25 Fascinating Facts About the Mysteries and Wonders of Lakes

Scattered around Roopkund Lake in the Indian Himalaya are the bones of about 800 people who seemingly died in a single unknown event in 800 A.D. Newer studies reveal that some of the bones belong to another group of people who also died in a single event, a thousand years after the others.

2. The bottom of Lake Ontario is so cold that skyscrapers use water from the bottom of the lake as a coolant for AC systems.

3. Lake Tahoe at one time was named Lake Bigler in honor of the popular third governor of California. However, once it was revealed that Bigler was a Confederate sympathizer during the US Civil War, his name was removed from the lake and renamed Tahoe

4. Lake Chagan in Kazakhstan was created using a nuclear weapon and the radioactivity in the lake has decayed to the point that people can swim in it safely.

5. In 1986, Lake Nyos in Cameroon expelled up to 300,000 tons of CO2 in the air due to seismic activity under the lake, suffocating every living animal within a 16-mile radius including 1700 villagers and 3500 livestock. The blue lake turned deep red from oxidization and water levels dropped by a meter.

Gaet'ale Pond in Ethiopia is one of the most saltiest bodies of water in the world. It formed during an earthquake in 2005. Its water is yellow and it occasionally releases gases that kill small animals that get close to it.

7. Lake McDonald located in Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana is remarkable for having very clear water. One of the most striking features of this lake is the presence of a variety of colored rocks and pebbles just below the water surface and on the shores. The rocks range in color from dark red to maroon, and from green to blue.

8. Lake Michigan gets so clear after winter's ice melts that you can actually see shipwrecks in the depths from the air.

9. Lake Okeechobee, despite being Florida's largest freshwater lake and covering an area of 730 square miles, has an average depth of just 9 feet.

10. Mount Storm Lake in West Virginia is a 1200 acre lake that is super-heated by a coal burning power plant and even in zero degree temperatures the water in the lake never dips below 50 degrees.

Loughareema Lake located in the County Antrim in Northern Ireland has been nicknamed ‘The Vanishing Lake’ because it fills up and empties frequently, but unpredictably due to unknown geological conditions. There are three streams flowing into the lake but none out.

12. At the depths of the Great Salt Lake in Utah is a super-dense layer of water called the “Deep Brine.” Divers describe it as having the consistency of runny Jello.

13. Torch Lake, which is often compared to the Caribbean is located in Michigan and is one of the clearest lakes in the world.

14. The Toba supervolcanic eruption occurred about 75,000 years ago at the site of present-day Lake Toba in Indonesia. It is the largest known explosive eruption on Earth in the last 25 million years. It had global consequences for human populations in that it caused a population bottleneck which affects genetic diversity in humans to this day.

15. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are hydrologically the same lake. They are joined by the 5-mile wide, 120ft deep Straits of Mackinac, and depending on conditions, water can flow in either direction, which keeps their water levels similar.

There exists an underwater forest in Lake Kaindy in Kazakhstan that was created after an earthquake in 1911 triggered a large landslide blocking the gorge and forming a natural dam

17. Isa Lake in Yellowstone National Park is the only lake in the world that drains to 2 separate oceans.

18. Lake Hillier in Australia is a naturally-occurring neon pink lake and it is the only lake in the world to naturally stay colored all year round and scientists still aren't sure exactly why the salt and bacteria in the lake react this way and nowhere else in the world.

19. Hawaii's largest freshwater lake, Green Lake (Ka Wai o Pele), no longer exists as it completely boiled away during the 2018 Kīlauea eruption.

20. The deepest depths of Lake Erie are still at a higher elevation than the surface of Lake Ontario. The two lakes are only separated by about 21 miles (34 kilometers).

Lake Peigneur became the deepest lake in Lousiana in 1980 after the Gulf Of Mexico flowed into it as a result of Texaco employees accidentally flushing the entire lake like a toilet into the salt mine beneath it.

22. Lake Vostok, in Antarctica, is the 16th largest lake in the world. The lake water itself has been isolated for upwards of 15 million years, sealed off by a sheet of ice.

23. A turquoise lake in Siberia is nicknamed the "Novosibirsk Maldives" because of how tropical it looks. Popular with Instagrammers, it is actually a power plant's ash dump, and the lake gets its distinct color from calcium salts and other metal oxides. The water in the lake is actually toxic and it is dangerous to swim in it.

24. Summersville Lake is the largest lake in West Virginia. It was constructed in the early 1960s when the Gauley River was dammed at the village of Gad (which is now under its waters) but the powers that be decided not to name it the Gad Dam.

25. East Lake in Wuhan is the second-largest urban lake in China. Each year, about 441 tons of nitrogen and 40 tons of phosphorus flow into the lake. Most parts of the lake have been assessed as eutrophicated, unsuitable for drinking, and many recreational purposes.