Which North American Great Lake is the largest by volume?

Lake Superior is the largest North American Great Lake by volume. It contains about 2,900 cubic miles (12,100 cubic kilometers) of water, far more than Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, or Lake Ontario.

Superior is also the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, covering roughly 31,700 square miles. It borders Ontario in Canada and Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the United States. Its great depth and relatively small drainage basin help explain why its water takes about 191 years to be replaced.

The name reflects both geography and scale. French explorers called it lac supérieur, meaning “upper lake,” because it lies above Lake Huron in elevation. The Ojibwe name Gichigami means “great sea,” a name echoed in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Song of Hiawatha.

A common mix-up is confusing volume with surface area. Lake Superior leads the individual Great Lakes on both measures, although Michigan and Huron are hydrologically connected and are sometimes treated as one lake.