Why Does Canada Have So Many Lakes?

Count every lake on Earth larger than 10 hectares and about 62% of them are in Canada: close to 900,000 lakes, more than the rest of the world combined, according to the HydroLAKES database built at McGill University. So why does one country have so many? We follow the Laurentide Ice Sheet as it scrapes the ancient Canadian Shield, scrambles the drainage, dams giant Lake Agassiz and presses Hudson Bay down, where the land is still rising about 10 mm a year. Plus the Great Lakes, Great Bear and Great Slave lakes, fur-trade canoe routes and hydro power. Ice-sheet, Canadian Shield, Lake Agassiz and canoe-route outlines on the maps are approximate. CHAPTERS 0:00 Most of the World's Lakes 0:37 What Counts as a Lake 1:09 The Laurentide Ice Sheet 1:41 Scraping the Canadian Shield 2:17 Blocked Drainage and Kettle Lakes 2:49 Lake Agassiz 3:28 The Giants 4:14 The Land Is Still Rising 4:47 Canoes and Hydro Power 5:27 Rock, Ice and Time SOURCES (links in the pinned comment) • Messager, Lehner, Grill, Nedeva & Schmitt, Nature Communications (15 Dec 2016) – Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach • Messager et al. 2016, Table 1 – Distribution and morphometric characteristics of lakes worldwide • McGill University Newsroom – Taking stock of the world's lakes • HydroSHEDS – HydroLAKES • Environment and Climate Change Canada – Water sources: lakes • Environment and Climate Change Canada – Water: frequently asked questions • The Canadian Encyclopedia – Lake • Encyclopaedia Britannica – Laurentide Ice Sheet • NASA Earth Observatory – Contours of the James Bay Lowlands (Apr 2026) • The Canadian Encyclopedia – Glaciation • The Canadian Encyclopedia – Canadian Shield • Encyclopaedia Britannica – Canadian Shield • Britannica (Students) – Canadian Shield • The Canadian Encyclopedia – River Landform • Steven Earle, Physical Geology 2nd ed. (BCcampus) – 13.2 Drainage Basins • U.S. National Park Service – Kettles • U.S. Geological Survey – Glossary (Open-File Report 2004-1216) • The Canadian Encyclopedia – Lake Agassiz • Encyclopaedia Britannica – Lake Agassiz • Li et al., Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2012) – Synchronizing a sea-level jump, final Lake Agassiz drainage, and abrupt cooling 8200 years ago • The Canadian Encyclopedia – Great Bear Lake • The Canadian Encyclopedia – Great Slave Lake • The Canadian Encyclopedia – Hudson Bay • The Canadian Encyclopedia – Fur Trade Routes • Government of Canada – Energy Fact Book 2025–2026: Clean power and low carbon fuels Historical regions and physical zones drawn on the map are approximate. Imagery: NASA Earth Observatory Blue Marble; Sentinel-2 cloudless (s2maps.eu) by EOX IT Services GmbH, contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016 (CC BY 4.0). Borders and lakes: Natural Earth. Music: original. New map questions every few days. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one. #Geography #Maps #Canada #Lakes #IceAge