What is the largest lake in the world? please give details?

Answer 1

The world's largest lake is the salty Caspian Sea at 143,200 square miles (370,886 km2). The world's second largest lake, and the world's largest freshwater lake is North America's Lake Superior at 31,700 mi2 (82,103 km2).

more details:
Caspian Sea, saltwater lake in southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia, the largest inland body of water in the world. The Caspian Sea is bordered on the west by Azerbaijan and Russia, on the northeast and east by Kazakhstan, on the east by Turkmenistan, and on the south by Iran. It extends about 1210 km (about 750 mi) in a northern and southern direction and about 210 to 436 km (about 130 to 271 mi) in an eastern and western direction. It has an area of 371,000 sq km (143,000 sq mi). The Caspian coastline is irregular, with large gulfs on the east, including Krasnovodsk Gulf and the very shallow Garabogazköl Gulf, which acts as an evaporation basin and is the site of a major chemical plant that extracts salts from the deposits.

The Caspian Sea has a mean depth of about 170 m (about 550 ft) and is deepest in the south. Its level varies from year to year but averages about 28 m (92 ft) below sea level. In the 1960s and 1970s the level fell substantially, partly because water was withdrawn from tributary rivers for irrigation and other purposes. In 1980 a dike was built across the mouth of Garabogazköl Gulf in northwestern Turkmenistan to reduce water loss, creating a lake that was expected to last for several years. Instead, the gulf dried up completely by 1983. In the meantime, the level of the Caspian Sea began rising again at a rate of about 14 to 20 cm (about 6 to 8 in) annually.

The southern and southwestern shorelines of the Caspian Sea are bordered by the Elburz Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains. The sea has numerous tributaries, notably the Volga, Ural, and Zhem rivers, all of which flow into it from the north. Other tributaries include the Gorgan (Gurgan) and Atrek rivers, flowing from the east, and the Kura River, flowing from the west. The Caspian Sea has no outlet. However, it is linked to the Baltic Sea, the White Sea, and the Black Sea by an extensive network of inland waterways, chief of which is the Volga River.

Navigation is frequently dangerous because of violent southeastern storms. During the winter months the northern parts of the Caspian Sea are closed by ice. The chief ports are Krasnovodsk, Turkmenistan; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Makhachkala, Russia.

The Caspian Sea region contains significant reserves of oil and natural gas. The region is estimated to hold the third largest reserves after the Middle East and Russia. Bordering countries are actively exploring and tapping offshore reserves. However, national rights to offshore oil and gas fields have been a point of dispute. In May 2003 Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan signed an agreement establishing boundaries in the Caspian Sea, dividing the northern 64 percent of the seabed into national sectors and allowing the surface to be used in common. Iran and Turkmenistan refused to sign the agreement and continue to dispute offshore boundaries. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are the region’s leading oil exporters. Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is the chief point of export for oil obtained from offshore fields. A new oil pipeline linking Baku with the Mediterranean seaport of Ceyhan, Turkey, opened in 2005, supplementing two other pipelines linking Baku to ports on the Black Sea.

Decades of environmental mismanagement have led to severe pollution problems in the Caspian region. Discharges from offshore oil and gas drilling and inflows from the highly polluted Volga River have contributed to the degradation of Caspian waters. The pollution poses a serious threat to animal life, including tortoises, porpoises, and seals. In addition, overfishing has depleted the sea’s stocks of sturgeon (a source of caviar), salmon, perch, herring, and carp. In November 2003 representatives from all the bordering countries signed the United Nations-sponsored Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea, which provided a framework for alleviating environmental damage in the region. However, environmental laws and regulations remain weak.

if you wanna see photos
http://www.ebi.ac.uk/~shoja/gif/iran/caspian.jpg
http://www.leningradschool.com/ovc23b.jpg
http://www.bakutoday.net/resimler/caspian_sea_oilrocks.j

Answer 2

The world's largest lake is The Salty Caspian Sea at 143,200 square miles.The Caspian Sea is surrounded by Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan.

Answer 3

SALT WATER LAKE: The world's largest lake is the salty Caspian Sea at 143,200 square miles (370,886 Square Kilometers). The Caspian Sea is surrounded by Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan.

Actually it is a SEA & not called as LAKE!


The world's second largest lake is North America's LAKE SUPERIOR.(at 31,700 Square miles(82,103 squire Kilometers).



FRESH WATER LAKE: The world's largest fresh water lake is North America's Lake Superior at 31,700 Square miles(82,103 squire Kilometers)).

Answer 4

Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world...and it's in Canada

Answer 5

Caspian sea (kown as sea but it is a lake

The Caspian Sea is a landlocked endorheic sea of Eurasia between Asia and Europe. It is the world's largest inland body of water. It has a surface area of 371,000 km² (143,000 sq. mi.), and a maximum depth of about 1025 m (3363 ft). Thus it has characteristics common to both seas and lakes. It is often listed as the world's largest lake, though it is not a freshwater one. It has a salinity of approximately 1.2%, about a third the salinity of sea water.

Answer 6

first largest - Caspian sea (its a lake only)
second largest - Lake superior (largest freshwater lake)

Answer 7

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Answer 8

one of the five great lakes i think ...i think they are located somewhere around mississippi (and no not the misissippi river)...

Answer 9

Lake Baikal, Russia

Coordinates 52°45′N 107°15′E
Lake type Continental rift lake


Catchment area 560,000 square kilometers (347,968 mi²)
Basin countries Russia
Max-length 636 kilometers (395 mi)
Max-width 80 kilometers (50 mi)
Surface area 31,494 square kilometers (19,569 mi²)
Average depth 758 meters (2,487 ft)
Max-depth 1637 meters (5369 ft)
Water volume 23,600 cubic kilometers (5,521 mi³)
Shore length1 2,100 kilometers (1,305 mi)
Surface elevation 456 meters (1,496 ft)
Islands 22
Settlements Irkutsk
1 Shore length is an imprecise measure which may not be standardized for this article.

