Largest lakes & reservoirs in Alaska by water volume
The estimated volume of water that a lake contains is measured at the lake’s normal elevation. By this measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is Siberia’s Lake Baikal.Water Volume can be measured in acre-feet, in cubic miles, or in cubic kilometers. One acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover one acre (43,560 square feet) to a depth of one foot. One cubic mile equals 3,379,200 acre-feet. One cubic kilometer equals 810,713 acre-feet. 1 acre-foot is equal to 325,851 US gallons. Siberia’s Lake Baikal contains about 6,276,367,740,000,000 gallons of freshwater – nearly 1 million gallons for every living person on earth.
The other – and more widely used – measure of a lake’s size is the lake’s surface acreage. By that measure, the world’s largest freshwater lake is North America’s Lake Superior.
Note: In the United States, an acre foot is a unit of volume used to refer to large-scale bodies of water. It is defined by the volume of water needed to cover 1 acre of surface area to a depth of 1 foot.
You can find many of the the world’s largest lakes (by water volume) on LakeLubbers. Note: For some lakes, the water volume data is unknown or does not apply, so you may see fewer lakes than the total 24 articles we have published for Alaska lakes.
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Below are lakes within USA > US West Region > Alaska > Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in Alaska, only the 24 Alaska lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Water vol. in ac-ft |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Lake, AK (Alaska, Inside Passage Region, AK, US West Region, USA) |
145,200 ac-ft | (Also known as Blue Lake Reservoir) Blue Lake, located in the Alaska Panhandle of southeastern Alaska, is for adventure seekers. The County of Sitka is known for its vistas, mountain bac… |
| Big Lake, AK (Alaska, Southcentral Region, AK, US West Region, USA) |
90,723 ac-ft | There are over 3,000 lakes in the Mat-Su Valley, and Big Lake is one of the largest. The Mat-Su Borough, which is short for Matanuska-Susitna, is 24,0… |
| Red Shirt Lake, AK (Alaska, Southcentral Region, AK, US West Region, USA) |
20,758 ac-ft | Red Shirt Lake, located in the Nancy Lake State Recreation Area in Alaska, is a remote lake that offers outdoor enthusiasts an opportunity to have an… |
| Nancy Lake, AK (Alaska, Southcentral Region, AK, US West Region, USA) |
19,118 ac-ft | (Also known as Nancy Lake State Recreation Area) Nancy Lake, near Willow, Alaska is part of the 22,685 acre area known as the Nancy Lake State Recreation Area. With limited development the area has r… |
| Cottonwood Lake, AK (Alaska, Southcentral Region, AK, US West Region, USA) |
2,835 ac-ft | Cottonwood Lake, located near the town of Wasilla in the Mat-Su Valley of Alaska, is a year-round destination. The Mat-Su Valley region, short for Mat… |
| Encelewski Lake, AK (Alaska, Southcentral Region, AK, US West Region, USA) |
669 ac-ft | Encelewski Lake, in Alaska’s Southcentral Region, is a wilderness adventurer’s dream. Neatly tucked away on the Kenai Peninsula, Encelewski Lake is le… |