The Great Lakes Information
The Great Lakes, a collective term for the freshwater lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, are located along the border of the United States and Canada, and make up the largest collection of freshwater lakes on Earth.
Sometimes called landlocked seas, the five massive lakes collectively contain 22% of the world’s fresh surface water and are so deep that they could uniformly cover the entire continental United States in 9.5 feet of water.
With their combined surface area totaling 94,250 square miles, the Great Lakes are altogether about the same size as the United Kingdom and, due to their size and location, have played a critical role in the economies of both the United States and Canada.
Lake Algonquin
Large glacial lake that once existed in North America and covered most of the area now occupied by three Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, and Huron). Lake Algonquin was present in the Pleistocene Epoch (approximately 1.8 million to 11,800 years ago), a geologic glacial period when the Laurentide Ice Sheet was retreating northward from the Great Lakes region. The body of water, perhaps 250,000 square km (100,000 square miles) in area and with depths of up to 460 metres (1,500 feet), at various stages drained through channels that included the Trent River valley and the Mattawa, Ottawa, St. Clair, and Mississippi rivers. Remnants of the lake include Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Nipigon, Simcoe, and Nipissing.
Great Lakes Area Lakes
Chain of deep, freshwater lakes in east-central North America comprising Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.
They are one of the great natural features of the continent and of the Earth. Although Lake Baikal in Russia has a larger volume of water, the combined area of the Great Lakes—some 94,250 square miles (244,106 square kilometres)—represents the largest surface of fresh water in the world, covering an area exceeding that of the United Kingdom.
Their drainage basin of about 295,710 square miles (which includes the areas of the lakes themselves and their connecting waterways) extends approximately 690 miles from north to south and about 860 miles from Lake Superior in the west to Lake Ontario in the east. Except for Lake Michigan, the lakes provide a natural border between Canada and the United States, a frontier that was stabilized by a boundary-waters treaty of 1909. It is a source of pride for both countries that there are no fortifications or warships along the boundary.
Great Lakes Maps
A map of Great Lakes , North America. (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin)
