What is the largest freshwater lake?

Answer 1

The answer to that question depends on what you measure to establish "largest".

• Lake Superior between Michigan and Ontario is the freshwater lake with the largest surface area 82,360 km2 (31,800 square miles).
• Lake Baikal, located in Siberia, Russia, has a surface area of only 31,727 km2 (12,250 square miles) but it is the lake with the largest water volume in the world, holding about 20% of the world's total fresh water. At 1,620 meters, nearly a mile deep, Lake Baikal is also without doubt the world's deepest lake.

There are a couple of possible answers to this question: Largest in area (square miles):

• Lake Huron/Michigan (if you consider it a single body of water) - 45,445 sq. miles
• Lake Superior - 31,820 sq. miles

Largest in volume (cubic miles):

• Lake Baikal - 5,700 cu. miles

Lake Baikal