L A K E  S U P E R I O R  F A C T S 

• Length - 350 mi/563 km

• Breadth -160 mi/259 km

• Depth - 489 ft/149 m avg./1,335 ft/407 m max.

• Volume - 2,934 mi3/12,230 km3

• Water Surface Area - 31,700 mi2/82,100 km2

• Drainage Basin Area - 49,300 mi2/127,700 km2

• Shoreline Length (including islands) - 2,726 mi/4,385 km

• Retention/Replacement Time - 191 years1

• Elevation - 600 ft/183 m

• Outlet - St. Mary's River to Lake Huron

• Population - 474,150 (U.S.)/155,675 (Canada)

Lake Superior is the world's largest freshwater lake. It hosts several varieties of Lake Trout, Salmon, Rainbow and even Brook Trout. It is a huge, rock-bound lake that is capable of piling ice high against the shore, and producing ocean sized currents and waves. Waves as large as 31 feet have been recorded, and Lake Superior is the grave of more than 325 ships. Lying between the 47th and 49th parallels of latitude, it stretches 380 miles east to west and 160 miles across at its widest. The big lake has 2900 miles of shoreline, 31820 square miles of surface area, an average depth of 489 feet and a maximum sounding depth of 1333 feet. Water clarity is incredible, with visibility recorded to as much as 65 to 75 feet. The average water temperature is 40º F and it can effect a difference in air temperature as much as 20º F as far as 20 miles from its shores.

Sleeping Giant

A drop of water entering Lake Superior will remain in the lake an average of 191 years.

There is enough water in Lake Superior to flood all of North and South America to a depth of one foot.
 

1. Lake Superior is, by surface area, the world's largest freshwater lake.
2. Lake Superior contains 10% of all the earth's fresh surface water.

3. It contains 10% of all the earth's fresh surface water.

4. The Lake Superior shoreline, if straightened out, could connect the tip of Florida to the tip of James Bay.

5. In the summer, the sun sets more than 35 minutes later on the western shore of Lake Superior than at its southeastern edge.

6. Some of the world's oldest rocks, about 2.7 billion years of age, can be found on the Ontario shore of Lake Superior.

7. The average annual water temperature of Lake Superior is 40º F. It only very rarely freezes over completely, and then usually just for hours. The complete freezing of Lake Superior occurred in 1962, 1979, 2003 and 2009.

8. There have been about 350 shipwrecks recorded in Lake Superior.

Sliver Islet, a Lake Superior island off Ontario's north shore, was the site for 15 years in the 1800s of the world's richest silver mine. The above photo shows the remnants of the mine shaft at the bottom end of the small island and the cribbing. The shaft went down 1400 ft.

This page is dedicated to the memory of my friend Russell and all the good times we had fishing and exploring Lake Superior around our home town. "Yo..."

Lake Superior