Largest lakes & reservoirs in Southern Minnesota 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 9 articles we have published for Southern Minnesota lakes.
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Below are lakes within USA > US Midwest Region > Minnesota > Southern Minnesota > Compared by water volume. This list does not represent all lakes in Southern Minnesota, only the 9 Southern Minnesota lake articles we have published on the LakeLubbers website.
Lake name  |
Water vol. in ac-ft |
Lake description |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Pepin, MN/WI (Minnesota, Mississippi-Chippewa Rivers Region, WI, Southern Minnesota, US Midwest Region, USA, Wisconsin) |
450,000 ac-ft | Lake Pepin is the largest lake on the Mississippi River, formed about 9,500 years ago by the backup of water behind sediments where the Chippewa River… |
| Lac qui Parle, MN (Minnesota, Southern Minnesota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
29,700 ac-ft | Thousands of feathered creatures gather here, nesting, breeding and chattering about things only birds would know about. For the myriad sounds the bir… |
| Albert Lea Lake (Minnesota, Southern Minnesota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
8,585 ac-ft | Hikers wake up to the sun filtering through the trees and the chirping of indigo buntings and eastern bluebirds at Albert Lea Lake in southern Minneso… |
| Okamanpeedan Lake, IA/MN (Iowa, Minnesota, Northwest Iowa, Southern Minnesota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
8,270 ac-ft | (Also known as Tuttle Lake) Located in Martin County, Minnesota and Emmet County, Iowa, Okamanpeedan Lake is also known as Tuttle Lake. Okamanpeedan is Native American for “nesti… |
| Fountain Lake (Minnesota, Southern Minnesota, US Midwest Region, USA) |
3,500 ac-ft | Fountain Lake is a sparkling 521-acre southern Minnesota lake, featuring three prominently-placed water fountains. Its shores surround the city of Alb… |