Top Results for Freshwater

In southern Siberia, Lake Baikal is the world's deepest freshwater lake and contains approximately one-fifth of Earth's unfrozen surface fresh water. Its great depth reflects a geological setting shaped by a continental rift. The lake is also notable for an ecosystem with many species found nowhere...

Where the Okavango River reaches Botswana's Kalahari region, it spreads into an inland alluvial delta rather than continuing to the sea. The Okavango Wetland System contains interconnected marshes and waterways whose extent changes with seasonal flooding. Water moving through this otherwise dry sett...

Rising in Germany's Black Forest, the Danube flows about 2,850 kilometers through or along ten countries before entering the Black Sea through the Danube Delta. It is Europe's second-longest river, and its basin connects central and eastern Europe. That broad course makes it a geographical link betw...

From its headwaters in the Swiss Alps, the Rhine flows about 1,230 kilometers toward the North Sea. Its course passes through or along Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. As a major western European river, it connects alpine origins with heavily used middle and...

Crossing national boundaries and strikingly different terrain, the Brahmaputra begins its upper course as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet. It crosses the Himalaya into India's Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, then enters Bangladesh, where its principal channel is called the Jamuna. Its waters join the Gang...

Flowing through Paris on its way to the English Channel, the Seine is a 777-kilometer river in northern France. It rises in Burgundy and reaches the sea at an estuary near Le Havre. The banks in central Paris are associated with major historic landmarks and form a UNESCO World Heritage site, giving...

Seasonal water arriving in Botswana's Kalahari Basin creates the Okavango Delta's freshwater marshes. The Okavango River spreads inland instead of flowing to the sea, feeding lagoons and channels around islands. Some areas retain water while others flood and dry, so the wetland contains habitats wit...

In southwestern Spain near the Guadalquivir estuary, the Doñana Marshes form a major part of a protected wetland system. Doñana National Park was established in 1969, and the site received UNESCO World Heritage recognition in 1994 for its biodiversity. The protected area extends beyond marshes to in...

Across southern Florida, the Everglades form a broad subtropical wetland system shaped by shallow, slow-moving water. Often described as a river of grass, the region includes extensive freshwater marshes as well as other interconnected habitats. American alligators and numerous wading birds are char...

The Kakadu Floodplains encompass seasonally inundated wetlands within Kakadu National Park in Australia's Northern Territory. These ecosystems transform dramatically between seasons, expanding to vast shallow lakes during monsoon periods and contracting to isolated waterholes as conditions dry. The...

Li River is a major river in Guangxi, southern China, flowing through the Guilin and Yangshuo area before joining the Xi River at Wuzhou. The river is about 437 kilometers long, while the scenic waterway between Guilin and Yangshuo covers about 83 kilometers. That section passes limestone karst peak...

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest, rising in British Columbia and flowing about 2,000 kilometers through Washington and along the Washington-Oregon border to the Pacific Ocean. Its basin contains numerous dams, including the Grand Coulee and Bonneville facilities, maki...

The Orinoco is a major South American river about 2,140 kilometers long, rising in southern Venezuela and flowing in a broad arc through Venezuela and along part of the Colombia border before entering the Atlantic Ocean through a large delta. Its basin includes the Venezuelan Llanos, forests, wetlan...

The Coto de Doñana Marismas are extensive seasonal wetlands located at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in southwestern Spain. Situated within Doñana National Park, the marshes are characterized by cycles of flooding and desiccation that support a highly specialized ecosystem. The area provides c...

The Vjosa is a transboundary river that rises in Greece, where it is called the Aoos, and flows through southern Albania to the Adriatic Sea. It is known for retaining a largely free-flowing course without major dams, with active gravel bars, braided channels, wetlands, and floodplain habitats. The...

Crater Lake fills a volcanic caldera in Oregon, a basin left after Mount Mazama's major eruption and collapse around 7,700 years ago. Its freshwater reaches nearly 600 metres in depth, making it the deepest lake in the United States and one of North America's deepest. The enclosing crater gives it a...

Straddling the California and Nevada border, Lake Tahoe is an alpine freshwater lake surrounded by the Sierra Nevada. It is the largest alpine lake in North America and reaches a depth of approximately 501 metres. Its considerable depth and famously clear water give it a distinctive appearance, thou...

Lake Geneva is a large freshwater lake situated in the western Swiss Alps along the border with France. It’s notable for its expansive size – approximately 580 square kilometers – and its strategic location connecting Switzerland and France. The lake supports significant tourism and recreation activ...

Shared by Chile and Argentina in Patagonia, Lago General Carrera is a large freshwater lake formed in a glacially shaped basin. On the Argentine side it is known as Lago Buenos Aires. Covering approximately 1,850 square kilometres, it is among South America's larger lakes, with its scale and mountai...

Lake Malawi occupies a long freshwater basin in the East African Rift Valley, bordered by Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. Its cichlid fishes are central to its identity: a large variety of closely related species inhabit different depths and shoreline habitats, and many occur nowhere else. Their di...

Stretching through East Africa's Rift Valley, Lake Tanganyika is a deep freshwater lake shared by Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Zambia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake and the second deepest lake. Its basin formed through rifting, the movement that pulls sections...

Lake Michigan is a vast freshwater lake situated in the midwestern United States. It’s notable as the largest of the Great Lakes by surface area and one of the deepest, holding significant volumes of water. The lake supports diverse ecosystems and recreational activities. It's utilized by boaters, a...

Lake Superior is a vast freshwater lake located in North America, forming part of the Great Lakes system. It’s notable as the largest freshwater lake by surface area, containing approximately one-tenth of Earth's total available fresh water. Bordering Canada and the United States, this significant b...

In Corrientes Province in northeastern Argentina, Esteros del Iberá forms an extensive freshwater wetland system covering roughly 1.3 million hectares. Marshes and lagoons mingle with floating vegetation, grasslands, and forests. This patchwork gives the region a broader ecological character than th...

The Iberá Wetlands in northeastern Argentina cover roughly 1.3 million hectares, forming one of South America's largest freshwater systems and a key refuge for capybara, marsh deer, and reintroduced jaguars.

Across south-central Louisiana, the Atchafalaya Basin forms a vast river floodplain and wetland complex centered on the Atchafalaya River. Commonly described as the largest river swamp in the United States, it contains bottomland hardwood forests, cypress and tupelo swamps, bayous, lakes, and marshe...

The Okefenokee Swamp extends across southeastern Georgia and northern Florida as a large peat-filled wetland. Its dark water is stained by tannins from plant material, a characteristic of blackwater environments. Forested islands and cypress stands sit among open wet prairies and winding channels, c...

The Lena is one of the three great Siberian rivers that drain into the Arctic Ocean and is the easternmost of the three. It rises near the western shore of Lake Baikal, flows northward for about 4,400 kilometers through Russia, and reaches the Laptev Sea through a large delta in the Sakha Republic....

The Mesopotamian Marshes are a vast wetland ecosystem located in southern Iraq at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Once severely drained in the late 20th century, the marshes have been the focus of significant ecological restoration efforts. They provide a habitat for diverse bird...