The Great Lakes are so big that people who grew up beside them call them by the wrong word. You go to the lake, but there are no far shores in sight, storms on them have sunk freighters, and the water stretches more than 750 miles from the western end of Superior to the eastern end of Ontario.
A few numbers put them in perspective.
A fifth of the world’s fresh surface water
According to the EPA, the Great Lakes hold 84 percent of North America’s surface fresh water and about 21 percent of the world’s. If you have ever wondered why the lake looks like an ocean, that is why.
How deep each lake goes
Maximum depth in feet, from NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
Two things surprise people. First, Lake Ontario, the smallest by area, is deeper than Lake Huron. Second, Lake Erie is shallow enough that its deepest point, 210 feet, is less than a sixth of Superior’s. That shallowness is why Erie warms up so quickly in summer.
Lake Superior: the deep one
Superior is the largest and deepest of the five, and the coldest. Its deepest point sits 1,332 feet down. On a depth map, it is the lake where the layers keep going, shelf after shelf, long after the others have bottomed out.
It is also the lake of the most famous shipwreck in Great Lakes history. On November 10, 1975, the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald went down in a storm on eastern Lake Superior, not far from Whitefish Point, with all 29 of her crew.
Lake Superior 3D wood map $375
Lake Michigan: the one entirely in the US
Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake entirely inside the United States, bordered by Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. Its deepest point is 925 feet down, while the long shelf along the eastern beaches stays shallow, which is why the water is so swimmable from Muskegon to Sleeping Bear.
Lake Michigan 3D wood map from $188
All five in one piece
The Great Lakes map is the best seller in the shop, and it is easy to see why. Five lakes, two countries, eight states and one province, with every lake’s depth stepping down in its own layers.
Great Lakes 3D wood map 16 × 20 for $188, 24.5 × 31 for $332
Prefer a single lake? There are maps of Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Ontario too.
Keep reading: Michigan Lake Maps · The 4 Deepest Lakes in the United States · What Is a Bathymetric Map?
Sources: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (depths), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (fresh water share and span).