Photos: World’s Five Deepest Lakes

Water is an amazing thing. It can freeze into masses of ice and float or turn into steam and drift away. But perhaps one of water’s most interesting feats is its ability to conceal. Think about it: Just standing on a shoreline, looking over a water body, there’s no way of knowing what’s under the surface at any certain point. All we can see are waves — what do the depths hold?

With that sense of wonder in mind, we’ve put together a photographic list of the world’s five deepest lakes. All of these water bodies are more than 2,700 feet deep at maximum and full of mysteries just waiting for scientists to solve. They are beautiful examples of water’s power to tuck things out of sight, and we’ve listed them in order from most shallow to deepest (click to enlarge):

5. Lake O’Higgins – San Martin: 2,743 Feet Deep

Lake O’Higgins – San Martin, between the Aysén Region in Chile and the Santa Cruz Province in Argentina. (Credit: NASA, International Space Station)

4. Lake Vostok: 2,953 Feet Deep

Satellite image of Lake Vostok in Antarctica. (Credit: Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA)

3. Caspian Sea: 3,363 Feet Deep

The Caspian Sea, which borders Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. (Credit: NASA Visible Earth)

2. Lake Tanganyika: 4,823 Feet Deep

Africa’s Lake Tanganyika, bordering Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Zambia. (Credit: NASA)

1. Lake Baikal: 5,387 Feet Deep

Russia’s Lake Baikal. (Credit: NASA Visible Earth)

Did you like this collection of photos? Or have any suggestions for some lakes that we could feature in a similar way next time around? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts.