The Great Lakes hold 20% of the world’s fresh water and Lake Michigan is the largest of the Great Lakes. It is also the fifth largest lake in the world. Lake Michigan has a surface area of 22,300 square miles and an average depth of 279 feet.
The deepest point in Lake Michigan is 925 feet. There are 1,638 miles of shoreline in Lake Michigan.
According to the Great Lakes Environmental Laboratory, there are approximately 1,180 gallons of water in Lake Michigan. This is based on the average depth of the lake, which is about 922 feet. The volume of water in a lake can vary depending on the season and the amount of rainfall.
How Many Gallons are in Lake Superior
Did you know that Lake Superior, one of the five Great Lakes of North America, contains an estimated 3,000,000 gallons of water? That’s enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool almost 40 times! And all of that water is fresh – not a drop of salt anywhere.
Where does all that water come from? Well, about 60% of it comes from runoff from rivers and streams flowing into the lake. The rest comes from precipitation – rain and snowfall.
In fact, if all the other Great Lakes were drained (don’t worry, they’re not going anywhere), Superior would still have enough water to cover North and South America in about 10 inches (25 cm) of liquid!
Superior is so big and deep that it never really freezes over completely. Even in the coldest winters, you’ll find some areas of open water.
And because it’s so deep (averaging around 500 feet or 152 meters), the temperatures at the surface can vary quite a bit depending on where you are and what time of year it is. In summer, the waters near the shore can get up into the 70s Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius). But out in the middle of the lake, things are much cooler – sometimes only reaching into the 40s Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius).
All that water makes for some pretty impressive waves too. Stormy weather can create waves as high as 30 feet (9 meters)! So next time you’re at Lake Superior, take a moment to appreciate all that H2O… just don’t fall in!
Credit: wgntv.com
How Long Would It Take to Drain Lake Michigan?
It would take approximately 1,180 years to drain Lake Michigan if all the water flowed out through the Straits of Mackinac. The average depth of Lake Michigan is 279 feet (85 meters) and it has a surface area of 22,300 square miles (58,000 square kilometers). It contains about 1,180 cubic miles (4,900 cubic kilometers) of water.
How Much Water Does Lake Michigan Contain?
Lake Michigan is the largest of the Great Lakes by water volume and the third largest by surface area, so it’s no surprise that it contains a lot of water. In fact, Lake Michigan holds about 1,180 cubic miles (4,918 km3) of water – that’s enough to cover the entire state of Wisconsin to a depth of nearly 9 feet (2.7 m)! This vast amount of water is supplied by numerous rivers and streams, including the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and Chicago Rivers.
While all this water is impressive, it’s also worth noting that Lake Michigan is constantly losing water due to evaporation. In fact, it’s estimated that the lake loses about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) of water each year to evaporation alone. However, this loss is offset by precipitation in the form of rain and snowfall, which replenish the lake with fresh water.
How Many Gallons of Water are in the Great Lakes?
The Great Lakes hold about 6 quadrillion gallons of water, making them the largest system of freshwater lakes in the world. Quadrillion is a one followed by 15 zeroes, so that’s a lot of water! The Great Lakes contain about 21% of the world’s freshwater surface area and 97% of North America’s.
These five lakes are huge: Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario. Together they cover over 94,000 square miles and have an average depth of 279 feet. That’s like having a lake the size of Oklahoma filled with almost three times as much water as all 50 states use in a day!
The Great Lakes hold enough water to fill all the reservoirs west of the Mississippi River twice over. In terms of volume, this is equivalent to about 1% of Earth’s total freshwater supply. And yet despite their size and importance, the Great Lakes are shockingly vulnerable to depletion and pollution.
How Much Water is Pumped Out of Lake Michigan?
Approximately 3,200 gallons per second are pumped out of Lake Michigan. This water is used for drinking water, irrigation, and power generation. The pumps are located at the Chicago River Controlling Works near Chicago, Illinois.
Why Lake Michigan and Lake Huron Lost 14 Trillion Gallons in Past Year
Conclusion
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third-largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To put its size into perspective, Lake Michigan is approximately as large as England.
So how much water does this massive lake contain?
According to a recent study, Lake Michigan contains 1,180 cubic miles (4,918 km3) of water, which equals about 553 trillion gallons (2,100 km3). That’s a lot of water!
In fact, if all of the Great Lakes were emptied out, it would take more than 210 years to refill them with water from rivers and rainfall.
So there you have it! Now you know that Lake Michigan contains a huge amount of water – enough to keep everyone in the world supplied with fresh drinking water for almost three years!
