Lake Winnipeg
| Lake Winnipeg | |
|---|---|
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| Location | Manitoba, Canada |
| Coordinates | 52°7′N 97°15′W / 52.117°N 97.250°WCoordinates: 52°7′N 97°15′W / 52.117°N 97.250°W |
| Type | Formerly part of the glacial Lake Agassiz, reservoir |
| Primary inflows | Winnipeg River, Saskatchewan River, Red River |
| Primary outflows | Nelson River |
| Catchment area | 982,900 km2 (379,500 sq mi) |
| Basin countries | Canada, United States |
| Max. length | 416 km (258 mi) |
| Max. width | 100 km (60 mi) (N Basin) 40 km (20 mi) (S Basin) |
| Surface area | 24,514 km2 (9,465 sq mi) |
| Average depth | 12 m (39 ft) |
| Max. depth | 36 m (118 ft) |
| Water volume | 284 km3 (68 cu mi) |
| Residence time | 3.5 years |
| Shore length1 | 1,858 km (1,155 mi) |
| Surface elevation | 217 m (712 ft) |
| Settlements | Gimli, Manitoba |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Lake Winnipeg (French: Lac Winnipeg) is a very large, but relatively shallow 24,514-square-kilometre (9,465 sq mi) lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, with its southern tip about 55 kilometres (34 mi) north of the city of Winnipeg. It is the largest lake within southern Canada's borders, and it is part of the most undeveloped large watershed of southern Canada.
Lake Winnipeg is Canada's sixth-largest freshwater lake, and the third-largest freshwater lake contained entirely within Canada, but it is relatively shallow (mean depth of 12 m (39 ft)) excluding a narrow 36 m (118 ft) deep channel between the northern and southern basins. It is the eleventh-largest freshwater lake on Earth. The lake's east side has pristine boreal forests and rivers that are being promoted as a potential United Nations World Heritage Park. The lake is elongated and is 416 km (258 mi) from north to south, with remote sandy beaches, large limestone cliffs, and many bat caves in some areas. Manitoba Hydro uses the lake as one of the largest reservoirs in the world. There are many islands, most of them undeveloped.
The lake's watershed measures about 982,900 square kilometres (379,500 sq mi), and covers much of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, northwestern Ontario, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Its drainage is about 40 times larger than its surface, a ratio bigger than any other large lake in the world. Given the massive watershed and the relatively small volume of water in the lake, it is dominated by events in its watershed. It is not surprising to find it showing the effects of materials being added to it as a result of activities in the watershed.
Lake Winnipeg drains northward into the Nelson River at an average annual rate of 2,066 cubic metres per second (72,960 cu ft/s), and forms part of the Hudson Bay watershed, which is one of the largest in the world. This watershed area was historically known as Rupert's Land when the Hudson's Bay Company was chartered in 1670.
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