Weird Map Puts The World’s Largest Lakes All Around Michigan
In Michigan, our lakes are a point of pride as we boast having one of the largest areas of fresh water in the world thanks to the Great Lakes. They make up about 20% of all the fresh water in the world. Someone has decided to throw all the fresh water our way by creating a strange map that groups the 25 largest lakes in the world together with the five Great Lakes. It certainly will mess with your vision a little.
It must have been a slow news day at Visual Capitalist, but hey... we are sharing with you too. So I guess it's a slow news day here too, but here's a secret: that's when we actually have the most fun. Anyways, they used an online tool called Slap It On A Map to make it (which is a dangerously addicting website for map nerds to totally get lost in. Trust me.)
The largest lake in the world by a wide margin is the saline Caspian Sea with a surface area of about 143,000 square miles, although there have been arguments for a long time about whether it is actually a lake or a sea. If it wasn't considered a lake, the Great Lakes' own Lake Superior would be the largest in the world at 31,700 square miles, but it is ranked 2nd here. Coming in 3rd is Lake Victoria in Africa, followed by Lakes Huron and Michigan (4th and 5th largest in the world respectively). Lake Erie is 11th and Lake Ontario rounds out the Great Lakes at 13th largest in the world.
So take a look... this is what it would look like if the Great Lakes region stole ALL the biggest lakes in the world.