Lake · Canada, United States
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and lies between Canada and the United States. It is the southernmost and shallowest of them and holds the least water.
Picture credit: Crisco 1492 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Diane Constable (CC BY 2.0) · rabesphoto (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Lake Erie?
Countries on its shores: Canada, the United States.
Middle of the lake: 42.20° N, 81.20° W
The story behind it
Lake Erie is the fourth-largest of the Great Lakes, but it is also the shallowest: even at its deepest point the water is only 64 metres deep. It is the first of the Great Lakes to freeze in winter. The Detroit River brings water in from the west, and in the east the Niagara River carries it away, over the famous Niagara Falls, to Lake Ontario. Big cities such as Cleveland, Toledo and Buffalo lie on its shores, and more than 24 islands rise from the water. Its name comes from an Iroquoian word that means 'long tail'. Anglers love to catch walleye here, and many ships have sunk in the lake over the years. About 270 shipwrecks have been found on the lake bed, and there are probably many more still waiting to be discovered.
Find it on the globe
Lake Erie 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.
Questions children ask
How big is Lake Erie?
Lake Erie covers about 25 667 km², making it the fourth-largest of the five Great Lakes. But it is only 64 metres deep at its deepest point, and it holds less water than any of the others.
Where does the water of Lake Erie go?
It flows out through the Niagara River, which runs north for about 58 kilometres to Lake Ontario. On the way, the water plunges over Niagara Falls.
What does the name Erie mean?
The name comes from the Iroquoian word erielhonan, which means 'long tail'. It is a good fit for this long, narrow lake.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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