Environment

Lake Superior is the world’s largest freshwater lake by surface area and the third largest lake by volume after Lake Baikal in the Russian Federation and Lake Tanganyika in eastern Africa. It has an average depth of 147 metres with a maximum depth of 406 metres although dramatic changes can occur over relatively short distances in some areas. The best example of this phenomenon within the NMCA is the geographic feature that creates Superior Shoals, which is in fact an undersea “mountain” where depths of less than 10 metres can suddenly drop to hundreds of metres.