Largest World Lakes - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Russia. #7 at 12,200 square miles. With its tremendous depth, the Blue Eye of Siberia holds more water than the five Great Lakes combined.
• A2) Kazakhstan. #14 at 7,115 square miles. The shallowest lake on this list has been shrinking since its source rivers were diverted for irrigation.
• A3) Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia. #1 at 143,000 square miles. The largest lake in the world holds two-thirds as much water as every other lake combined.
• A4) Canada. #8 at 12,000 square miles. The Arctic lake is covered with ice for over half of the year.
• A5) Canada. #10 at 11,170 square miles. North America's deepest lake was named for the local Indian tribe now known as the Slavey, formerly spelled Slave but always pronounced as two syllables.
• A6) Russia. #15 at 7,000 square miles. Europe's largest lake feeds into the Neva River, which leads to the Gulf of Finland.
• A7) Tanzania, Mozambique, and Malawi. #9 at 11,600 square miles. Africa's third largest and second deepest lake is also known as Lake Nyasa (with various spellings). Malawi calls it Lake Malawi, while Tanzania refers to it as Lake Nyasa (Malawi was formerly Nyasaland).
• A8) Venezuela. #17 at 5,100 square miles. Maracaibo has been known to Europeans since 1499 when Alonso de Ojeda spotted it while exploring with Amerigo Vespucci.
• A9) Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. #6 at 12,700 square miles. Africa's deepest lake, the second deepest in the world, feeds the Congo River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean.
• A10) Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. #5 at 26,828 square miles. Africa's largest lake was named for Queen Victoria by British explorer John Hanning Speke in 1858.
• A11) Australia. #16 at 6,060 square miles. Hidden beneath the ice, Lake Vostok wasn't discovered until 1973. Despite an average temperature a few degrees below freezing, the lake remains liquid because of pressure from the ice above.
• A12) Canada. #12 at 9,094 square miles. The shallow Manitoba lake's name means "muddy waters".

The rest of the top twenty are:

• Lake Onega (Russia, 3,819 square miles).
• Lake Titicaca (Peru and Bolivia, 3,141 square miles).
• Lake Nicaragua (Nicaragua, 3,089 square miles).

Note: lake sizes fluctuate, sometimes dramatically, depending on environmental conditions. The order given here is as listed by Wikipedia but treating Lakes Michigan and Huron as separate lakes.

Largest World Lakes - Random Trivia Questions

Following up on last week's quiz, where are the largest lakes in the world by area, not including the Great Lakes (which are numbers 2, 3, 4, 11, and 13 on the list)? Can you identify the country or countries that border each of the following lakes?

Largest World Lakes Questions

• Q1) Lake Baikal
• Q2) Lake Balkhash
• Q3) Caspian Sea (5 countries: name any two)
• Q4) Great Bear Lake
• Q5) Great Slave Lake
• Q6) Lake Ladoga
• Q7) Lake Malawi (3 countries: name any two)
• Q8) Lake Maracaibo
• Q9) Lake Tanganyika (4 countries: name any two)
• Q10) Lake Victoria (3 countries: name any two)
• Q11) Lake Vostok (in Antarctica: who claims it?)
• Q12) Lake Winnipeg

Largest U.S. Lakes - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) Alaska. #14 at 453 square miles. The remote lake is an excellent site for hunting, fishing (including salmon), hiking, and observing wildlife (including the brown bears who feast on the salmon).
• A2) New York and Vermont (also in Quebec). #13 at 490 square miles. Burlington, Vermont is the most populous city on the lake, which empties into the Richelieu River.
• A3) Utah. #6 at 2,117 square miles. The Great Salt Lake is the largest remaining remnant of the nearly 20,000-square mile Lake Bonneville, which also left us the Bonneville Salt Flats.
• A4) Alaska. #8 at 1,014 square miles. The state's largest lake empties into Bristol Bay via the Kvichak River.
• A5) Florida. #10 at 662 square miles. The Big O, whose name simply means "Big Water", is the headwaters of the Everglades.
• A6) Louisiana. #11 at 631 square miles. Lake Pontchartrain borders New Orleans on the north and is the second largest salt lake in the U.S.
• A7) Minnesota (also in Ontario). #20 at 345 square miles. Rainy Lake has hosted the annual Canadian Bass [Fishing] Championship since 1996.
• A8) Minnesota. #16 at 427 square miles. The state's largest freshwater lake is a popular spot for ice fishing in the winter.
• A9) California. #19 at 347 square miles. The surface of the Salton Sea is 226 feet below sea level, and the bottom is only five feet higher than Death Valley.
• A10) Alaska. #17 at 404 square miles. Selawik Lake, which is named for its sheefish, extends across the Arctic Circle and therefore receives twenty-four hours of daylight during the middle of the summer.
• A11) Michigan (also in Ontario). #15 at 430 square miles. Lake St. Clair, which is part of the Great Lakes system, feeds into the Detroit River.
• A12) Minnesota (also in Manitoba and Ontario). #7 at 1,485 square miles, just 60 square miles less than the state of Rhode Island. A small section of Minnesota is cut off from the rest of the 48 contiguous U.S. states by the Lake of the Woods.

Three large artificial lakes complete the top twenty:

• Lake Oahe in North Dakota and South Dakota (#9 at 685 square miles).
• Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota (#12 at 520 square miles).
• Fort Peck Lake in Montana (#18 at 393 square miles).

Michigan leads the pack with at least a share of five of the top twenty lakes (Lake St. Clair and all of the Great Lakes except for Ontario), Minnesota is in second place at four and Alaska earns the bronze with three.

Note: lake sizes fluctuate, sometimes dramatically, depending on environmental conditions. The order given here is as listed by Wikipedia and the most recent edition of the National Atlas of the United States.

Largest U.S. Lakes - Random Trivia Questions

Every geography or trivia buff knows the Great Lakes. They are easily the top five U.S. lakes by area: Superior (#1), Huron (#2), Michigan (#3), Erie (#4), and Ontario (#5). But what do you know about the next tier of U.S. lakes? Can you identify which state each of the following lakes are in? They're all in the top twenty in size, with the smallest measuring a healthy 345 square miles.

Largest U.S. Lakes Questions

• Q1) Becharof Lake
• Q2) Lake Champlain (two states)
• Q3) Great Salt Lake
• Q4) Iliamna Lake
• Q5) Lake Okeechobee
• Q6) Lake Pontchartrain
• Q7) Rainy Lake
• Q8) Red Lake
• Q9) Salton Sea
• Q10) Selawik Lake
• Q11) Lake St. Clair
• Q12) Lake of the Woods