List of lakes by area

List of lakes by area

Lakes with a surface area of more than 4,000 km², listed by area.

"Note: The area of some lakes can vary considerably over time, either seasonally or from year to year. This is especially true of salt lakes in arid climates. This list does not include reservoirs."

table lakes

Geologically, the Caspian Sea and Lake Maracaibo are not lake, but ocean. However, they are included here as they are frequently considered to be lakes.

* denotes saline lake

In 1960, the Aral Sea was the world's fourth-largest lake at 68,000 km². However, by 2004 it had shrunk to convert|17160|km2|sqmi|abbr=on, and since then has not only shrunk further, but divided into three lakes, none large enough to appear on this list.

Variable lakes

A large number of floodplains surpass 4000 km² during the wet season. These include Tonlé Sap in Cambodia (2,700 km², flooding to 16,000 km²), Lake Poyang (1000 km², flooding to 4400 km²) and Lake Dongting (2,820 km², flooding to 20,000 km²) in China, the Niger Inland Delta in Mali, the Sudd in Sudan (up to 130,000 km²), the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Pantanal in Brazil and Paraguay, and stretches of the Amazon River. There are also a number of pluvial lakes which intermittently flood past 4000 km². In rainy years, these include the largest lakes in Australia, Lake Torrens (5,700 km² when full) and Lake Eyre (9500 km² when full).

Sarygamysh Lake between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan expanded to "ca" 5000 km² after the turn of the century, but it is not yet clear how permanent this will be.

Largest by continent

*Africa - Lake Victoria
*Antarctica - Lake Vostok (Subglacial lake)
*Asia - Salt: Caspian Sea (a small ocean); Fresh: Lake Baikal
*Australia - Lake Eyre
*Central America - Lake Nicaragua (second largest in Latin America, first in Central America)
*Europe - Lake Ladoga
*North America - Lake Michigan-Huron
*South America - Brackish: Lake Maracaibo (a bay of the Caribbean); Fresh: Lake Titicaca

Notes

"Note: Lake areas may slightly vary depending on the sources."

ee also

*List of lakes by volume
*List of lakes by depth
*List of largest lakes of Europe

ources

* [http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0001777.html Factmonster.com]
*van der Leeden, Troise, and Todd, eds., The Water Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Chelsea, MI: Lewis Publishers, 1990. pp. 198-200.


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