Largest lakes & reservoirs in by water volume
The estimated volume of water that a lake contains is measured at the lake’s normal elevation. By this measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is Siberia’s Lake Baikal.Water Volume can be measured in acre-feet, in cubic miles, or in cubic kilometers. One acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre (43,560 square feet) to a depth of one foot. One cubic mile equals 3,379,200 acre-feet. One cubic kilometer equals 810,713 acre-feet. 1 acre-foot is equal to 325,851 US gallons. Siberia’s Lake Baikal contains about 6,276,367,740,000,000 gallons of freshwater – nearly 1 million gallons for every living person on earth.
The other – and more widely used – measure of a lake’s size is the lake’s surface acreage. By that measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is North America’s Lake Superior.
Note: In the United States, an acre foot is a unit of volume used to refer to large-scale bodies of water. It is defined by the volume of water needed to cover 1 acre of surface area to a depth of 1 foot.
You can find many of the the world’s largest lakes (by water volume) on LakeLubbers. Note: For some lakes, the water volume data is unknown or does not apply, so you may see fewer lakes than the total 2151 articles we have published for lakes.
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Below are lakes within Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in , only the 2151 lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Water vol. in ac-ft |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Rye Patch Reservoir, NV (Cowboy Country, NV, Nevada, US West Region, USA) |
196,000 ac-ft | Rye Patch Reservoir is located on the Humboldt River in Pershing County, Nevada. The reservoir was completed in 1936 and provides flood control and ir … |
| El Vado Lake, NM (New Mexico, North-Central, NM, US Southwest Region, USA) |
195,440 ac-ft | (Also known as El Vado Reservoir) El Vado Lake, situated in New Mexico’s northern mountains, is located west of Tierra Amarilla in Rio Arriba Counnty. Surrounded by acres of mixed juni … |
| Great Pond, ME (Kennebec & Moose River Valleys Region, ME, Maine, US New England Region, USA) |
195,100 ac-ft | (Also known as Belgrade Lakes) Great Pond, in Maine’s Kennebec and Moose River Valleys Region, is the largest of seven lakes in the Belgrade Lakes Chain. These seven lakes are part … |
| Deer Creek Reservoir, UT (Mountainland Region, UT, US West Region, USA, Utah) |
193,614 ac-ft | Deer Creek Reservoir is located near Heber, Utah, the home of the historic “Heber Creeper,” a train with a steam engine that takes tourists on trips f … |
| Summersville Lake, WV (Mountain Lakes Region, WV, US South Region, USA, West Virginia) |
191,540 ac-ft | (Also known as Summersville Reservoir) Scenic Summersville Lake is the largest lake in West Virginia. The reservoir was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood control on the Ga … |
| Magic Reservoir (Central Idaho, Idaho, US West Region, USA) |
191,500 ac-ft | There is magic to be found in central Idaho: Magic Reservoir! This expanse of water was created in 1909 when the Big Wood River was dammed to provide … |
| Barren River Lake, KY (Caves, Lakes & Corvettes Region, KY, Kentucky, US South Region, USA) |
190,320 ac-ft | Barren River Lake, located in south-central Kentucky, is one of the state’s hidden jewels, covering over 10,100 acres. The lake was created by the Lou … |
| Waurika Lake, OK (Great Plains Country, OK, Oklahoma, US Southwest Region, USA) |
190,200 ac-ft | (Also known as Waurika Reservoir, Lake Waurika) Located on Beaver Creek, a tributary of the Red River, Waurika Lake was created to provide flood damage reduction, irrigation, water supply, water qua … |
| South Holston Lake, VA (Blue Ridge Highlands, VA, East Tennessee, Tennessee, US South Region, USA, Virginia) |
189,100 ac-ft | (Also known as South Holston Reservoir) An impoundment of the South Fork Holston River, South Holston Lake is an exceptional place to fish and boat. Straddling the Virginia and Tennessee sta … |
| Wickiup Reservoir, OR (Central Oregon, Oregon, US West Region, USA) |
188,476 ac-ft | (Also known as Wickiup Lake) Wickiup Reservoir is an 11,000 acre angler’s paradise. Camping areas are plentiful, and boat launching ramps are located at most. The reservoir gets i … |
| Pymatuning Lake, PA/OH (Great Lakes Region, PA, Northeast Ohio, Ohio, Pennsylvania, US Mid-Atlantic Region, US Midwest Region, USA) |
188,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Pymatuning Reservoir) Pymatuning Lake, located in northwestern Pennsylvania and spilling over into northeastern Ohio, is a lake of superlatives: Clocking in at 17,088 acres … |
| Lake Kaweah (California, Central Valley Region, CA, US West Region, USA) |
185,600 ac-ft | (Also known as Kaweah Lake, Kaweah Reservoir) Lake Kaweah, located about halfway between the City of Visalia and Sequoia National Park in California’s Central Valley region, is an engineering marv … |