Lake Superior the Soo Locks. Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world in area (if Lakes Michigan and Huron are taken separately; "see Lake Michigan–Huron"), and the third largest in volume, behind Lake Baikal in Siberia and Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. The Caspian Sea, while larger than Lake Superior in both surface area and volume, is brackish; though presently isolated, prehistorically the Caspian has been repeatedly connected to and isolated from the Mediterranean via the Black Sea. Lake Superior has a surface area of , which is approximately the size of South Carolina or Austria. It has a
Lake Baikal Lake Baikal Lake Baikal (; ; , "Baigal nuur"; , "Baigal nuur", etymologically meaning, in Mongolian, "the Nature Lake") is a rift lake in Russia, located in southern Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast. Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake by volume in the world, containing 22–23% of the world's fresh surface water. With of fresh water, it contains more water than the North American Great Lakes combined. With a maximum depth of , Baikal is the world's deepest lake. It is considered among the world's clearest lakes and is considered