Cold Hard Lake Superior Facts:

  • Surface Area: 31,700 sq. mi. (82,100 sq. km.)
    • A.k.a. the World's Largest Freshwater Lake by surface area
    • ​Roughly the size of the state of South Carolina​

  • Volume: 3,000,000,000,000,000 gal. (2,900 cubic mi. or 12,100 cubic km.)
    • A.k.a. the World's Third Largest Freshwater Lake by volume
    • ​That's enough water to fill the Grand Canyon over 2.5 times
 
  • ​Average Depth: 483 ft. (147 m.)
    • ​Deeper than the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza
 
  • ​Maximum Depth: 1,322 ft. (406 m.)
    • ​The Empire State Building isn't even that tall
 
  • ​Length: 350 mi. (560 km.)
    • ​About the same distance as a drive from Marquette to Chicago
 
  • ​Width: 160 mi. (260 km.)
    • ​As wide as the distance from Marquette to Mackinaw City
 
  • ​Shoreline Length: 1,826 mi. (2,938 km.)
    • ​The equivalent to a cross-country road trip from Marquette to Seattle
 
  • ​Retention Time (the time to completely empty and refill the volume of the lake): 191 years
    • That means that the average drop of water in Lake Superior has been around since Beethoven was composing music
 
Information on Lake Superior from www.seagrant.umn.edu/superior/facts