Lake · Canada, United States
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by area. It lies between Canada and the United States and is the biggest of the five Great Lakes of North America.
Picture credit: Unknown author Unknown author or not provided (Public domain) · Kevstan (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Pete Markham (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Lake Superior?
Countries on its shores: Canada, the United States.
Middle of the lake: 47.70° N, 87.50° W
The story behind it
Lake Superior is so large that it looks almost like an ocean. Its deepest point lies 406 metres below the surface, and it holds about 12 070 km³ of water. To the north lies the Canadian province of Ontario, to the south the US states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Cities such as Duluth, Thunder Bay and Marquette stand on its shores. The largest island, Isle Royale, is a national park where moose and wolves live; the wolves probably walked across the frozen lake in winter. Many ships sail on the lake, but it can be wild: in 1975 the large freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank here in a storm. All the water finally leaves through the St. Marys River and flows on into Lake Huron.
Find it on the globe
Lake Superior 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 Superior?
Lake Superior covers about 82 100 km², more than any other freshwater lake on Earth. About 53 400 km² of it belong to the United States and about 28 700 km² to Canada.
Which animals live on Isle Royale?
Moose and wolves live on Isle Royale, the largest island in the lake. Long ago neither animal lived there; the wolves most likely crossed the frozen lake on the winter ice.
Where does the water of Lake Superior go?
The water leaves the lake through the St. Marys River. The river carries it into Lake Huron, the next of the Great Lakes.
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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