Here are 30 Interesting Facts About Lakes.
1-5 Interesting Facts About Lakes
1. In the Philippines, there is an island called Luzon. On this island there’s a lake called Taal Lake. In this lake is an island called Volcano Island. On this island is a lake called Main Crater Lake. In this lake there’s an island called Volcano Point. – Source
2. During the first splashdown by Soviet crew, the Soyuz capsule landed in the middle of a blizzard, punched through a frozen lake, went fully underwater and the lake above them froze over, partially requiring an intense rescue operation lasting 9 hours under -22°C. – Source
3. On an uninhabited rock island in Palau, there is a saltwater lake that was cut off from the ocean and is completely filled with jellyfish. As natural predators have been sealed off from the lake, the jellyfish have harmless stingers due to evolutionary regression. Swimming in the lake is safe and permitted. – Source
4. The Amazon River initially flowed into the Pacific Ocean, but was dammed up by the newly formed Andes Mountains. The Amazon’s basin then became a giant lake until it eroded the sandstone to the west, letting the lake drain into the Atlantic and forming the modern river. – Source
5. In Titanic, Jack claims to have gone ice fishing on Lake Wissota, near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Lake Wissota is a man-made reservoir which wasn’t created until 1917. – Source
6-10 Interesting Facts About Lakes
6. Fourteen years after publication, Dr. Seuss removed a reference to pollution in Lake Erie from THE LORAX. Researchers informed him that the environmental efforts to restore the lake had been successful. The line was changed in subsequent editions. – Source
7. Hitler’s plan for Moscow was to kill all residents and replace it with a lake. – Source
8. In Michigan, you are never more than 6 miles from a natural water source. This is due to Michigan’s nearly 65,000 inland lakes and ponds. You are also never more than 85 miles from one of the Great Lakes. – Source
9. Siskiwit Lake is the largest lake on the Isle Royale on Lake Superior. It has cold, clear water which is relatively low in nutrients. Siskiwit Lake contains several islands, including Ryan Island, the largest, which contains Moose Flats, a seasonal pond, which contains Moose Boulder. When Moose Flats is a pond, Moose Boulder becomes the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in one of the largest lake in the world. – Source
10. In August 2014, a mysterious lake, over 10 m deep, appeared overnight in the Tunisian desert. – Source
11-15 Interesting Facts About Lakes
11. Lake Baikal holds one-fifth of the world’s unfrozen fresh surface water; more than all the great lakes combined, yet it covers half the area of Lake Michigan. It is both the deepest (1 mile) and oldest (25 million years) lake in the world. – Source
12. The Aztec capital Tenochtitlán was the largest city in the Americas with over 200,000 people. It was built on a man-made island in the middle of a lake, connected to shore by 3 causeways. It contained huge pyramids, floating gardens, aqueducts and canals. It was destroyed by the Spanish in 1521. – Source
13. Lake Superior is so voluminous that it could cover the entire area of the United States in over 4 feet of water. – Source
14. In 1875, James Wickham brought whales to Great Salt Lake. He had two 35-foot Australian whales shipped to Great Salt Lake (by boat to San Francisco and then by rail to Salt Lake City) wherein he released them. Off they swam, never to be seen again. Scientists believe that they could not have survived the lake’s high salt content. – Source
15. The Great Lakes consist of only 4 bodies of water. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are actually geographically and hydraulically a single lake, separated only by name. – Source
16-20 Interesting Facts About Lakes
16. The most polluted place on the planet is Lake Karachay, located near the Ural Mountains in Russia. In 1990, standing on the shore for 1 hour would give you a lethal radiation dose of 600 roentgens, more than enough to kill you. – Source
17. The combined surface area of the Great Lakes is roughly equal to the size of the United Kingdom, and the lakes contain approximately 35,000 islands. – Source
18. Lake Chagan in Kazakhstan was created using a nuclear weapon. The lake is still radioactive. – Source
19. In 1980, a Texaco oil rig drilled into the top of a salt mine underneath Lake Peigneur in Louisiana, causing the lake to drain into the sinkhole, swallowing 11 barges, and a nearby canal to reverse direction. All 55 miners in the salt mine escaped. The lake is now permanently saltwater.- Source
20. Due to a perfect combination of depth, altitude and temperature, bodies that drown in Lake Tahoe rarely surface or decompose. – Source
21-25 Interesting Facts About Lakes
21. The clearest body of freshwater known in the world is “The blue lake” or “Rotomairewhenua” in New Zealand. According to the NIWA research results, visibility in the lake is up to 80 meters (262 feet) meaning the water is considered almost as “optically clear” as distilled water. – Source
22. In 1986, Lake Nyos in Cameroon, Africa burped a carbon dioxide gas cloud that killed 1,746 people in the blink of an eye. – Source
23. The Aral Sea, once the 4th largest lake in the world, has been steadily shrinking since the 1960’s. It is now 1/10th of its original size. Nearly 90% of the water has now given way to sandy desert with wrecks of beached boats dotting the surface. – Source
24. Oregon state has a lake named Lost Lake that drains every winter into a lava tube, turns into a meadow during the spring, and then turns back into a lake in time for summer – Source
25. Mount Storm Lake in West Virginia is a 1200 acre lake that is heated by a coal burning power plant. Even in zero degree temperatures, the water never dips below 50 degrees. – Source
26-30 Interesting Facts About Lakes
26. Skyscrapers in downtown Toronto are air conditioned via frigid water pumped from the bottom of Lake Ontario, reducing electricity costs by 75%. – Source
27. At the depths of the Great Salt Lake is a super-dense layer of water called the “Deep Brine.” Divers describe it as having the consistency of runny Jello. – Source
28. In WWII, because of the German U-boat threat, the U.S. Navy built two freshwater Aircraft Carriers (which never left the Great Lakes) to train new pilots. There were hundreds of training accidents and, today, there are over 200 sunken aircrafts on the lake floors. – Source
29. There are Pre-Incan people still living on man-made floating islands of grass, as they have for hundreds of years, on lake Titicaca. – Source
30. The largest lake in the world used to be in Sahara, but it dried out leaving behind sediments. However the wind now carries away 700,000 tons of this mineral rich dust every day, blowing all the way to South America where it fertilizes the Amazon Rainforest. – Source
