Lake Erie is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest average water residence time. At its deepest point Lake Erie is 210 feet (64 m) deep, making it the only Great Lake whose deepest point is above sea level.
NOAA satellite image of Lake Erie from July 7, 2023. Light green swirls are algae bloom on the western edge of the lake.
Lake Erie on May 28, 2022, taken from the International Space Station
North shore in mid-December 2014
Walk in Water, built in Buffalo, was the first steamship on Lake Erie. Picture c. 1816.
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the east-central interior of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. The five lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, and they are in general on or near the Canada–United States border. Hydrologically, Michigan and Huron are a single body of water joined at the Straits of Mackinac. The Great Lakes Waterway enables modern travel and shipping by water among the lakes.
The Great Lakes seen from NASA's Aqua satellite in August 2010. From left to right: Lake Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario
Chicago on Lake Michigan is in the western part of the lakes megalopolis and the site of the waterway linking the lakes to the Mississippi River valley
Lake Michigan–Huron with north oriented to the right; taken on April 14, 2022, during Expedition 67 of the International Space Station. Green Bay is at the upper right and Saginaw Bay is on the left.
South Bass Island in Lake Erie
