Lakes of America

North America - a relatively young continent, separated from Eurasia and Antarctica during the movement of tectonic plates. In memory of the glaciers that covered most of the continent, there were many lakes that filled the natural uneven terrain. Some of them now serve as natural borders of states and states.

Thanks to its lakes, America is considered the largest freshwater storage on the planet.

In Canada, according to hydrographic studies, lakes with an area of more than 3 square meters. km there are more than 30 thousand, and more than 100 square meters. km - over 500. The largest of Canada's internal lakes is the Big Bear Lake, the fourth largest in North America and the eighth in the world. The second largest, the Great Slave Lake, has a depth of 614 m - this is the deepest lake in North America. 10 lakes of Canada are on the border with the USA.

In the United States there are about 18 thousand lakes. Most of them are in the northern part of the United States, near the border with Canada: according to hydrographs, only in the states of Maine and Michigan there are 13, 5 thousand lakes. The most famous and largest are the Great Lakes on the northern border of the USA and Canada, as well as the famous drainless salt lakes located in the Great Basin - the lowland between the Sierra Nevada ridges, the Cascade and the Rocky Mountains in the northwest of the USA.

Great North American lakes - Upper, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario, are interconnected by straits and rivers .This is the largest group of freshwater lakes on the planet: on the world map, the area occupied by them is one fifth of the entire area of the freshwater lakes of the Earth .The upper lake is the largest lake in the world, and Lake Michigan is the fourth in the world rating .The local population of the banks of the Great Lakes was called the "third coast", by analogy with the Pacific and Atlantic: they are navigable, and their depth is hundreds of meters .On the Niagara River, which connects Lake Erie and Ontario, is the famous Niagara Falls .

Lake TITIKAKA the highest of the world IN PERU

On the southern inner plateaus of the Cordillera are shallow salt lakes, the level of which depends mainly on precipitation. They do not have a drain, so the water in them is more salty than the sea. This is what is left of Bonneville Salt Flats - a dried salt lake, formed about 32 thousand. years ago, and approximately 17 thousand years ago almost completely parched. The largest of the remaining is the Great Salt Lake in Utah with an area of 2850 sq. Km. km. This is the largest lake in the Western Hemisphere.

In the south of the Atlantic lowland there are many karst and lagoon lakes, the largest of which is Okeechobee. Its area is 1890 square meters. km, but during floods the lake floods the entire marshy lowlands of the Everglades, reaching 60 km in width and 160 in length. In addition, 4 lakes of Guatemala (Amatitlan, Atitlan, Isabal and Peten-Itza), two Mexican lakes (Teshkoko and Chapala) and two lakes in Nicaragua (Nicaragua and Managua) are located on the territory of the mainland.

USA. Great Lakes. The upper lake.

In South America there are about 40 lakes - most of them in Chile (19 pieces). And on the border of Peru and Bolivia there is the largest in the world in terms of fresh water reserves, the mountain lake Titicaca, one of the world's largest navigable lakes. However, it is three times the size in South America, the leadership belongs to Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela (13210 sq. Km.), One of the oldest on the planet.

The ecological zones surrounding the lakes of America attract many tourists every year. Most of the lakes are located on the territory of the reserves and are protected by the state not only from human activities, but also from swamping and drying out.