There are a total of 117 million lakes on the planet with about 90 million of them spanning 0.5 to 2.5 acres (0.2 to 1 hectare) or just less than two football fields in size. The shoreline of all these lakes combined makes up about 250 times the length of the equator which is 12,756 kilometers in length.
Finland earned the nickname The Land of the Thousand Lakes because it is home to over 187,000 lakes. The world’s highest lake, Ojos del Salado, can be found at an altitude of 20,965 feet and located in a crater in the Andes Mountains on the border between Chile and Argentina. On the other hand, the world’s lowest lake is the Dead Sea at 1,371 feet below sea level.
Check out our article about the Top 10 Deepest Lakes!
Types
Aeolian Lakes
If a lake is formed due to the result of wind activity, they can be called aeolian lakes. Usually found in very dry environments, they are also called interdunal lakes, and they can also be formed when water from precipitation accumulates in a cavity between two sand dunes. Moses Lake in the State of Washington is an example of an aeolian lake.
Artificial Lakes
A reservoir is the most common type of artificial lake, and they generate hydroelectric power, supply water for home usage and industries, and are usually formed through the interception of two different bodies of water.
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Examples include Lake Mead, which was formed by the Colorado River; and Lake Nasser, which was formed through the interception of the Nile. Essentially, an artificial lake is one where the water is used for public use, so it is always a body of water surrounded by land.
Fluvial Lakes
When the flow of a river is not straight but bends throughout the course of the river because of nonuniform land topography, several lakes can be formed by the running water along the way, and these lakes are called fluvial lakes. In Iowa in the United States, there is a fluvial lake called Carter Lake.
Freshwater Lakes
Lakes with freshwater are the most common types of lakes in the United States. They are fed by rivers and have no out-flowing streams. Some of the most well-known types of lakes include the five Great Lakes – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.
Meteorite Lakes
These lakes occur when a meteor or asteroid crashes into the surface of the earth and forms a depression. Years later, precipitation can accumulate in the depression, which creates this type of lake. When scientists study these types of lakes, they can gain a lot of valuable information about various types of extraterrestrial objects.
Organic Lakes
These are very small and extremely rare types of lakes, and they are formed by the action of either flora or fauna. If beavers dam up a river and a reservoir occur, this is a perfect example of an organic lake. They can also be formed when vegetative growth creates dams or coral lakes.
Permanent Lakes
In a permanent lake, the amount of evaporation is lower than the amount of precipitation, and because they are extra deep, they tend to carry more water than it is possible to have evaporated. The Great Lakes of North America and the Rift Lakes in East Africa are perfect examples of permanent lakes, but there are thousands of other permanent lakes across the globe.
Saltwater Lakes
Also called saline lakes or salt lakes, these types of lakes form when no natural outlet occurs or where water evaporates quickly and there is a higher-than-usual salt content on the drainage surface of the water table.
The lakes are filled with saline because there is intense evaporation involved which produces a negative freshwater balance. Examples of salt lakes include the Aral Sea, the Great Salt Lake, and the Dead Sea, the latter of which has a salt content of 250 parts per thousand.
Salt lakes are also commonly found in deserts and are sometimes called recall desert landforms.
Solution Lakes
When bedrock is soluble and it dissolves due to percolating water and precipitation, hollows or cavities can form, and if the precipitation fills up that cavity, it can create a lake, called a solution lake.
Sometimes, this bedrock collapses and forms a sinkhole, and if nearby groundwater gets into the hole, this is another type of solution lake. Solution lakes are fairly common in the Dalmatian coast of Croatia and even in Florida.
Temporary Lakes
