The Lake District in north-west England has become the beautiful place it is via a complex range of causes. It is on the edge of Europe and has a harsh climate in which its sub-1000m mountains can be as challenging as peaks three times as big in the Alps. This distinctive area of lakes and […]

Soda lakes are the favoured environment for flamingos, which – in the words of the Kenya Birds organization – enjoy standing in boiling caustic soda. They have a high concentration of dissolved alkalis, mainly sodium hydroxide. But how did they get that way? Susan Baumgarte of Brunswick Technical University in Germany points out that such […]

A lake is a body of standing water with an upper surface that is exposed to the atmosphere and does not have an appreciable gradient. Ponds, marshes, and swamps with standing water can all be included under the definition of a lake. Lakes receive water from streams, overland flow, and ground water, and so they form part of drainage systems. Many […]

LOCATED IN THE SOUTHEAST portion of the Canadian province of Manitoba, Lake Winnipeg (Cree for “murky or muddy waters”) is 266 mi (428 km) long and has an area of 9,417 square mi (24,390 square km). English explorer Henry Kelsey was the first European to visit the area in 1690 and is believed to have given the lake its name. The […]

WITH AN AREA of 26,830 square mi (69,490 square km), Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and, after Lake SUPERIOR in North America, the second largest lake in the world. At 3,720 ft (1,130 m) above sea level, Lake Victoria is bordered by UGANDA, KENYA, and TANZANIA. It is 209 mi (337 km) at its greatest length and 150 […]

HIGH IN THE ANDES MOUNTAINS between BOLIVIA and PERU at 12,580 ft (3,810 m) above sea level, Lake Titicaca is said to be the highest fresh-water lake on Earth navigated by large vessels. Forty-one islands, some of them densely populated, rise from its shores. The lake covers 3,200 square mi (8,300 square km) and extends in a northwest-to-southeast direction for 120 […]

LAKE TANGANIKA IS IN east-central Africa in the Great Rift Valley at an elevation of 2,534 ft (772 m). It is very deep and narrow in typical rift formation with mountains rising out of the lake. According to the Center for Great Lakes Studies, Lake Tanganika is the seventh-largest lake in the world when ranked by area and is the […]

LAKE SUPERIOR IS THE coldest, deepest and largest of the Great Lakes, a group of lakes located along the border between the UNITED STATES and CANADA. Moreover, Lake Superior has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake, worldwide, at 31,700 square mi (82,100 square km). To put its size into perspective, its waters could, according to the Great Lakes Information Network […]

LAKE ONTARIO, BORDERED by the UNITED STATES (NEW YORK state) and CANADA (province of Ontario), is the smallest and easternmost of the five Great Lakes, covering an area of 7,320 square mi (18,960 square km). It is 193 mi (311 km) long and 53 mi (85 km) wide, with a shoreline of approximately 480 mi […]

NEW CALEDONIA IS A French protectorate located in southwestern Oceania, approximately equidistant from AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, and FIJI. It consists of the principal island, Grande Terre, as well as the outlying Loyalty Islands and their nearby atolls and reefs. Archaeological evidence suggests human settlement dates from approximately 4000 B.C.E. Distinct forms of pottery and imported […]

LAKE MICHIGAN IS one of the five original Great Lakes, which are located near or along the border between the UNITED STATES and CANADA; a sixth lake, Lake Champlain, was added to the Great Lakes category in 1998. The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world, and Lake Michigan is the […]

LAKE MALAWI IS LOCATED in southeastern Africa lying within the crease where the eastern and western branches of the Great Rift Valley meet. According to the Center of Great Lakes Studies, Lake Malawi is the ninth-largest lake in the world by area and the fifthlargest lake in the world by volume. Malawi is the third-largest […]

LAKE HURON IS ONE of the five Great Lakes and is named for the Hurons, a Native American people who once lived along its shores. Lake Huron covers 23,000 square mi (59,570 square km) and is 206 mi (332 km) long. At its greatest width, it is 193 mi (295 km) across. It lies at […]

LAKE ERIE, bordered by the province of Ontario in CANADA to the north, NEW YORK to the east, PENNSYLVANIA and OHIO to the south, and MICHIGAN to the west, is the shallowest of the Great Lakes at only 62 ft (18.9 m) and it remains the smallest in volume. Lake Erie is 241 mi wide […]

LAKE CHAD IS A shallow freshwater lake located in west-central Africa. Only 23 ft (7 m) at its deepest, it is 820 ft (250 m) above sea level, and was once larger than the state of VERMONT. In the 1960s, Lake Chad was approximately the size of lake ERIE, one of the Great Lakes located […]

LOCATED IN eastern KAZAKHSTAN, Lake Balkhash is the world’s sixteenth-largest lake, covering a surface area of about 7,000 square mi (18,000 square km); however, its size is being reduced by overutilization of streams that flow into the lake. Closed, with no outflow, Lake Balkhash, like the ARAL SEA at the opposite end of Kazakhstan, has […]

THE BAIKAL, the world's deepest lake, stretches 391 mi (636 km) long and nearly 50 mi (80 km) wide. On the northeastern borders of central Asia, it lies at an altitude of 1,494 ft (455.6 m) above the PACIFIC OCEAN sea level. With an area of 12,162 square mi (31,500 square km), the Baikal ranks […]