The statement is popular on the Internet: there are so many lakes in Canada that the rest of the countries even jointly cannot compete with it in this indicator. We decided to check if this is so.
Information The fact that in Canada there are more than half of all the lakes of the world can be found on numerous entertainment And cognitive Portals. Write about it on resources About travel, as well as on sitesDedicated to Canada. You can meet such information in popular science literature, for example, in the book of Alan Weisman "Life without people", And even in Lesson plans By geography. Statementthat there is more lakes in Canada than in the rest of the world, often Found V Collections interesting facts About this country.
Lake From the point of view limnology (Sciences about internal waters - lakes, reservoirs, rivers, etc.) - this is a pond surrounded by land, the area of which can reach several hundred thousand square kilometers (for example, Caspian Sea, which is called so because of salty water, but in fact is considered a lake-more than 386,000 km2), or can be limited to several square meters. In everyday life, very small reservoirs are often called ponds, but unambiguously accepted in scientific circles criteriaby which it would be possible to divide lakes, ponds, swamps and other internal reservoirs, no. That is why the exact number of lakes in the world (and, accordingly, their area and total volume of water) is almost impossible to calculate. It is constantly changing: some water bodies dry out, others appear. In this analysis, data is given indicating the year of study, however, probably, the actual figures at the time of publication may differ slightly both in the larger and less.
In 2006, an international group of scientists Evaluated The number of lakes is more than 0.001 km in size2 in the world about 304 million on data Uppsal University (Sweden) for 2014, in the world there were about 117 million such reservoirs with an area of more than 0.02 km2, not counting the glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica, the researchers received such data from satellite images. In 2016, scientists from Canadian University McGill published study, according to which the number of lakes in the world is about 1.42 million. True, they took into account only large reservoirs, the area of which was more than 0.1 km2. Scientists also noted that 62% of such lakes are located in Canada. It is precisely this study that the authors of articles periodically refer to the fact that all other states of the world, combined, are inferior to the North American country in the number of lakes. However, small reservoirs were not taken into account in this study, but judging by other researchers, there are hundreds of times more, and there is no reason to believe that most of them are also located in Canada. In addition, the study was the construction of a statistical model based on data on certain territories, so the results may not fully coincide with reality.
If we talk not about the quantity, but about the area that the lakes are covered, then there is no reason to believe that Canada surpasses the rest of the world. The total area of the lakes on the planet, according to the data already mentioned above, for 2006 amounted to about 4.2 million km2, for 2014 - More than 5 million km2. By information, indicated on the official website of the Canadian government, the total area of the lakes in this country is really larger than in any other, but in any individual country, and not around the world. So, the total area of the ten largest Canadian lakes, according to the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, does not even reach one Caspian Sea - 288,000 km2 Against 386,000 km2. Of course, as we have already said, we must not forget about smaller lakes, which in conjunction can significantly affect the performance of countries. The International Association of Research of Great Lakes studied the 253 largest lakes in the world - they account for almost 90% of the total area of such reservoirs. That is, the remaining lakes greatly do not affect the ratio between countries. The association compiled card the largest lakes - from it It's clearThat there are really a lot of them in Canada, however, the naked eye shows that if you add up the reservoirs of all other countries, they will surpass Canada by number.
The total volume of all the lakes of the Earth, like their number and area, is a constantly changing and difficult to measurable value. However, by data International Group of Scientific Limnologists for 2016, this indicator was about 199,000 km3. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society calls the figure 91,000 km3but takes into account only fresh lakes. In the largest fresh lakes of Canada, according to them, about 22,800 km3 water. For comparison, in one Russian Baikal - 23,000 km3. If you do not take into account the salinity of water, then, by data University of McGill University, 41% of the volume of all world water in the lakes is concentrated in the Caspian Sea, 13% in Lake Baikal, 10% in Lake Tanganyika. These figures, even if you do not take into account all the other lakes of the world, do not leave Canadian reservoirs of the chance to exceed the rest of the countries combined in this indicator. However, as mentioned above, this study took into account only reservoirs with an area of more than 0.1 km2.
Thus, the exact number, volume and area of lakes in the world - or individual countries - is quite difficult to evaluate, since there is no strict definition in science of what a lake is. Because of this, the data even in one indicator in different studies can differ significantly depending on which reservoirs of scientists decided to include in scientific work. In addition, these indicators are constantly changing, since lakes tend to dry out or, conversely, are filled with water depending on various anthropogenic and natural factors. Nevertheless, based on the scientific data that is today, there is no reason to believe that there are more lakes in Canada than in all other countries combined - neither in quantity, nor in volume, nor in area.
Photo on the cover: YINAN CHENPublic Domain, Via Wikimedia Commons
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