This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations.(March 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Lake Zaysan in Kazakhstan is one of the oldest lakes in the world.
An ancient lake is a lake that has consistently carried water for more than one million years. 12 of the 20 ancient lakes have existed for more than 2.6 million years, the full Quaternary period. Ancient lakes continue to persist due to plate tectonics in an active rift zone. This active rift zone creates lakes that are extremely deep and difficult to naturally fill with sediment. Due to the prolonged life of ancient lakes, they serve as models for isolated evolutionary traits and speciation. Most of the world's bodies of water are less than 18,000 years old. There are only 20 ancient lakes over 1 million years old.[1]
Lake Baikal is often considered the oldest, as clear evidence shows that it is 25–30 million years old.[2][3] Lake Zaysan may be even older, of Cretaceous origin and at least 66 million years old[4] (most likely around 70 million years[5]), but its exact age is controversial and labelled with some uncertainty.[6] Another contender for oldest is Lake Maracaibo, estimated to be 20–36 million years old. In ancient times it was indisputably a true lake, but today it is saline and directly connected to the sea, leading many to consider it a large lagoon or bay.[7]
^Cite error: The named reference marine-rutgers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Lake Baikal – UNESCO World Heritage Centre". 1992–2024. Retrieved 20 January 2024. Situated in south-east Siberia, the 3.15-million-ha Lake Baikal is the oldest (25 million years) and deepest (1,700 m) lake in the world. It contains 20% of the world's total unfrozen freshwater reserve.
^"Lake Baikal: Protection of a unique ecosystem". ScienceDaily. 26 July 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
^Lucas; Bray; Emry; Hirsch (2012). "Dinosaur eggshell and Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary in the Zaysan Basin, eastern Kazakhstan". Journal of Stratigraphy. 36 (2): 1376–1382. doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2011.09.220.
^Dorfman, B.F. (2011). "Zaysan-the Only Surviving Cretaceous Lake-May be Lost". Procedia Environmental Sciences. 10 (B): 1376–1382. doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2011.09.220.
^"The Oldest Lakes in the World". World Atlas. 25 August 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
^"Lake Maracaibo – Lakes of the World". World Atlas. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
An ancientlake is a lake that has consistently carried water for more than one million years. 12 of the 20 ancientlakes have existed for more than 2...
former capital city of Kyoto. Lake Biwa is an ancientlake, over 4 million years old. It is estimated to be the 13th oldest lake in the world. Because of its...
25–30 million years, making it the most ancientlake in geological history. It is unique among large, high-latitude lakes, as its sediments have not been scoured...
valley lakes with similarly ancient origins include Lake Baikal, Lake Titicaca, Lake Tanganyika and the Dead Sea. Most lakes have much shorter life spans...
have been discerned for Lake Minchin within the Altiplano. Another ancientlake in the area is Ouki. The high lake levels of Lake Tauca have been dated...
Lake Moeris (Ancient Greek: Μοῖρις, genitive Μοίριδος) was an ancient endorheic freshwater lake located in the Faiyum Oasis, 80 km (50 mi) southwest of...
AncientLakes of Columbia Valley, also locally called "AncientLakes", is an American Viticultural Area {AVA) which lies on the western edge of the Columbia...
Lake Corcoran (also known as Lake Clyde, after Clyde Wahrhaftig, an American geologist) is an ancientlake that covered the Central Valley of California...
Lake Lanao (Maranao: Ranao or Ranaw) is a large ancientlake in the province of Lanao del Sur, Philippines. With a surface area of 340 km2 (130 sq mi)...
caused the water level of the lake to drop over the next several millennia. Remnants of the ancient shoreline that Lake Texcoco had from the last glacial...
The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern...
been proposed to have existed at some point in the lake's history. Lake Tanganyika is an ancientlake, one of only twenty more than a million years old...
Lake Eyre (/ɛər/ AIR), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in the east-central part of the Far North region of South Australia...
Ancient Greece (Greek: Ἑλλάς, romanized: Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries...
lake. Lake Malawi (1967) Mwaya Beach Beach at Cape Maclear near Monkey Bay Malawi is one of the major Rift Valley lakes and an ancientlake. The lake...
Lake Bosumtwi is the only natural lake in Ghana. It is situated within an ancient impact crater that is about 10.5 kilometres (6.5 mi) in diameter. It...
Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeast Africa. It was concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River, situated in the place that...
Lake Vostok (Russian: озеро Восток, romanized: ozero Vostok) is the largest of Antarctica's 675 known subglacial lakes. Lake Vostok is located at the southern...
In modern historiography, ancient Rome encompasses the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC, the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC), Roman...
Tulare Lake (/tʊˈlɛəri/ ) or Tache Lake (Yokuts: Pah-áh-su, Pah-áh-sē) is a freshwater lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California, United States...
also called Lake Tiberias or Kinneret, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second-lowest lake in the world...
Grmožur in Lake Skadar, Montenegro Lake Skadar, Montenegro Lake Skadar is presumably an ancientlake, although it is a relatively young ancientlake. Most...
Lake Maracaibo (Spanish: Lago de Maracaibo) is a brackish lake located in northwestern Venezuela, between the states of Zulia, Trujillo, and Mérida. Hydrologically...
system. Lake Matano is considered an ancientlake, and it formed in a tectonic graben around 1 to 2 million years ago. Lake Matano and its catchment area have...
Global Information
