Largest lakes & reservoirs in South Carolina 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 15 articles we have published for South Carolina lakes.
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Below are lakes within USA > US South Region > South Carolina > Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in South Carolina, only the 15 South Carolina lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Water vol. in ac-ft |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Hartwell Lake, GA/SC (Georgia, Northeast Georgia Mountains Region, South Carolina, The Upcountry, SC, US South Region, USA) |
2,550,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Lake Hartwell) So large it covers parts of six counties in two states, Lake Hartwell draws millions of visitors a year to play on its 56,000 acres of water. With ple… |
| J. Strom Thurmond Lake, GA/SC (Classic South Region, GA, Georgia, Old 96 District, SC, South Carolina, US South Region, USA) |
1,730,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Lake Strom Thurmond, J. Strom Thurmond Reservoir, Clarks Hill Lake, Thurmond Lake) J. Strom Thurmond Lake, aka Clarks Hill Lake, holds the title of second largest artificial lake east of the Mississippi River. Straddling the Georgia-… |
| Lake Marion, SC (Santee Cooper Country, SC, South Carolina, US South Region, USA) |
1,437,800 ac-ft | The largest lake in South Carolina at 172 square miles, Lake Marion straddles five counties: Berkeley, Calhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg, and Sumter. It… |
| Lake Moultrie, SC (Santee Cooper Country, SC, South Carolina, US South Region, USA) |
1,211,000 ac-ft | Lake Moultrie is located 31 miles north of Charleston in the low country of South Carolina. The lake is renowned for both its fishing and its natural… |
| Lake Jocassee, NC/SC (Mountains Region, NC, North Carolina, South Carolina, The Upcountry, SC, US South Region, USA) |
1,185,000 ac-ft | Nestled into the pristine Appalachian mountains of northwestern South Carolina and southwestern North Carolina, Lake Jocassee reaches its watery depth… |
| Richard B. Russell Lake, GA/SC (Georgia, Northeast Georgia Mountains Region, Old 96 District, SC, South Carolina, US South Region, USA) |
1,066,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Lake Russell) Richard B. Russell Lake, sometimes nicknamed Lake Russell, claims 26,650 sparkling acres and 540 miles of shoreline on the Georgia-South Carolina stat… |
| Lake Keowee, SC (South Carolina, The Upcountry, SC, US South Region, USA) |
910,468 ac-ft | Lake Keowee is a freshwater lake located in northwestern South Carolina at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The lake supplies water to the n… |
| Lake Wateree, SC (Olde English District, SC, South Carolina, US South Region, USA) |
310,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Wateree Lake) Lake Wateree lies 30 miles northeast of Columbia, South Carolina near Interstate 77. Duke Energy created the lake in 1920 by building a dam on the Cat… |
| Fishing Creek Reservoir, SC (Olde English District, SC, South Carolina, US South Region, USA) |
59,992 ac-ft | (Also known as Nitrolee Dam, Fishing Creek Lake) Fishing Creek Reservoir, on the Catawba River in the Old English Region of South Carolina is aptly named: the 3112-acre lake provides a steady source… |
| Lake Robinson, SC (Pee Dee Country, SC, South Carolina, US South Region, USA) |
27,000 ac-ft | (Also known as Lake H.B. Robinson) Lake Robinson spreads out over 2,250 acres in Chesterfield and Darlington Counties near Hartsville, South Carolina. Lake Robinson is long and narrow,… |
| Gaston Shoals Lake and Ninety-Nine Islands Lake (Olde English District, SC, South Carolina, US South Region, USA) |
2,500 ac-ft | (Also known as Gaston Shoals Reservior and Ninety-Nine Islands Reservoir) Gaston Shoals Lake and Ninety-Nine Islands Lake are the focal points of a 15-mile stretch of the Broad River flowing through the Olde English District… |