Largest lakes & reservoirs in Southern Illinois 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 10 articles we have published for Southern Illinois lakes.
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Below are lakes within USA > US Midwest Region > Illinois > Southern Illinois > Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in Southern Illinois, only the 10 Southern Illinois lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Water vol. in ac-ft |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Rend Lake, IL (Illinois, Southern Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
184,675 ac-ft | Rend Lake, located in southern Illinois, is a fantastic place to enjoy all sorts of outdoor recreational activities. This reservoir, the second larges… |
| Kinkaid Lake, IL (Illinois, Southern Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
78,500 ac-ft | Kinkaid Lake is a scenic 2,350-acre reservoir surrounded by sandstone bluffs and rolling hills of oaks and hickories on the edge of the Shawnee Nation… |
| Crab Orchard Lake, IL (Illinois, Southern Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
57,800 ac-ft | Crab Orchard Lake is the largest of three reservoirs that are part of the 43,899-acre Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Williamson… |
| Little Grassy Lake, IL (Illinois, Southern Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
27,000 ac-ft | Surrounded by watchful forest trees and open grasslands, the Little Grassy Lake is a quiet body of water sitting in the middle of a Southern Illinois… |
| Cedar Lake, IL (Illinois, Southern Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
25,000 ac-ft | Cedar Lake is located at the edge of the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois. This 1,750-acre reservoir was created by the City of Carbondale… |
| Devils Kitchen Lake, IL (Illinois, Southern Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
24,500 ac-ft | (Also known as Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge) Devils Kitchen Lake is one of three lakes (the other two are Crab Orchard Lake and Little Grassy Lake) that are part of the Crab Orchard National Wild… |
| East Fork Lake, IL (Illinois, Southern Illinois, US Midwest Region, USA) |
12,460 ac-ft | (Also known as East Fork Reservoir) East Fork Lake, in the Southern Region of Illinois, is a well-kept secret in a land of many secrets. The southern third of Illinois has been known as… |