If you’re from the United States or Canada you probably know Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes, as well as the largest lake on the entire continent of North America.
That’s why it’s called “Lake Superior”, after all.
But other than those basic facts, most folks are unaware of just how “superior” this massive body of water really is.
To put things into perspective, consider the following facts:
- By surface area, Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake on the entire planet. At 31,700 square miles, it’s roughly the size of the U.S. state of South Carolina or the country of Austria.
- Lake Superior holds 2,900 cubic miles of water, which equates to roughly 3 quadrillion gallons. That’s a whopping 10% of all the fresh water found on the Earth’s surface.
- To raise the water level of Lake Superior by just one inch, you would need to pour more than 500 billion additional gallons of water into it.
- If North America and South America were perfectly flat (and had walls around their edges to contain the water), the amount of water stored in Lake Superior would flood both continents with a foot of water.
- Lake Superior is fed by more than 200 rivers, and numerous smaller streams.
- Lake Superior contains an island named Isle Royale, which itself contains several lakes. And some of the lakes on Isle Royale contain islands of their own.
Pretty impressive, right? Now you know why “Lake Superior” really lives up to its name!
To finish up, here’s a mind-blowing short video featuring Surfer Dan – AKA the “Ice Beard Surfer” who surfs the icy waters of Lake Superior even on the coldest days of the year. Check it out!
Note: As always, you can watch this video at full screen. Just click the little “square” icon in the lower-right corner of the video after it begins playing.
Credits: WorldAtlas.com, Michigan.org and Wikipedia