Largest lakes & reservoirs in Central Iowa 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 2 articles we have published for Central Iowa lakes.
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Below are lakes within USA > US Midwest Region > Iowa > Central Iowa > Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in Central Iowa, only the 2 Central Iowa lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name | Water vol. in ac-ft | Lake description |
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Saylorville Lake, IA (Central Iowa, Iowa, US Midwest Region, USA) |
73,659 ac-ft | (Also known as Saylorville Reservoir) Saylorville Lake is a man-made reservoir located on the Des Moines River bordering the town of Polk City, about 11 miles north of Des Moines, Iowa. Th… |
Big Creek Lake, IA (Central Iowa, Iowa, US Midwest Region, USA) |
14,573 ac-ft | Big Creek Lake is located about 11 miles north of Des Moines, Iowa near the town of Polk City. The lake was created in the 1970s by the Army Corps of… |