Lake - Definition


Lake - Definition

For other uses, see Lake (disambiguation).

Lake Clearwater, Ontario, Canada

A lake is a large body of water, usually fresh water, surrounded by land. Large lakes are sometimes referred to as "inland seas" and small seas are sometimes referred to as lakes. For examples (of saline lakes): the Great Salt Lake, and the Dead Sea. The largest "lake" in the world is the Caspian Sea, and the deepest is Lake Baikal in Siberia. The term lake is also used to describe a feature such as Lake Eyre, which is dry most of the time but becomes filled under seasonal conditions of heavy rainfall.

Finland is known as The Land of the Thousand Lakes and Minnesota is known as The Land of Ten Thousand Lakes.

There are dark basaltic plains on the Moon, similar to lunar maria but smaller, that are called lacus (singular lacus, Latin for "lake"). They were once thought by early astronomers to be literal lakes.

Lake Vostok is an under-ice lake in Antarctica, possibly the largest in the world. The pressure from ice and the internal chemical composition means that if the lake were drilled into, it may result in a fissure and spraying in the same manner as a shaken can of soda.

Over 60% of the world's lakes are in Canada; this is because of the deranged drainage system that dominates the country.

Lokka is Northern Europe's largest man-made lake, 417 km^{2</sup> in size.}

Lake Billy Chinook, Deschutes National Forest, Oregon

See also