The freshwater reservoir with the largest area is Lake Superior. Location - North America. 82.4 thousand square kilometers occupies the area of its water surface. The lake is in 3rd place in terms of the volume of fresh water on our planet, and it is inferior in terms of indicators only to Baikal and Tanganyika. The content of fresh water in the lake is 11.6 thousand km3. The average depth is 147 m, the deepest is 406 m.
Great Lakes
Where is Lake Superior on the map of the North American continent? It is located in the United States and Canada. Lake Superior is one of the Great Lakes, a link in a chain of freshwater reservoirs that are located in eastern North America between Canada and the United States. The system consists of five lakes: Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario. And only Michigan is wholly owned by the US.
Other lakes are separated by a border. In Canada, Lake Superior is located in the province of Ontario. The state of Minnesota is located on the western shore of the lake. In the southwest, Wisconsin. The south coast is in Michigan.
The length of the coastline is 4387 km. The lake is 560 km long. It reaches a width of 260 km. The coastline is indented with bays and bays. On the north coast - rocks and cliffs. And the south coast has flat terrain.
Connections
Lake Superior is considered the second largest in the world and, as already mentioned, the largest fresh water body in the world and the United States. It completes the journey from the Atlantic Ocean to the interior of the continent. All the Great Lakes are connected to each other by rivers and canals. The upper is inextricably linked with Lake Huron by the St. Marys River, which is about 112 km long. It has a large number of rapids and rifts, in these places it is not suitable for navigation. That is why channels are created around the thresholds. Lake Superior is still connected to Canada's Lake Nipigon via a small river.
Rise
The bowl of the lake looks like a depression of tectonic origin. Due to the large number of earthquakes, deep faults appeared. The bottom of the lake was leveled by glaciers, completing the work begun by earthquakes. According to scientists, about 30 thousand years ago, North America in the eastern regions was covered with glaciers that came here from the north. These glaciers were fickle. They either moved north, leaving behind lake bowls, then they came here again. When the glaciers finally left the territory of the eastern regions of the continent, a huge lake formed in this place, which received the name Algonquin in modern science. In terms of area, it was very large and presumably exceeded the size of Lake Baikal by 10 times. This lake did not last long. Over timeit took a lot of water that filled the St. Lawrence River. And after several millennia, the Great Lakes appeared on this place.
Uniqueness
These famous lakes are considered one of the great wonders of the planet. They are unique. The lakes form a hydrographic community, and a very extensive one, differing from the rest of the world's lakes in size, water volume and coastline configuration. They are located 500 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean and 700 kilometers from the Hudson Strait. They are the largest lake system in North America, located in the upper and middle part of the St. Lawrence River basin.
Sea Road
The Great Lakes is one of the main shipping routes in eastern North America. To get from the port of Duluth on Lake Superior to the source of the St. Lawrence River, you need to travel more than 2000 km. The upper lake is the highest mountain - 183.6 meters above sea level. The reservoir is fed by precipitation and water carried by rivers.
Is the Upper Lake drained or endorheic?
Let's try to understand this issue. The lake is wastewater, its flow occurs through the St. Marys River. Freezing occurs in coastal areas from December to April. The water level drops in the lake. Precipitation is also rare at this time, because there is not enough water to maintain the level in the lake.
The minimum level is usually in March-April. Then the ambient temperature rises, and the coastal snows begin to melt. The rivers fill up quickly, and this leads toto increase its level in the lake.
The largest volume of water in the Upper is observed in summer, just at this time they go
plentiful rains. Level fluctuation does not exceed 1 m, but sometimes it can be more. This is mainly not due to the influx of water, but due to the movement of air masses.
Seishi
Upper Lake is not protected by mountain ranges, so the winds that come from the mainland or from the ocean roam freely, causing unrest in the reservoir.
Here you can observe a frequent phenomenon for this place - seiches. Giant waves form on the surface of the lake, causing the shore to collapse. Lake Superior is colder than all the other Great Lakes. In summer, the water warms up by no more than 12 degrees. And at depth it is almost always around 4 degrees.
Lake food
More than 200 rivers flow into Lake Superior. Nipigon is one of them, it is 48 km long and 50 to 200 m wide. One cannot help but recall the St. Louis River, which is 192 km long. Other rivers such as Pidgeon, Brul, Belaya, Stony also flow into it. All of them are no more than 100 km in length, but still contribute to the nutrition of the lake.
Islands
Lake Superior also has islands, some of them quite large. The largest is Isle Royal, it is 72 km long and 14 km wide. On the Great Lakes, it ranks 2nd after Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron. Now Isle Royale has the status of a national park, which is served by ferries from the mainland.
Onin the north of the lake is the island of Mishipikoten, its length is 27 km, its width is 10 km. It is the realm of the wild. The 22 islands called the Apostle Islands belong to the state of Wisconsin.
Also call the islands that are the Michigan National Recreation Area. This is Madeline and Grand Island.
Conclusion
There are many large cities near the lake, such as Duluth, Thunder Bay, Marquette, Sault Ste. Marie. From this article, you learned where Lake Superior is located. Read about its history. We got acquainted with interesting facts, its location on the map and received other information. We hope you enjoyed it.
