11 Largest Freshwater Lakes in the World by Volume

Which are the biggest freshwater lakes in the world? On the Earth’s surface we can count innumerable lakes, dams and other artificial constructions besides all the ocean’s of water inside of our planet and aquifers. But we are just going to take a look to the lakes which store the 87% of the liquid fresh water on Earth’s surface. How can we know which lake have more water? It is not an easy answer to reply because throughout the year the water level of each lake varies. It depends on rainfall, heat, evaporation, salinity of water, if there are rivers and aquifers that provide water or not and many other factors. The composition of each lake is a world apart as you can check in this frightening article titled the 11 most dangerous lakes in the world.

For all of these reason that’s why differences between classifications exists and also because, sometimes, there are difficulties to define what a lake is. I mean, are two contiguous waterbodies a single lake? If a collection of water is maintained because it is surrounded by ice and not by ground, is it a lake? In this case we are going to stick to the most traditional definition of a natural, freshwater lake. Other websites rank lakes based on the area of each lake’s surface or the depth of the lakes. In this article we used volume. Based on this criterion here are the 11 largest freshwater lakes in the world by volume:

11. Great Slave Lake

The deepest lake in NorthAmerica holds in its basin 1.580 km³ of freshwater. It’s located in Canada and takes his curious name from an aboriginal group in the North of the country, called Slavey.

10. Lake Ontario

Located between the State of New York and Ontario, in Canada, this lake receives its water from the lake Eire, the Niagara river and the St. Lawrence river. In the border of its 1.710 km³ of water is located Toronto and other smaller cities.

9. Lake Issyk-Kul

It’s the biggest lake in Kyrgyzstan, a country with a lot of water resources which produces large quantities of hydroelectric energy, and one of the two Asian lakes of the list. This crater lake has 1.730 km³ of water.

8. Great Bear Lake

Back again in the remote North West region of Canada. The 2.236 km³ of water in this lake makes it the largest by volume that is entirely in the country. His name is also related to the aboriginal people in this area.

7. Lake Victoria

This lake is the natural border between Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, and from it flows the longest river, the Nile. Named Victoria as a tribute to the British queen, its original name it’s Nyanza. And it makes 2.700 km³.

6. Lake Huron

The next in this draf of the largest lakes by volume is the Huron (3.580 km³), which is one of the five lakes that form the Great Lakes of NorthAmerica. This system of interconnected lakes is in the border between Canada and USA.

5. Lake Michigan

And lake Michigan is Huron’s brother. There are registers that count them as one single lake and others that separate them. If we count it alone, it makes 4.680 km³.

4. Lake Malawi

It’s located in a National Park in Mozambique, East Africa. Its a World Heritage Site since 1984 due to its natural relevance and the endemic species Malawi keeps in its 7.725 km³ of water.

3. Lake Superior

The widest lake of the world it’s only the third in freshwater volume with 11.600 km³. Lake Superior makes part of the Great Lakes also and empties its water in Lake Huron.

2. Lake Tanganyika

The origin of this lake is the Albertine rift. Its 18.900 km³ of freshwater are the natural border between Tanzania, Burundi, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

1. Lake Baikal

It’s said that if we empy the 23.000 km³ of water from lake Baikal (Russia) in Earth, we could cover the planet with two centimeters of freshwater. This is possible because it contains the 20% of the fresh water on the surface of the Earth. The largest lake in the world by volume (and also the deepest) is actually a rift where the crust is being separate.