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Is Lake Superior technically a sea?

Lake Superior is truly an inland sea. Weather, navigation and buoyage are taken seriously and monitored by federal maritime agencies.



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Some bodies of salt water that are called seas are really lakes. These bodies of water were part of prehistoric oceans or seas. Tectonic shifts blocked their access to larger bodies of water, and they are now completely surrounded by land.

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Why is the Black Sea not a lake? Because it's a part of the global ocean. Its waters are saline, it sits at global sea level, and its connection to the Mediterranean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles at Istanbul is one of the busiest shipping straits on Earth.

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Water flows downhill, and the ocean is at the bottom of the hill, right? But Great Salt Lake sits at the bottom of a closed basin. It's a terminal lake. The only way water can leave is through evaporation.

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Geology of Lake Inferior Lake Inferior is an underground lake that is located beneath Lake Superior. It is believed to be formed by a process known as karstification, which is the dissolution of limestone and dolomite rock. This process creates sinkholes, caves, and underground rivers and lakes.

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Lake Superior is the world's largest freshwater lake by area (31,700 mi2 /82,100 km2). It is also the coldest and deepest of the Great Lakes, with a maximum depth of 406 meters (1,332 feet). By most measures, it is the healthiest of all the Great Lakes.

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Lake Erie drains into Lake Ontario via the Niagara River. The entire system flows to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. As it flows from its westernmost point in Duluth, Minnesota to the Atlantic Ocean, the waterway drops in elevation approximately 600 feet.

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Consequently, the Great Lakes are considered to be non-tidal. Water levels in the Great Lakes have long-term, annual, and short-term variations.

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Overall, the answer is yes. Lake Superior is safe for swimming.

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Lake Superior holds a massive volume of water because of its enormous inland basin and the hundreds of rivers that feed it.

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Lake sturgeon are the largest fish in Lake Superior. They are among the oldest fish in the lake too. Did you know that a lake sturgeon can live to be older than 100 years? This species of fish has also been around for a long time—about 150 million years.

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At 1,943 feet (592 meters), Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and one of the deepest in the world. The depths were first explored thoroughly in 1886 by a party from the U.S. Geological Survey.

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The deepest point in Lake Superior (about 40 miles north of Munising, Michigan) is 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the surface.

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