Largest lakes & reservoirs in South Dakota 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 11 articles we have published for South Dakota lakes.
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Below are lakes within USA > US Midwest Region > South Dakota > Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in South Dakota, only the 11 South Dakota lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Water vol. in ac-ft |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Oahe, ND/SD (Great Lakes Region, SD, North Dakota, South Central Region, ND, South Dakota, Southwest Region, ND, US Midwest Region, USA) |
23,137,000 ac-ft | Lake Oahe, named after an Oahe Indian Mission, roughly translates “a foundation” or “a place to stand on.” Spanning 231 miles from Pierre, South Dakot… |
| Lake Francis Case, SD (Great Lakes Region, SD, South Dakota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
3,124,000 ac-ft | Lake Francis Case, one of the most popular recreation spots in the Great Plains, is located along the Missouri River in south-central South Dakota. La… |
| Lake Sharpe, SD (Great Lakes Region, SD, South Dakota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
1,621,000 ac-ft | Lake Sharpe, located on South Dakota Highways 50 and 47 near Chamberlain, and Reliance, is one of the four reservoirs constructed along the Missouri R… |
| Lewis and Clark Lake, NE/SD (Lewis and Clark Region, NE, Nebraska, South Dakota, Southeast Region, SD, US Midwest Region, USA) |
388,000 ac-ft | Stretching 25 miles long and straddling the Nebraska and South Dakota border, 28,000-acre Lewis and Clark Lake is the smallest of the Missouri River r… |
| Lake Traverse, MN/SD (Central Minnesota, Glacial Lakes & Prairies Region, SD, Minnesota, South Dakota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
164,500 ac-ft | Lake Traverse straddles the border of Minnesota’s Central tourism region and South Dakota’s northeastern Great Lakes and Prairie region. Covering more… |
| Angostura Reservoir, SD (Black Hills, Badlands & Lakes Region, SD, South Dakota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
138,761 ac-ft | (Also known as Angostura Recreation Area, Lake Angostura, Angostura Lake) At the fringes of the unique Black Hills, or Paha Sapa in the Lakota language, is the Angostura Reservoir. Part of the Black Hills and Badlands wester… |
| Big Stone Lake, MN/SD (Central Minnesota, Glacial Lakes & Prairies Region, SD, Minnesota, South Dakota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
98,880 ac-ft | Big Stone Lake’s sparkling blue water covers 12,360 acres and forms the border between western Minnesota and northeastern South Dakota. This picturesq… |
| Richmond Lake (Glacial Lakes & Prairies Region, SD, South Dakota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
12,435 ac-ft | (Also known as Richmond Reservoir) Richmond Lake turned 75 years old in 2012. Built near Aberdeen during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression of the 1930s, Richmond Lake was one of 657 la… |
| Marindahl Lake, SD (South Dakota, Southeast Region, SD, US Midwest Region, USA) |
1,747 ac-ft | (Also known as Marindahl Reservoir) Marindahl Lake, in South Dakotas’s Southeast Region, isn’t the kind of lake you’ll find on lists of the world’s greatest lakes. Indeed, you may not be… |