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Why do North America, Africa, and Asia contain much of the worldâs lake water?
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lake
Lake Ann in North Cascades National Park, Washington, U.S., viewed from the park's Maple Loop Trail. The North Cascades National Park is a large wilderness area that preserves majestic mountain scenery, snowfields, glaciers, and other unique natural features.
North America, Africa, and Asia contain approximately 70 percent of the worldâs total lake water because these continents host a small number of exceptionally large and deep lakes that store vast volumes of water.1
The concentration of this water is primarily due to geological processes that created massive, deep basins capable of holding significant quantities of liquid. For example:1
- Glaciation: In North America, the movement of massive glaciers during the Pleistocene Epoch scoured and deepened existing valleys, creating the basins that now hold the Great Lakes.23
- Tectonic Activity: In Africa and Asia, tectonic movements and rifting have formed deep, expansive basins. Lake Tanganyika in Africa and Lake Baikal in Asia are among the world's largest and deepest lakes, accounting for a substantial portion of global lake water volume.14
While lakes are found globally, the majority of the world's 125,000 cubic kilometers of lake water is concentrated in only about 40 of these massive bodies. Other continents are less "generously endowed" with such large-scale, high-capacity basins.1