Lake Victoria
Lake in East-central Africa / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately 59,947 km2 (23,146 sq mi),[6][7] Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake,[8] and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after Lake Superior in North America.[9] In terms of volume, Lake Victoria is the world's ninth-largest continental lake, containing about 2,424 km3 (1.965×109 acre⋅ft) of water.[7][10] Lake Victoria occupies a shallow depression in Africa. The lake has an average depth of 40 m (130 ft) and a maximum depth of 80–81 m (262–266 ft).[7][10][11] Its catchment area covers 169,858 km2 (65,583 sq mi).[12] The lake has a shoreline of 7,142 km (4,438 mi) when digitized at the 1:25,000 level,[13] with islands constituting 3.7% of this length.[14]
| Lake Victoria | |
|---|---|
Lake Victoria partially obscured by clouds taken on the International Space Station | |
  Lake Victoria | |
| Location | African Great Lakes |
| Coordinates | 1°S 33°E |
| Native name |
|
| Primary inflows | Kagera River |
| Primary outflows | White Nile |
| Catchment area | 169,858 km2 (65,583 sq mi) 229,815 km2 (88,732 sq mi) basin [1] |
| Basin countries | Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda[1] |
| Max. length | 359 km (223 mi)[2] |
| Max. width | 337 km (209 mi)[2] |
| Surface area | 59,947 km2 (23,146 sq mi)[3] |
| Average depth | 40.4 m (133 ft)[3] |
| Max. depth | 81 m (266 ft)[3] |
| Water volume | 2,424 km3 (582 cu mi)[3] |
| Shore length1 | 7,142 km (4,438 mi)[3] |
| Surface elevation | 1,135 m (3,724 ft)[4] |
| Islands | 985 (Ukerewe Island, Tanzania;Ssese Islands,[3] Uganda; Maboko Island, Kenya)[5] |
| Settlements | |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
The lake's area is divided among three countries: Tanzania occupies 49% (33,700 km2 (13,000 sq mi)), Uganda 45% (31,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi)), and Kenya 6% (4,100 km2 (1,600 sq mi)).[15]
Though having multiple local language names (Swahili: Ukerewe; Dholuo: Nam Lolwe; Luganda: 'Nnalubaale; Kinyarwanda: Nyanza),[16][17] the lake was renamed after Queen Victoria by the explorer John Hanning Speke, the first Briton to document it in 1858, while on an expedition with Richard Francis Burton.[18][19] The lake is home to many species of fish which live nowhere else, especially cichlids. Invasive fish, such as the Nile perch, have driven many endemic species to extinction.