a maximum depth of 1,642 metres (5,387 feet; 898 fathoms), [1] Lake Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, containing 23,615.39 km 3 (5,670 cu mi) of water [1] or 22–23% of the world's fresh surface water, [7] [8] more than all of the North American Great Lakes combined. [9]
This article lists lakes with a water volume of more than 100 km 3, ranked by volume. The volume of a lake is a difficult quantity to measure. [1] 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.
This is enough water to cover the 48 contiguous U.S. states to a uniform depth of 9.5 feet (2.9 m). Although the lakes contain a large percentage of the world's fresh water, the Great Lakes supply only a small portion of U.S. drinking water on a national basis. [50]
Fresh water can easily become polluted by human activities or due to naturally occurring processes, such as erosion. Fresh water makes up less than 3% of the world's water resources, and just 1% of that is readily available. About 70% of the world's freshwater reserves are frozen in Antarctica. Just 3% of it is extracted for human consumption.
Other lakes are found in depressed landforms or along the courses of mature rivers, where a river channel has widened over a basin formed by eroded floodplains and wetlands. Some lakes are found in caverns underground. Some parts of the world have many lakes formed by the chaotic drainage patterns left over from the last ice age.