390 articles
Ullswater
Ullswater, Cumbrian lake in England's Lake District National Park; second largest after Windermere at 8.9 km2, 14.5 km long, dog-leg shaped, up to 62.5 m deep, drained by the River Eamont, served by Ullswater Steamers.
Upemba
Upemba (Lac Upemba) refers to a shallow 530 km2 lake, the Kamalondo Depression, and a 1939 national park in southeastern DR Congo, a Ramsar wetland and fish biodiversity hotspot.
Upper Klamath Lake
Upper Klamath Lake: Oregon's largest lake (305 km2, shallow), headwaters of the Klamath River; hypereutrophic with Aphanizomenon flos-aquae blooms, endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers, Link River Dam regulation since 1917, and Klamath Tribes' adjudicated instream water claim.
Utikuma
Utikuma Lake is a large, shallow lake in the Peace River drainage basin of northwestern Alberta, Canada, covering 288 km² about 65 km northeast of High Prairie.
Uvs Nuur Basin
Uvs (Uvs Nuur Basin, Ubsunur Hollow) is a transboundary Central Asian lake basin on the Mongolia–Russia (Tuva) border around saline Lake Uvs Nuur; UNESCO World Heritage site since 2003, 12 components, 898,064 ha, snow leopard and argali habitat.
Valdivian Lakes
The Valdivian Lakes, ecoregion 349 in the Freshwater Ecoregions of the World scheme, is a southern Chilean freshwater ecoregion spanning the lake district from Lago Villarrica to Lago Llanquihue.
Vänern
Vänern is Sweden's largest lake and Europe's third largest, about 5,450–5,650 km², 153 km³, mean depth 27 m, draining via Göta älv; regulated since 1937, with landlocked Gullspång salmon and a large freshwater archipelago.
Vättern
Vättern is Sweden's second largest lake, a long, deep, clear-water lake in a fault trough in the south central part of the country that supplies drinking water to about 300,000 people.
Vernal pool
Vernal pool: a small seasonal wetland that ponds in winter and spring and dries in summer, held by bedrock or hard clay; fish-free breeding habitat for fairy shrimp and amphibians, with over 90% of California's pools lost.
Virihaure
Virihaure (Lule Sami Vijrehávrre, Virijaure), a large unregulated mountain lake in Padjelanta National Park, Lapland, Sweden; 108 to 112 km², 138 m deep, source lake of the Stora Luleälven draining to Vastenjaure.
Võrtsjärv
Võrtsjärv, Estonia's largest entirely domestic lake (270 km², mean depth 2.8 m), a shallow turbid eutrophic, cyanobacteria-dominated lake draining via the Emajõgi into Lake Peipsi, with ice cover about 135 days a year.
Vygozero
Vygozero (Выгозеро, Uikujärvi) is a large reservoir in Karelia, Russia, formed in 1933 from a natural lake by the White Sea–Baltic Canal and merged with the Onda reservoir in 1957; about 1,140–1,270 km², over 500 islands, part of the Vyg–White Sea basin.
Walden Pond
Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts: glacial kettle lake, deepest in Massachusetts, no inlet or outlet, 24.88 ha. Henry David Thoreau lived there 1845-1847 and wrote Walden; now a DCR state reservation and National Historical and Literary Landmark.
Water horse
Water horse (each-uisge; Irish each uisce, aughisky; Manx cabbyl-ushtey) is a Celtic folklore water spirit in horse form that drowns riders and seduced victims, closely related to and often confused with the Scottish kelpie of river tradition.
Wells
Wells, or Lake Wells, is a horseshoe-shaped salt lake in Western Australia's Northern Goldfields, named after explorer Lawrence Wells; its hypersaline brine hosts a 29 Mt sulphate-of-potash resource and an EPA-approved but undeveloped potash project.
West Lake
West Lake (西湖, Xī Hú) is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, whose pagodas and causeways made it one of the most depicted sites in Chinese art.
Western Equatorial Crater Lakes
Western Equatorial Crater Lakes, FEOW ecoregion 519, is a set of volcanic crater lakes in southwestern Cameroon on the Cameroon Volcanic Line, famous for endemic cichlid flocks in Barombi Mbo, Bermin, and Ejagham and severe conservation threats.
Whitefish Lake
Whitefish Lake is a 3,328-acre oligotrophic lake in Flathead County, Montana, beside the town of Whitefish; distinct from Minnesota's Whitefish Chain lake. Seven miles long, city water supply, monitored by the Whitefish Lake Institute since 2007.
Wholdaia
Wholdaia Lake, also called Daly Lake, is a 678 km² glacial lake in the Northwest Territories, Canada, at 364 m elevation, source of the Dubawnt River and site of Geological Survey of Canada surficial and bedrock mapping.
Windermere
Windermere (Lake Windermere) is England's largest natural lake, a glacial twin-basin lake in the Lake District, Cumbria; 14.8 km², 64 m deep, famed for scenery, Arctic charr, and ongoing sewage and nutrient pollution disputes.
Winisk (lake)
Winisk Lake (Lac Winisk, formerly Weibikwei Lake) is a shallow lake in Kenora District, Ontario, on the upper Winisk River, home to Webequie First Nation on Eastwood Island and the site of the former HBC Fort Weenisk.
Winnebago
Lake Winnebago is a large, shallow freshwater lake in east-central Wisconsin, the largest inland lake entirely within the state, known for its lake sturgeon and February spearing season.
Winnipegosis
Lake Winnipegosis ("Little Muddy Water") is a large glacial lake in Manitoba, about 200 km long and 5,370 km², draining to Lake Manitoba; fished commercially since the 1890s, with walleye collapse in the 1960s and zebra mussels detected in 2026.
Wiyâshâkimî
Wiyâshâkimî (Lac Wiyâshâkimî, formerly Lac à l'Eau Claire, Clearwater Lakes) is a double impact-crater lake in Tursujuq National Park, northern Québec, formed by two impacts about 180 million years apart, with a 1,243 km² oligotrophic freshwater surface.
Wollaston
Wollaston Lake, Saskatchewan's largest entirely in-province lake (2,681 sq km), a bifurcation lake draining 90% to Hudson Bay via the Cochrane River and 10% to the Mackenzie via the Fond du Lac River; named by Peter Fidler in 1807.
Wular Lake
Wular Lake, a large freshwater lake in Kashmir, India, fed by the Jhelum River; a Ramsar site since 1990, major fishery and flood buffer, now heavily shrunk and under restoration by WUCMA.
Yamdrok
Yamdrok (Yamdrok Yumtso, Yamdrok-tso) is a sacred closed inland lake on the southern Tibetan Plateau at 4,441 m, area 638 km2, with a 90 MW pumped-storage hydropower station; its level fell 5.1 m during 2000-2023.
Yathkyed
Yathkyed Lake, called Hikuligjuaq in Inuktitut, is a large lake in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada, lying on the Kazan River with an area of 1,449 km².
Zeta Lake
Zeta Lake: name of two Canadian lakes, one in Alberta (official CGNDB name since 1949, 53.1664 N, 115.7278 W) and one in Nunavut (70.9 N, 106.42 W, elevation 82 m); also a Devonian stratigraphic member.
Zhaling Lake
Zhaling Lake (Chaling Sea, 'white long lake') is a 4,291 m freshwater tectonic lake in Golog, Qinghai, China, the second largest lake in the Yellow River source area, a Ramsar Site (no. 1442, 64,920 ha) within Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve.