Солтүстік Американың ең ірі көлі – Супериор

Largest of the Great Lakes of North America

Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and the third largest freshwater lake by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh water. Located in central North America, it is the northernmost and westernmost of the Great Lakes of North America, straddling the Canada–United States border with the Canadian province of Ontario to the north and east and the U. S. states of Minnesota to the west and Michigan and Wisconsin to the south. It drains into Lake Huron via St. Marys River, then through the lower Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence River and ultimately the Atlantic Ocean.

The Ojibwe name for the lake is gichi gami (in syllabics: ᑭᒋᑲᒥ, pronounced gitchi gami or kitchi gami in different dialects), meaning "great sea". Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this name as "Gitche Gumee" in the poem The Song of Hiawatha, as did Gordon Lightfoot in his song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". According to other sources, the full Ojibwe name is ᐅᒋᑉᐧᐁ ᑭᒋᑲᒥ Ojibwe Gichigami ("Ojibwe's Great Sea") or ᐊᓂᐦᔑᓈᐯ ᑭᒋᑲᒥ Anishinaabe Gichigami ("Anishinaabe's Great Sea"). The 1878 dictionary by Father Frederic Baraga, the first one written for the Ojibway language, gives the Ojibwe name as Otchipwe kitchi gami (a transliteration of Ojibwe Gichigami). After taking control of the region from the French in the 1760s following their defeat in the French and Indian War, the British anglicized the lake's name to Superior, "on account of its being superior in magnitude to any of the lakes on that vast continent".

Lake Superior empties into Lake Huron via the St. Marys River and the Soo Locks (Sault Ste. Marie locks). Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by area and the third largest in volume, behind Lake Baikal in Siberia and Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. The Caspian Sea, while larger than Lake Superior in both surface area and volume, is brackish. [[File:Lake Superior bathymetry map, deepest point. png|thumb|left|Lake Superior deepest point which is approximately the size of South Carolina or Austria. It has a maximum length of and maximum breadth of Its average depth is with a maximum depth of Lake Superior contains 2,900 cubic miles (12,100 km3) of water. The shoreline of the lake stretches 2726 mile (4387 km) (including islands). American limnologist J. Val Klump was the first person to reach the lowest depth of Lake Superior on July 30, 1985, as part of a scientific expedition, which at 122 fathoms 1 foot (733 feet (223 m)) below sea level is the second lowest spot in the continental interior of the United States and the third lowest spot in the interior of the North American continent after Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada (1503 feet (458 m) below sea level) and Iliamna Lake in Alaska 942 feet (287 m). (Though Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and deeper than Lake Superior, Crater Lake's elevation is higher and consequently its deepest point is 4229 feet (1289 m) above sea level.) While the temperature of the surface of Lake Superior varies seasonally, the temperature below is an almost constant 39 °F (4 °C). This variation in temperature makes the lake seasonally stratified. Twice per year, however, the water column reaches a uniform temperature of 39 °F (4 °C) from top to bottom, and the lake waters thoroughly mix. This feature makes the lake dimictic. Because of its volume, Lake Superior has a retention time of 191 years. Annual storms on Lake Superior regularly feature wave heights of over 20 feet (6 m). Waves well over 30 feet (9 m) have been recorded.

Lake Superior's size reduces the severity of the seasons of its humid continental climate (more typically seen in locations like Nova Scotia). The water surface's slow reaction to temperature changes, seasonally ranging between 32 and 55 °F (0–13 °C) around 1970, helps to moderate surrounding air temperatures in the summer (cooler with frequent sea breeze formations) and winter, and creates lake effect snow in colder months. The hills and mountains that border the lake hold moisture and fog, particularly in the fall.

The southern shore of Lake Superior between Grand Marais, Michigan, and Whitefish Point is known as the "Graveyard of the Great Lakes"; more ships have been lost around the Whitefish Point area than any other part of Lake Superior. These shipwrecks are now protected by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve. Storms that claimed multiple ships include the Mataafa Storm in November 1905 and the Great Lakes Storm of 1913. Wreckage of —a 420 feet (128 m) ore carrier that sank on October 11, 1907, during a Lake Superior storm in 77 fathoms (460 feet (140 m)) of water—was located in August 2007. Built in Lorain, Ohio, Cyprus was launched August 17, 1907, and was lost on her second voyage hauling iron ore from Superior, Wisconsin, to Buffalo, New York, with the sole survivor among her 23 crew being Charles G. Pitz. In 1918 the last warships to sink in the Great Lakes, French minesweepers Inkerman and Cerisoles, vanished in a Lake Superior storm, perhaps upon striking the uncharted danger of the Superior Shoal in an otherwise deep part of the lake. With 78 crewmembers dead, their sinking marked the largest loss of life on Lake Superior to date. was the latest ship to sink in Lake Superior, from Whitefish Point in a storm on November 10, 1975. The wreck was immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot in his ballad "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". All 29 crew members died, and no bodies were recovered. Edmund Fitzgerald was battered so intensely by Lake Superior that the 729 feet (222 m) ship split in half; her two pieces lie approximately 170 feet (52 m) apart at a depth of 88 fathoms (530 feet (162 m)). Lightfoot sings that "Superior, they said, never gives up her dead". This is because of the unusually cold water, under on average around 1970. Joe MacInnis reported that in July 1994, explorer Frederick Shannon's Expedition 94 to the wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald discovered a man's body near the port side of her pilothouse, not far from the open door, "fully clothed, wearing an orange life jacket, and lying face down in the sediment". In February 2024 it was announced that wreckage from the Arlington was discovered from a sinking in 1940.