Which North American lake is the world's largest freshwater lake by surface area?

Which North American lake is the world's largest freshwater lake by surface area? Lake Superior.

Lake Superior covers about 31,700 square miles (82,100 square kilometres), making it the largest freshwater lake on Earth by surface area. It is the northernmost and westernmost of North America's five Great Lakes, bordered by Ontario and the U.S. states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

The lake was carved and deepened by continental glaciers during the Ice Age. Its water drains through the St. Marys River into Lake Huron, then through the remaining Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean. Superior also holds roughly 2,900 cubic miles of water and has a maximum depth of about 1,333 feet.

A common mix-up is the Caspian Sea, which is larger but saline rather than freshwater. Lake Michigan-Huron can also be treated as one hydrological body and has a slightly larger combined surface area, but the two are conventionally counted as separate lakes. By volume, Superior ranks behind Lake Baikal and Lake Tanganyika.