• Key Information

  • The Great Lakes

  • Type
    Interconnected Freshwater Lakes
  • Area
    94,250 square miles
  • Average depth
    60 to 480 ft
  • Max Depth
    210 to 1,300 ft
  • Volume
    5,439 cubic miles
  • Learning Point
  • The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America or the Laurentian Great Lakes, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes with certain sea-like characteristics in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River.
  • Project
  • Draw one of the Great Lakes, perhaps one near your home or one you have visited.
  • Location
  • Located in
    Eastern North America
  • Fun Facts
  • Though the five lakes lie in separate basins, they form a single, naturally interconnected body of fresh water, within the Great Lakes Basin.
  • The lakes drain a large watershed via many rivers and contain approximately 35,000 islands.
  • There are also several thousand smaller lakes, often called "inland lakes", within the basin.
  • It is thought the Great Lakes formed through the actions of massive glaciers, and the valleys they carved filled with meltwater from the retreating ice sheets.