Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the uppermost, deepest and largest of the North American Great Lakes.[1] It is the largest both by volume and by surface area. The only freshwater lake that has a greater volume is Lake Baikal, in Siberia.[2]
It takes water approximately 200 years to transit the lake.[1]
The name "Superior" is said to be due to a mistranslation. It is said that early French maps didn't actually name the lake, they merely described it as "superior", meaning uppermost, but English travelers, using the French maps, assumed that was its name.[3]
The lake forms part of the boundary between Canada and the United States. Over 100 Lake freighters, and many "salties" use the lake to transport ore, grain, and construction materials like sand, gravel, limestone, and raw cement. According to the Clear Seas website[4]:
- Most cargo transiting on the Great Lakes is bulk cargo, which is transported in large holds rather than packed in containers. Today, the primary Great Lakes cargoes include iron ore, coal, limestone, farm products (such as grain, corn, soybeans), steel, and project cargo (such as large turbine blades for wind energy projects, giant steel pressure vessels for oil refining, and railroad locomotives for export).4 Other bulk goods carried on the Great Lakes include taconite, salt, cement, gypsum, sand, slag, and potash.[4]
Thunder Bay, Ontario, on the northeast shore, is the railhead for Canadian railways.[5]
Duluth, Minnesota, at the very western tip of the lake, is the most important port on the United States' side.[6]