How deep is Lake Erie at its deepest point?

Lake Erie is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest average water residence time. At its deepest point Lake Erie is 210 feet deep.





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The shallowest section of Lake Erie is the western basin where depths average only 25 to 30 feet (7.6 to 9.1 m); as a result, the slightest breeze can kick up lively waves, also known as seiches.

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Currents in Lake Erie can be dangerous! Any current flowing faster than 2 mph is considered dangerous. Dangerous currents can exceed 5 mph — faster than an Olympic swimmer can swim.

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Lake Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume and also the shallowest. It warms quickly in the spring and summer and cools quickly in the fall. The shallowness of the basin and the warmer temperatures make it the most biologically productive of the Great Lakes.

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Lake Erie has an astonishing 2,000-plus shipwrecks which is among the highest concentration of shipwrecks in the world. Only about 400 of Lake Erie's wrecks have ever been found. There are schooners, freighters, steamships, tugs and fishing boats among them.

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Lake Erie occupies a basin that was carved out of Earth's crust over millions of years by rivers and glaciers. The oldest rocks from which the basin was carved are about 400 million years old and formed in a tropical ocean reef environment.

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Lake Superior is the Cleanest and Clearest Great Lake Because of its somewhat isolated location and long cold winters, not much farming is done along Superior's shores. This means lower amounts of nutrients, sediments, and organic material are floating around the lake.

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While there is much to celebrate about the progress made to protect the Lake Erie, there is still much work to be done. The excessive nutrient load running into Lake Erie continues to cause unacceptable harmful algal blooms (HABs) every summer in the Western Basin.

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The largest lake in the world is the Caspian Sea. Although it is often considered a sea because of its size and salinity, it is technically classified as an endorheic lake. With a surface area of around 371,000 km², the Caspian Sea far exceeds any other lake in terms of size.

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Hornindalsvatnet is the deepest lake in Europe, and among the deepest lakes in the world. It covers an area of 50.5 square kilometres, is up to 514 metres deep and its elevation is 53 metres above sea level.

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Other lakes are so big that they are called seas. The Caspian Sea, in Europe and Asia, is the world's largest lake, with an area of more than 370,000 square kilometers (143,000 square miles). Lakes also vary greatly in depth. The world's deepest lake is Lake Baikal, in Russia.

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A 119-year-old shipwreck has been found at the bottom of Lake Erie. The wooden steam barge Margaret Olwill sank in 50 feet of water during a nor'ester in 1899. Eight people died, including the captain, his wife and their 9-year-old son.

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The SS G. P. Griffith was a passenger steamer that burned and sank on Lake Erie on 17 June 1850, resulting in the loss of between 241 and 289 lives.

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But investigating that spot alone would require a year or two of searching. Fair warning: Mike Wachter says anyone who tries to find the M&B shouldn't do it for the gold. “Like most ships on the bottom of Lake Erie, there is no treasure,” he says. “The only real treasure is the stories and the history.”

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The good news is that because Lake Erie is so shallow and turns over every 2.6 years, that it can get healthy pretty fast if the problem sources are reduced/eliminated.

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About one-third of the total population of the Great Lakes basin is in the Lake Erie watershed. Approximately twelve million people live in the watershed, including seventeen metropolitan areas with more than 50,000 residents. The lake provides drinking water for about eleven million of these inhabitants.

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