Deep lakes captivate the human imagination, with myths of bottomless lakes harboring monsters, lost cities, treasures, and more.
Despite modern technology like sonar, remote cameras, and submarines, the ancient allure and mystery persist.
Here’s a countdown of the world’s 9 deepest lakes.
9. Crater Lake (1,943 feet [592 meters])
Crater Lake, situated in Oregon’s Cascade Range, claims the title of the deepest lake in the United States.
This relatively young lake formed approximately 7,700 years ago when the massive Mount Mazama volcano collapsed after an eruption.
People lived there, and local Klamath Indians’ oral traditions blended myth and authentic history.
The lake’s strikingly deep blue color fascinates visitors due to its exceptional depth and clear water with minimal sediment from rainfall.
8. Great Slave Lake (2,015 feet [614 meters])
Northwest Territories of Canada hosted the Great Slave Lake, named after the Slave or Slavey, a group of Athabascan-speaking Indians.
This lake stands as the deepest in North America and the second-largest in Canada. On the lake’s northern shore lies Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories.
The area’s harsh northern climate sparsely populates it (Yellowknife, the largest city, has fewer than 20,000 inhabitants).
Nevertheless, for those resilient enough to reside there, unique advantages exist.
During nearly half the year, the thick ice supports trucks and cars, facilitating a daily winter shortcut from Yellowknife to the community of Dettah via an ice road.
7. Lake Ysyk (2,192 feet [668 meters])
Lake Ysyk, situated at an elevation of 5,270 feet (1,606 meters) in Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shan mountains, ranks among the world’s largest alpine lakes.
Its Kyrgyz name, Ysyk-köl, translates to “Hot Lake” because it remains unfrozen, despite frigid winter temperatures as low as −15 °F (−26 °C).
Scientists attribute this phenomenon to the lake’s slight salinity and geothermal activity in the region.
Throughout history, Lake Ysyk-Köl has been a hub of human activity.
Archaeologists have uncovered gold and bronze artifacts left behind by Kyrgyzstan’s earliest settlers, the Scythian people, in the vicinity.
The lake was a vital stop on the Silk Road. Researchers found medieval settlements in shallower waters from lower water levels.
The lake’s remarkable depth and the area’s archaeological richness have piqued the curiosity of researchers and treasure hunters.
Periodically, expeditions are launched in the hopes of uncovering a “Kyrgyz Atlantis,” believed to be ancient ruins lying in the lake’s deeper regions.
6. Lake Nyasa (2,316 feet [706 meters])
Lake Nyasa extends 350 miles along Mozambique, Tanzania, and Malawi borders, also known as Lake Malawi.
Its dimensions and temperature stratification create diverse environments, fostering remarkable biodiversity in Lake Nyasa.
Scientists documented 1,000 fish species, housing about 15% of Earth’s freshwater fish species.
5. O’Higgins/San Martín Lake (2,742 feet [836 meters])
In a sparsely populated area of the Patagonian Andes, this lake, known as O’Higgins in Chile and San Martín in Argentina, is likely the least known of the lakes on the list.
It lies on the Argentina-Chile border and the O’Higgins Glacier feeds it from the west.
The lake obtains its characteristic milky turquoise color due to the high concentration of rock flour suspended in the water from the glacier.
4. Lake Vostok (2,950 feet [900 meters])
Lake Vostok, situated in Antarctica, stands out from other lakes on this list because it lies buried under nearly 2.5 miles (4 km) of ice. It claims the title of the largest known subglacial lake.
Suspected trapped freshwater was verified by British and Russian researchers using ice-penetrating radar in 1996.
Recently, the mystery of biological activity in the lake persisted because there had been no means to collect samples or place sensors beneath the ice.
However, a breakthrough occurred in 2012 when a team of researchers successfully drilled all the way to the lake’s surface.
Scientists studying the samples have reported discovering numerous new forms of bacterial life.
3. Caspian Sea (3,360 feet [1,025 meters])
The Caspian Sea, which lies between the Caucasus Mountains and the Central Asian Steppe, is the largest fully enclosed body of water on Earth and the world’s largest salt lake, stretching nearly 750 miles (1,200 km) from north to south and having an average width of 200 miles (320 km).
The northern third of the Caspian is remarkably shallow, with an average depth of about 20 feet (6 meters).
But the southernmost third plunges down to an average depth of about 1,000 feet (300 meters).
Commercial fishing and tourism to the Caspian shore play a vital role in the economies of the surrounding countries.
Large quantities of oil and natural gas are also extracted from the Caspian seabed via offshore rigs.
2. Lake Tanganyika (4,710 feet [1,436 meters])
Lake Tanganyika is the second-largest freshwater lake in the world and the second-deepest lake of any kind.
It sits on the border between Zambia, Burundi, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Like Lake Nyasa, it is a relatively long and narrow lake with extraordinary biodiversity.
Since the Stone Age, human communities on the shores of the lake have fed themselves by fishing there.
However modern commercial fishing practices, introduced in the 1950s, have contributed to the problem of overfishing in recent decades.
1. Lake Baikal (5,315 feet [1,620 meters])
Lake Baikal: The world’s deepest, largest freshwater lake, with over 20% of unfrozen freshwater on Earth’s surface.
It is also the oldest freshwater lake in the world, with an estimated age of 20 million to 25 million years.
Like other lakes on this list, Baikal is home to a large number of animal and plant species that cannot be found anywhere else.
One of the most remarkable is the Baikal seal (also called the nerpa), the only species of seal in the world to live exclusively in a freshwater habitat.
How the seals’ ancestors arrived in Lake Baikal remains a mystery, since the lake lies hundreds of miles inland.
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