The shallowest and warmest of the Great Lakes, and the most productive for fish.
Surface area
25,700 km²
Maximum depth
about 64 m
Elevation
174 m
Continent
North America
Countries
United States & Canada
Did you know?
Because it is so shallow, Erie warms fast, freezes most readily and can whip up dangerous waves in a storm.
Little-known fact
It was once so polluted a river feeding it caught fire — a disaster that helped launch the modern environmental movement.
Highlights
- Shallowest Great Lake
- Warms and freezes most easily
- Its pollution sparked clean-water laws
Life in the Lake Erie
The fish and animals, waterbirds and water plants — including some of the rarest — that this water supports.
Animals & fish
North American beaver
Nature’s engineer: its dams create wetlands that reshape whole river valleys.
Common snapping turtle
An armoured, prehistoric-looking turtle with a powerful beak that haunts the muddy beds of North American waters.
Waterbirds
Mallard
The familiar green-headed dabbling duck — ancestor of most domestic ducks — found on waters worldwide.
Water plants & reeds
Cattail (bulrush)
The brown sausage-headed reed of marshy shallows, edible from root to pollen.
Interactive · 3D dive
How deep does a lake go?
A lake is layered from the sunlit, weed-filled shallows down to a cold, dark bed. Tap a zone to dive the submersible through the water column — and meet the life that belongs at each depth.
Tip: hover the column to tilt it · tap a layer to dive
Littoral Zone
The warm, bright band close to shore where sunlight reaches the bottom. Reeds, water lilies and rooted plants grow thickly here, making it the busiest, most crowded part of the whole lake.
Who lives here