Lake Baikal is the deepest and oldest lake in the world and the largest (by volume) freshwater lake on Earth. It contains over 20% of the world's liquid fresh water and more than 90% of Russia's liquid fresh water. A World Heritage Site, it lies in Southern Siberia in Russia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and Buryatia to the southeast, near the city of Irkutsk. The name derives from Tatar "Bai-Kul" - "rich lake". It is also known as the Blue Eye of Siberia. In Russian, it is called Байка́л (Ozero Baykal, О́зеро literally meaning Lake, pronounced ['ozʲɪrə bʌj'kɑl]), and in the Buryat and Mongol languages it is called Dalai-Nor, or "Sacred Sea".

Geography and hydrography

Very little was known about Lake Baikal until work began on the Trans-Siberian railway. The scenic loop encircling Lake Baikal required 200 bridges and 33 tunnels. At the same time (1896–1902) a large hydrogeographical expedition headed by F.K. Drizhenko produced the first detailed atlas of the contours of Baikal's depths.

Baikal has as much water as all of North America's Great Lakes combined — 23,600 km³, about 20% of the total fresh water on the Earth. However, in surface area, it is exceeded by the much shallower Great Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan, as well as by the relatively shallow Lake Victoria in East Africa and the second largest in volume, Central Africa's Lake Tanganyika. Known as the "Galápagos of Russia", its age and isolation have produced one of the world's richest and most unusual freshwater faunas, which is of exceptional value to evolutionary science.

At 636 kilometres long and 80 km wide, Baikal has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in Asia (31,494 km²) and is the deepest lake in the world (1637 metres, previously measured at 1620 metres). The bottom of the lake is 1285 metres below sea level, but below this lies some 7 km (4 miles) of sediment, placing the rift floor some 8–9 km (more than 5 miles) down: the deepest continental rift on Earth. In geological terms, the rift is young and active — it widens about 2 centimeters per year. The fault zone is also seismically active: there are hot springs in the area and notable earthquakes every few years.
The Yenisei River basin, Lake Baikal, and the cities of Dikson, Dudinka, Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk
Enlarge
The Yenisei River basin, Lake Baikal, and the cities of Dikson, Dudinka, Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk

Its age is estimated at 25–30 million years, making it one of the most ancient lakes in geological history. It is unique among large, high-latitude lakes in that its sediments have not been scoured by overriding continental ice sheets. US and Russian studies of core sediment in the 1990s provide a detailed record of climatic variation over the past 250,000 years. Longer and deeper sediment cores are expected in the near future. If all the sediment were scoured from the lake, the lake would be a further 7km below sea surface (the water from above would replace the scoured sediment so the depth of the lake itself would not change).

The lake is completely surrounded by mountains, technically protected as a national park and contains 22 small islands, the largest, Olkhon, being 72km long. The lake is fed by some 300 inflowing rivers, the six main ones being Selenga, the source of some of Baikal's pollution, Chikoy, Khiloh, Uda, Barguzin and Upper Angara, and is drained through a single outlet, the Angara River.

Despite its great depth, the lake's waters are well-mixed and well-oxygenated throughout the water column. (Compared to the notable stratification of bodies such as Lake Tanganyika and the Black Sea.)

Baikal is renowned for the unique clarity of its waters. Muted protest about the establishment of a wood pulp and cellulose plant at the south end of the lake, at Baikalsk, first planned in 1957, originated ecological awareness among Russians, though not among the Soviet bureaucracy. The plant still pours industrial effluent into Baikal's waters. The overall impacts of watershed pollution on Baikal and similar watersheds is studied annually by the Tahoe Baikal Institute, an exchange program between the U.S. and Russian and Mongolian scientists and university graduate students started in 1989.




The extent of biodiversity present in Lake Baikal is equalled by few other lakes. Lake Baikal hosts 1085 species of plants and 1550 species and varieties of animals. Over 60% of animals are endemic; e.g., 27 of 52 species of fish are endemic. The Baikal Seal (Phoca sibirica), the only mammal living in the lake, is found throughout the whole area of the lake.

Of note is an endemic subspecies of the omul fish (Coregonus autumnalis migratorius). It is fished, smoked, and sold on all markets around the lake. For many travellers on the Trans-Siberian railway, purchasing smoked omul is one of the highlights on the long journey.

Bears and deer are observable and hunted along Baikal coasts.
Ecology

Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill

Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM) was constructed in 1966 directly on the shore line. The BPPM bleaches its paper with chlorine and discharges the waste into Baikal. Despite numerous protests, the BPPM is still in production. Environmental activists are now in a struggle to make the pollution less harmful rather than end BPPM's production since a plant shutdown would be problematic due to local socioeconomical issues.

Planned East-Siberian pipeline

Russian state company Transneft' is planning to build a trunk pipeline that will pass by as close as 800 m to the lake shore in a zone of substantial seismic activity. A possible accident may result in huge oil spill that will cause a devastating environmental disaster and threaten an ecosystem of the largest freshwater deposit in the world. Environmental activists in Russia ([1],[2],[3]) as well as local citizens are strongly opposed to these plans. Numerous mass meetings were held recently in Russian cities, especially in Irkutsk, though largely unreported by government-controlled national mass media. However, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered to consider an alternative route ([4] map [5]) to avoid such ecological risks. Putin declared on April 26, 2006 that the pipeline should be built along the alternative route to ensure the safety of Lake Baikal

Answer 10

pacific ocean (it all depends on your def of ocean) for details look it up yourself.