The World’s Largest Bodies of Water

Largest Swamp: Pantanal

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A swamp is a seasonally flooded bottomland with a large number of dry-land protrusions covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation.

Covering an estimated area between 140,000 sq km (54 sq mi) and 195,000 sq km (75,000 sq mi), the Pantanal is the largest wetland of any kind in the world.   This tropical wetland lies mostly within the country of Brazil with portions extending to Bolivia and Paraguay.

Largest Bay: Bay of Bengal

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Bays are areas of waters mostly surrounded by land. They are larger than a cove but smaller than a gulf.  They have calmer waters than the sea surrounding them due to the surrounding land blocking the waves and reducing the winds.

Occupying an area of 2.2 million sq km and reaching a depth of up to 5,258 meters, the Bay of Bengal is the world’s largest bay. It forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, and is bordered by Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Measured by shoreline, the Hudson Bay in Canada is the longest covering 12,268 km (7,623 mi).

Largest Gulf: Gulf of Mexico

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A gulf is an arm of a sea or ocean partially enclosed by land.

The Gulf of Mexico holds the record as the earth’s largest gulf and 10th largest body of water.  It is an ocean basin mostly surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. The gulf basin covers approximately 615,000 sq mi (1.6 mi sq km). Its deepest part measures 14,383 ft (4,383 m) at the Sigsbee Deep, an irregular trough more than 300 nautical miles (550 km) long.

Largest Lagoon: Grand Lagon Sud

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A lagoon is a shallow salt or brackish body of water, especially one separated from a sea by sandbars or coral reefs.

The world’s largest lagoon, Grand Lagon Sud in the French territory of New Caledonia is 24,000 sq km with a 1,600 km long barrier reef.

Largest Sea: Caspian Sea

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A sea refers to a large body of salt water connected with an ocean. Sometimes, a large saline lake without a natural outlet is also called a sea and that includes the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest sea.

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area with a surface area of 371,000 sq km (143,244 sq mi) and a maximum depth of about 1.025 m (3,363 ft).  This endorheic basin is bounded by the countries of Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and eastern Azerbaijan.

Largest River: Amazon River

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A river is a large natural watercourse emptying into an ocean, lake, or other body of water and usually fed along its course by converging tributaries.

The Amazon River of South America is the largest river in the world by volume and has the largest drainage basin accounting for approximately one-fifth of the world’s total river flow. Sometimes called The River Sea because of its vast dimensions, the Amazon River has a total river flow greater than the next eight largest rivers combined.

In terms of length, the Amazon is slightly shorter than the Nile River in Africa which is generally regarded as the world’s longest although some scientists particularly from Brazil and Peru dispute this.

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