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Lake Kaņieris
Lake Kaņieris (Kaņiera ezers) is a shallow lagoon-origin lake in Ķemeri National Park, Latvia; 1,122 ha, 13th largest in Latvia, Ramsar site since 1995, rich in birds and pike.
Lake Kivu
Lake Kivu, a deep meromictic rift lake on the Rwanda–DRC border at ~1,462 m elevation, holds ~60 billion m³ of dissolved methane and vast CO₂ in stratified deep waters, posing a limnic eruption hazard while fueling Rwandan methane-to-power plants KivuWatt (26 MW) and SPLK (56 MW).
Lake Kutubu
Lake Kutubu, a Ramsar site (no. 961, 1998) in Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands, is PNG's second largest lake, famed for 10 of 14 endemic fish species, now threatened by oil development, turbidity loss, and invasive tilapia.
Lake Ladoga (Ладожское озеро)
Lake Ladoga (Ладожское озеро), largest lake in Europe at about 18,135 km², in Karelia and Leningrad Oblast, Russia. Drains via the Neva to the Gulf of Finland; fed mainly by the Svir, Volkhov, and Vuoksi rivers; oligotrophic until the 1960s, later eutrophied.
Lake Lanao
Lake Lanao: large ancient tectonic-volcanic lake in Lanao del Sur, Mindanao, Philippines; second largest in the country; feeds Agus River hydropower (70% of Mindanao electricity); famed for 18 endemic cyprinids, mostly now extinct.
Lake Lanoto'o
Lake Lanoto'o, Samoa's largest permanent freshwater lake, a volcanic crater lake in Upolu's central highlands and the core of Samoa's first Ramsar Site (Lake Lanoto'o National Park), with endangered endemic birds and introduced goldfish.
Lake Letes
Lake Letes (Lake Letas), a 1,971 ha caldera lake on Gaua island, Vanuatu; Ramsar Site no. 2524, designated 15 September 2023 as Vanuatu's first Wetland of International Importance, largest Pacific Islands lake outside New Guinea.
Lake Macquarie (New South Wales)
Lake Macquarie (Awaba) is a large coastal saltwater lake on the Hunter coast of New South Wales, Australia, just south of Newcastle and about 90 km north of Sydney.
Lake Maggiore
Lake Maggiore (Lago Maggiore, Verbano), large pre-Alpine lake on the Italy-Switzerland border; second largest and second deepest in Italy, 372 m max depth, Ticino inflow/outflow, Miorina dam regulation since 1943.
Lake Malawi
Lake Malawi (Lake Nyasa) is Africa's third largest rift valley lake, 31,000 km² and over 700 m deep, famed for its endemic cichlid fishes and the Lake Malawi National Park World Heritage site.
Lake Managua
Lake Managua (Lago Xolotlán), a large shallow endorheic lake in western Nicaragua near the capital, area about 1,016 km², mean depth 7.8 m; heavily polluted by sewage, industry, and mercury, with occasional overflow via the Río Tipitapa.
Lake Manasarovar
Lake Manasarovar (Mapham Yutso), a sacred freshwater lake at about 4,585 m on the Tibetan Plateau at the foot of Mount Kailash, holy to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Bon, destination of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra pilgrimage.
Lake Maracaibo
Lake Maracaibo (Lago de Maracaibo), Venezuela's large brackish estuary and South America's largest lake, heart of the country's oil industry since 1914, now heavily affected by oil spills and eutrophication.
Lake Merritt
Lake Merritt is a tidal lagoon in downtown Oakland, California, dammed in 1869 and named for Mayor Samuel Merritt; designated in 1870 as North America's first wildlife refuge, it remains a tidal estuary with restricted channel flow and ongoing water quality restoration.
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan, one of the five North American Great Lakes and the only one entirely within the United States, borders Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan; 307 miles long, 925 feet deep, with a 99-year water retention time.
Lake Michigan–Huron
Lake Michigan–Huron: combined waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, joined by the Straits of Mackinac; hydrologically one lake and technically the world's largest freshwater lake by surface area.
Lake Mogotoyevo
Lake Mogotoyevo (Озеро Моготоево), also Ozero Bol'shoye Mogotoyevo, is a coastal lagoon lake in Yakutia, Russian Far East, at 72.03°N 149.13°E on the East Siberian Sea coast, with a short-lived weather station and rapidly eroding shores.
Lake Monoun disaster
The Lake Monoun disaster was a limnic eruption, a sudden release of carbon dioxide from a crater lake in western Cameroon, that killed 37 people in 1984.
Lake monster
Lake monsters are large unknown animals reported in lakes, such as Nessie of Loch Ness, Ogopogo, and Champ; science attributes sightings to hoaxes, misidentification, and refraction, and a 2018 eDNA survey found no monster DNA.
Lake Natron
Lake Natron is a hyperalkaline soda lake in Tanzania's Gregory Rift near Ol Doinyo Lengai, a Ramsar site since 2001 and the world's most important lesser flamingo breeding site, threatened by recurring soda ash mining proposals.
Lake Nicaragua
Lake Nicaragua (Lago Cocibolca), Nicaragua's largest lake and Central America's largest at 8,144 km², drains via the Río San Juan to the Caribbean, hosts Atlantic bull sharks, and was the focus of the canceled HKND canal project.
Lake Nyos
Lake Nyos, a volcanic crater lake in northwestern Cameroon on the Cameroon Volcanic Line, suffered a limnic eruption on 21 August 1986 that asphyxiated more than 1,700 people; degassing pipes installed since 2001 now remove magmatic CO2.
Lake Nyos disaster
The Lake Nyos disaster: a limnic eruption on 21 August 1986 in which Cameroon's Lake Nyos released about 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide, asphyxiating roughly 1,700 people; preceded by Lake Monoun 1984 and mitigated by degassing pipes.
Lake of the Ozarks
Lake of the Ozarks is a 58,500-acre reservoir in central Missouri created by Bagnell Dam on the Osage River, built 1929-1931 by Union Electric; also a major recreation and tourism destination.
Lake of the Woods
Lake of the Woods: large transboundary lake in Ontario, Manitoba, and Minnesota, remnant of glacial Lake Agassiz, draining north to Hudson Bay; known for cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms, binational water-level boards, and walleye fisheries.
Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee, "big water" in the Seminole language, is Florida's largest lake: 730 square miles, averaging 9 feet deep, ringed by the Herbert Hoover Dike, central to Everglades water supply, flood control, and fisheries.
Lake Onega - Lake Ladoga
Lake Onega - Lake Ladoga is a freshwater ecoregion, number 409 in the FEOW catalog, covering Europe's two largest lakes and their connecting waters in northwestern Russia and Finland.
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario (Huron oniatarí:io, 'lake of shining waters') is the lowest and easternmost Great Lake, 19,009 km², draining via the St. Lawrence River; its outflow has been regulated since 1960 under IJC Plan 2014.
Lake Ontario naming dispute
Lake Ontario naming dispute: the 2026 US executive order (EO 14420) renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" in federal usage amid a trade dispute with Canada; Google and Apple adopted it, MapQuest refused, and Canada kept Lake Ontario.
Lake Peigneur
Lake Peigneur, Iberia Parish, Louisiana: brackish lake on the Jefferson Island salt dome, site of the 1980 Texaco drilling accident that drained the freshwater lake into the Diamond Crystal salt mine, creating a whirlpool, a reversed canal, and a 200-foot-deep saltwater lake with no fatalities.