My Science School

Ladoga is by far Europe’s largest lake with a total surface area of 17 700 square kilometers (6,800 sq mi), which means that it’s larger than both Onega and Vänern combined. 

It’s beautifully located in Karelia in the northwestern part of Russia. Ladoga is ranked as one of the largest lakes in the world (14th) and has an average depth at 51 meters, and maximum depth at 230 meters. 

Visitors can rent a boat to get around the lake and stop for a picnic at one of the 600 islands that are located within its boundaries.

Lake Ladoga famously serves as a source of drinking water for the city. Renowned vodka brand Russian Standard even uses it to create the nation’s favourite tipple (the word vodka is a diminutive of the Russian ‘voda’, meaning water); the company’s vodka scientists go as far as describing the lake water as ‘being alive’.

History aside, Lake Ladoga is a wonder of Nordic beauty, characterized by dense forests and rocky coastlines that can be explored by boat or on foot. The lake boasts an incredibly diverse ecosystem, with nearly 500 species of fish roaming its waters, including carp, bream, perch, and the endangered Atlantic sturgeon, whose eggs are used to make premium caviar.

 

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Antarctica is the world's southernmost continent and is located almost completely south of the Antarctic Circle. It is also the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and approximately 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that has an average thickness of nearly 2 km. Despite being largely covered in ice, Antarctica contains numerous lakes and rivers. Many of these lakes are subglacial. The largest of the 400 known subglacial lakes in Antarctica is Lake Vostok, which is located beneath Vostok Station, a Russian research station in Prince Elizabeth Land, Antarctica. Lake Vostok is a freshwater lake situated approximately 4,000 m beneath surface of the ice sheet, which means it is approximately 500 m below sea level.

Lake Vostok was most likely sealed off by a thick ice sheet approximately 15 million years ago. Researchers initially believed the same water had been in the lake since its formation. However, researchers Robin E. Bell and Michael Studinger from Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory later proved that the lake's water was continually freezing and getting carried away by moving ice sheets, and then replaced by water created through the cumulative pressure of the ice sheets. As a result, the entire lake water is replaced approximately every 13,300 years.

 

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Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America by surface area and volume. It covers an area of 3,232 sq mi and holds an average of 214 cu mi of water. It is the world’s "highest navigable lake” at an altitude of 12,507 ft. Titicaca is located within the boundaries of two countries; the western part lies in Puno Region of Peru while the eastern part is located in the Bolivian La Paz Department. The lake consists of two basins connected by the Strait of Tiquina. Five major rivers and more than 20 streams feed Titicaca; the Río Desaguadero is the only outlet. There are 41 islands on the lake most of which are inhabited.

The lake averages between 460 and 600 feet (140 and 180 m) in depth, but the bottom tilts sharply toward the Bolivian shore, reaching its greatest recorded depth of 920 feet (280 m) off Isla Soto in the lake's northeast corner.

More than 25 rivers empty their waters into Titicaca; the largest, the Ramis, draining about two-fifths of the entire Titicaca Basin, enters the north-western corner of the lake. One small river, the Desaguadero, drains the lake at its southern end. This single outlet empties only 5 percent of the lake's excess water; the rest is lost by evaporation under the fierce sun and strong winds of the dry Altiplano.

 

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The largest lake in North America is Lake Superior. The lake's name did not initially refer to its enormous size, but was described as “la lac superior” by early French explorers in reference to the fact that it was the only lake upstream from the other Great Lakes of North America. However, in the 1760s the British anglicized the lake's name to Lake Superior in reference to its massive size. Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world and covers a total area of 82,100 square miles.

Like all of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior is prone to lake effect snow, but the weather is generally moderate, with warmer temperatures than inland throughout the year. Winter temperatures around the lake rarely fall below minus 30 F (minus 34 C), well above inland temperatures. June and July are calm months, while October and November are prone to storms.

During most winters, the lake is 40 to 95 percent covered with ice, although it rarely completely freezes. The last time Lake Superior froze over was in 2014. Overall, the Great Lakes reached a 91 percent ice cover that year, which is the most the lakes have frozen since 1979. Freezing of the lakes is monitored because it affects hydropower generation, commercial shipping, the fishing industry and more, according to the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

 

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Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa.

It straddles the borders of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. It was once thought to be the source of the Nile River since the Nile is the only river flowing out from Lake Victoria.

Lake Victoria has some specialized flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world. Many of these species have become extinct in recent decades. This is due to the introduction of invasive species like the Nile perch. Nile perch can grow to be larger than the size of a full-grown man.

A parasite known as Bilharzia makes swimming in Lake Victoria a risk. Bilharzia is found in many African lakes. It is easily treated, but it’s best to have the medication on-hand if you plan to swim.

Some larger threats lurk under the waves. It’s becoming more common to hear about attacks from hippopotamus or the Nile crocodiles since much of their smaller pray have been hunted away.

