Drūkšiai

Where is Drūkšiai?

Countries on its shores: Lithuania, Belarus.

Largest lake of: Lithuania.

Middle of the lake: 55.62° N, 26.61° E

The story behind it

Drūkšiai is a big lake with seven islands. In the deepest place it is about 33 metres deep, but on average only about 7.6 metres. Six small rivers flow into it, and one river, the Prorva, flows out through a dam. The lake is full of life: about 25 kinds of fish swim in it, and more than 250 kinds of plankton – tiny living things that float in the water – drift through it. More than 500 kinds of plants grow in and around the lake, and rare birds live here too. For many years the lake had an unusual job. Its water cooled the reactors of the nearby Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, and in some places the water warmed up to 26 °C. The power plant was shut down in 2009. The town of Visaginas lies close to the shore. The part of the lake in Belarus is counted among the Braslaw Lakes, and there it is the largest of them.

Find it on the globe

Drūkšiai is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.