Talk:List of lakes by volume

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Colors[edit]

I tend to screw these things up when I try to fix them, but it would nice to have more contrasting colors for Europe and Asia in the list. Even juxtaposed, it's hard to tell the two apart. siafu 21:02, 26 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Lake Toba[edit]

Is there a reason Lake Toba isn't on the list? It's 240 km3, which should make it number 20. --Chriswaterguy talk 10:22, 12 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I thought the same thing? --68.9.117.174 (talk) 02:44, 16 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure the page is very correct to be honest. If you look up the Lake Baikal page, it says it's the largest 'freshwater' lake in the world. I'm not sure it isn't the largest lake in the world, but given the other ommissions, perhaps another source is needed.Tungstenatom (talk) 07:55, 17 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Single source?[edit]

The article as currently written makes explicit reference to one source (van der Leeden, Troise, and Todd, eds., The Water Encyclopedia, 1990) for the volumes and rankings. It is certainly true that different sources vary greatly, partly because of changing research, and partly because volume is not a property that it is practical to measure directly, and so must be inferred from bathymetry. However, using a single 17-year-old source seems out of keeping with Wikipedia's principles. Perhaps we should be aiming to take data from the best available source(s) for each lake, and include any sufficiently voluminous lake with plausibly accurate data. A good start would be to provide references for each measurement added. Rupert Clayton (talk) 16:19, 7 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Lake Tahoe[edit]

Please add Lake Tahoe with a volume of 151 cu km; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe Jim224 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 01:29, 1 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Another list[edit]

Probably quite inaccurate, but a useful source of lakes to check. [1] Rupert Clayton (talk) 18:33, 25 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That pesky Caspian Sea[edit]

There has been some disagreement on whether how the Caspian Sea should appear in the various lake lists, so I thought it might be good to try to get some consensus on how to approach the issue. I started a discussion here and would welcome contributions. Rupert Clayton (talk) 22:56, 22 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sub-100km3 lakes[edit]

There may be some interest in expanding the list to a lower volume cutoff. If so, here are some candidates.


Name Country Region Water volume
?? Sakakawea United States North Dakota 29.4 km3 (7.1 cu mi)
?? Oahe United States South Dakota, North Dakota 29.0 km3 (7.0 cu mi)
?? Champlain United States, Canada New York, Vermont, Quebec 25.8 km3 (6.2 cu mi)
?? Great Salt Lake United States Utah 18.92 km3 (4.54 cu mi)

Rupert Clayton (talk) 17:24, 8 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Caspian Sea=Lake[edit]

Most sources agree that the Caspian Sea fits the definition of a "lake," regardless of whether it was ONCE part of an ocean or not. It is OK to note alternate points of view, but not to construct the article around them.Ryoung122 21:37, 28 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Table with column sort[edit]

The tables should include both a volume column and a surface area column. Readers should be able to click a column to order the table according to the contents of that column. SlowJog (talk) 03:13, 15 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I tried making the table sortable, but when I clicked the "Volume" column, the result was not correctly sorted. SlowJog (talk) 04:55, 25 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Fixed. See Talk:List_of_lakes_by_volume#Sorting_is_wrong below. Rupert Clayton (talk) 23:55, 17 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Obscure and unclear: hydrologically ocean (Maracaibo) or geologically ocean (the Caspian Sea)?[edit]

This should be put in layman's terms, "hydrologically ocean (Maracaibo) or geologically ocean (the Caspian Sea" since encyclopedic articles are written to be read by non-experts, they are not journal articles.

"Hydrologically" Hydrology is a big topic. Which aspect of hydrology is the determining factor? Are you saying they are salt water (high salinity)? Then why is the Dead Sea in the list of regular lakes?

"Geologically" Geology is a big topic. Which aspect of geology is the determining factor? Are you saying size? Volume or surface area? Then why are the all 5 Great Lakes in the list of regular lakes?