 

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The Caspian Sea is the Earth's largest inland body of water. It lies at the junction of Europe and Asia, with the Caucasus Mountains to the west and the steppes of Central Asia to the east. It is bordered by Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, Turkmenistan to the southeast and Kazakhstan to the northeast. 

"The Caspian Sea is located in a dry region of the world," Kukral told Live Science. Nevertheless, during harsh winters its entire northern half can freeze. 

The Caspian Sea is endorheic, meaning it has no natural outlets. More than 130 rivers flow into the Caspian Sea, according to Natural History Magazine, none of which are in the east. The primary tributary is the Volga River in the north, which provides about 80 percent of the inflowing water. The Ural River, also in the north, and the Kura River in the west, are also significant tributaries. The inflowing fresh water from these rivers dilute the water. Salinity changes from north to south, from 1.0 to 13.5 parts per thousand (ppt), according to Casp Info, a data-management project about the Caspian Sea funded by the European Union. By contrast, the North Atlantic Ocean has a salinity of 37 ppt, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.  

The most famous and financially valuable animal in the region is the beluga sturgeon, sometimes called the European or Caspian sturgeon. The world's largest freshwater fish, the beluga sturgeon is known for its eggs, which are processed into caviar. The majority of the world's beluga caviar comes from the Caspian Sea. This has caused problems with overfishing. Dams have also destroyed much of their spawning grounds, and pesticides used in land agriculture have limited their fertility. The beluga sturgeon is now critically endangered, according to the World Wildlife Fund. 

 

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The Great Victoria Desert (GVD) forms one of nine distinct sub-landscapes in the Alinytjara Wilurara region. It is the largest desert in Australia, spanning over 700 kilometres. Its pristine, arid wilderness includes red sand dunes, stony plains and dry salt lakes.

The desert is a part of Australia that houses the most populous and healthy population of Indigenous Australians belonging to groups like Pitjantjatjara, Mirning, and the Kogara. Large parts of the Great Victoria Desert, however, remain uninhabited as the climate and terrain are unsuitable for human settlement. Large, pristine areas of the desert are protected areas like the Mamungari Conservation Park.

Only drought resistant plants can survive the harsh desert environment. A few species of Acacia and Eucalyptus can be found here. Spinifex grasses occupy most the of the desert landscape amidst the sandy ridges. A few mammals and birds can be found in the Great Victoria Desert. Some examples are the great desert skink, the crest-tailed mulgara, the southern marsupial mole, the sandhill dunnart, etc. The large monitor lizards, the sand goanna and the perentie, and the dingo are the active predators of the Great Victoria Desert.

 

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Oleshky is the largest desert in Europe and it’s in an unusual place seeing as Ukraine is well-known for its rich agricultural land. In the 19th century, this area in the Kherson region was overused by sheep farmers and the grass gave way to sand which has reigned ever since. To stop the spreading desertification, the largest tree planting operation in history was carried out in the 20th century around the sand’s borders – 100,000 hectares of new trees! Oleshky is popular with visitors but some parts are considered no-go – landmines were left behind in certain areas during military exercises in the Soviet era.

As any desert, the Oleshky Sands have their own oases, dried up, wet, and mineral lakes, and 5 m high sand dunes covered with grass and bushes. Sandstorms are known to occur in these regions. In order to prevent the whole Black Sea region from turning into one big desert, in the 20th century, artificial forests were planted around the sands. Today, spreading over a territory of 100,000 hectares, these forests are one of the largest artificial forests in the world.

The sands are thought to be formed during the most recent ice age by aeolian processes accumulating and forming cliffs of lower parts of nearby river Dnieper. It is speculated that the number of vegetation was reduced by herds of sheep who were introduced there by Eduard von Falz-Fein who used the sands, formerly populated by weeds, as a pasture.

 

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The largest desert on earth is the Antarctic desert, covering the continent of Antarctica with a size of around 5.5 million square miles. The term deserts includes polar deserts, subtropical deserts, cold winter and cool coastal deserts, and are based on their geographical situation.

Like most global deserts, the Antarctic covers the entire continent. In fact, an astonishing 98 percent is permanently covered by a sheet of ice. It is considered a desert because it rains on average only 10 mm every year. Some experts even believe that certain parts located away from the coast have not had rain in the past 14 million years.

It’s covered by a permanent ice sheet that contains 90% of the Earth’s fresh water. Only 2% of the continent isn’t covered by ice, and this land is strictly along the coasts, where all the life that is associated with the land mass (i.e. penguins, seals and various species of birds) reside. The other 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice which averages 1.6 km in thickness.

There are no permanent human residents, but anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 researchers inhabit the research stations scattered across the continent – the largest being McMurdo Station, located on the tip of Ross Island. Beyond a limited range of mammals, only certain cold-adapted species of mites, algaes, and tundra vegetation can survive there.

 

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