Or is categorization partly historical? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.71.210.133 (talk) 22:03, 26 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Maracaibo is a bay of the Caribbean. When a body of water defined hydrologically, we're speaking of a mass of fluid which can mix in any direction. Lakes Michigan and Huron are one body of water by this conception, as is Maracaibo and the Ocean.
A geologic ocean is a body of water on oceanic crust, whereas a lake lies on continental crust. The southern Caspian basin is oceanic; the north is continental, but then all oceans overlap the continents (the North Sea, for example). — kwami (talk) 03:07, 27 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Reservoirs[edit]

For some purposes, it may be useful to know where large reservoirs rank in relation to natural lakes. I'm compiling some entries here, for possible inclusion in the article. Existing sources include List of reservoirs by volume and List of reservoirs by surface area. Rupert Clayton (talk) 23:40, 6 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Continent colour key
Africa Asia Europe North America Oceania South America Antarctica
Name Country Region Surface Area Water volume
R1. Lake Kariba Zimbabwe, Zambia 5,400 km2 (2,100 sq mi) 180 km3 (43 cu mi)
R2. Bratsk Reservoir Russia 5,470 km2 (2,110 sq mi) 169.27 km3 (40.61 cu mi)
R3. Lake Nasser Egypt, Sudan 5,250 km2 (2,030 sq mi) 132 km3 (32 cu mi)
R4. Lake Volta Ghana 8,502 km2 (3,283 sq mi) 148 km3 (36 cu mi)
R5. Manicouagan Reservoir Canada 1,942 km2 (750 sq mi) 139.8 km3 (33.5 cu mi)
R6. Lake Guri Venezuela 4,250 km2 (1,640 sq mi) 135 km3 (32 cu mi)
Kuybyshev Reservoir Russia 6,450 km2 (2,490 sq mi) 57.3 km3 (13.7 cu mi)
Smallwood Reservoir Canada 5,698 km2 (2,200 sq mi)
Lake Mead United States Arizona, Nevada 650 km2 (250 sq mi) 35.70 km3 (8.56 cu mi)
Lake Powell United States Arizona, Utah 660 km2 (250 sq mi) 32.34 km3 (7.76 cu mi)
Lake Sakakawea United States North Dakota 1,550 km2 (600 sq mi) 30.0 km3 (7.2 cu mi)
Lake Oahe United States North Dakota, South Dakota 1,500 km2 (580 sq mi) 29.0 km3 (7.0 cu mi)


Lake Winnipeg change[edit]

The edit summary was wrong on the units, but the edit was right. North8000 (talk) 13:23, 10 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Lake Erie volume[edit]

The volume of Lake Erie given in this article (545 km3) is inconsistent with the (correct) volume listed in the Lake Erie article (480 km3).

As a newbie here, I am reluctant to change the table entry myself because it will change the order of the table.

Andy Skuce (talk) 10:50, 20 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sorting is wrong[edit]

Something happened to the table sorting by volume or surface area. As an example, it will sort 8000, then 800 and then 7000 because 8 is bigger than 7.

Not sure how to fix that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:241:8000:116:AF70:8DE9:4F6F:2482 (talk) 19:57, 17 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for noticing that issue. I have updated the tables to sort the volume and area figures correctly. Let me know if you see any more issues. Rupert Clayton (talk) 23:55, 17 November 2015 (UTC)[reply]


I noted that "Lake Michigan-Huron" was re-entered[edit]

I noted that "Lake Michigan-Huron" was re-entered. It was not mentioned in the edit summary, but it was in a September 2015 edit. Just recently it was re-entered in the the "List of lakes by area" with the stated reason being to make that other article consistent with this one. North8000 (talk) 21:55, 9 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Lake Maracaibo[edit]

The so-called Lake Maracaibo isn't properly a lake, it's a lagoon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.12.221.7 (talk) 13:39, 9 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Flag icons[edit]

I have a bias against them, to be up front, but I really don't see what they add here. It's almost like the article feels the need to shout what countries these lakes are in, there's nothing about, for instance, saying Lake Michigan is in the United States that conveys less information than adding the flagicon. Unless there's some extremely compelling reason to have them here which I don't know about, I'm removing them; besides conveying exactly nothing to our readers, they severely disrupt the text in which they're located and cause the page to load a lot slower than is necessary. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 04:46, 23 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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