Earth contains various kinds of water resources. Moreover, Earth has larger water area than the land. You could even know this fact by looking at the Earth’s surface, which shows dominant blue (water) area. Not only oceans or seas, the Earth also has other countless water resources. It becomes a significant advantage for human and other living creatures since they can easily get water for living. There are some properties of water that you need to know.
Water Resources on Earth
Earth has various kinds and quantities of water resources. Those water resources are divided into two kinds: salt and fresh water resources. Salt water are coming from sea and ocean, while the fresh water resource are on land, such as river, lake, and reservoir, etc. These fresh water resources can be found in many places on Earth. We are going to elaborate one of those resources: lake.
Lake as Water Resource
Lake is one of the fresh water resources in the world. It’s like a pool of fresh water on Earth’s surface. Lake water is commonly used for daily need. Indonesia has many lakes with various kinds of sizes. Not only the size though, those lakes also have different depths. In this article, we are going to explain about lakes in South East Asia, especially about 10 deepest lakes in South East Asia.
- Matano Lake
Matano Lake is the deepest lake in South East Asia. It’s located in East Luwu, South Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. However, Matano Lake is not as popular as Toba Lake in North Sumatera Province. Unexpectedly, Matano Lake has such beautiful and mesmerizing scenery. Besides the pretty look, the lake also has magnificent depth. In its clean water, Matano Lake has the depth of 590 meter. The lake is not only clean, but also very calm, since we could possibly look at its depth of 20 meter. Matano Lake has an area of 16.000 hectare, with 28 km long and 8 km wide. The lake can be reached by cars and planes. You could depart from Makassar with executive bus, around Rp 150,000/person. It takes up to 12 hours by road trip, while you only spend 55 minutes by plane, but the plane ticket could cost up to Rp 1,200,000/person. There also some list of the largest lakes in the world.
- Toba Lake
Toba Lake is considered as a popular lake in Indonesia, even in South East Asia. This lake is located in Medan, North Sumatera Province. Toba Lake is also famous for some countries around Indonesia, especially due to Samosir Island that is located in the center of the lake. Toba Lake is a national treasure of Indonesia. It’s not only about its natural resources, but also its history. The history of how Lake Toba was formed becomes important legend for Indonesian people. The lake has such mesmerizing landscape. Toba Lake belongs to tectonic – volcanic type of lake, which means it’s located in a caldera. After being named as the second deepest lake in Indonesia, Lake Toba is also considered as the largest lake in Indonesia. This lake is 100 km long and 30 km wide, and it has the depth of 505 meter.
- Poso Lake
Poso Lake is located in Poso District, Central Sulawesi. This is one of the important lakes in Indonesia, as it is the third deepest lake after Matano and Toba Lakes. Poso Lake has length of 32 km and width of 16 km, with the deepest depth of 450 meter. Papua also has some popular lakes.
- Maninjau Lake
Maninjau Lake is located in Tanjung Raya, Agam District, West Sumatera. It’s around 140 kilometers to the north of Padang City. Maninjau Lake is also considered as a popular lake after those previous three lakes. Indonesia also has some volcanic lakes.
- Songkhla Lake
Songkhla Lake is the biggest natural lake in Thailand, around Melayu Peninsula. The lake has an area of 1.040 km2. Songkhla Lake is quite unique since it’s divided into three parts. The southern part, 380 m wide, contains brackish water. Up to the north, with 6 km wide, is the Thale Luang, while the further north has an area of 28 km2, it’s called Thale Noi. The lake is located near a sea, there is a 75 km-long cape that parts both of them. Songkhla Lake is uniquely formed due to the shrinking sea, then the remaining part becomes the lake.
- Chini Lake
Chini Lake is very popular in Malaysia. This is where the Jakun Tribe lives up till now. The lake is connected to the Chini River. The water from Chini River is going to Pahang River, then continue to other rivers. Chini Lake has a very famous Lotus flower season between Juni and September. Such an important legend about the lake does exist, a dragon named Seri Gumum Dragon is living at the bottom of the lake.
- Xuan Huong Lake
Xuan Houng Lake is one of the popular lakes in Vietnam. This lake has mesmerizing scenery, it even becomes the main tourist attraction in Dalat. Dalat itself is a popular tourism city in Vietnam, especially for new couples spending their honeymoon time. Dalat is not only famous for local, but also international tourists. Dalat, which is relatively high from sea level, is located in Lam Dong Province. Located in such high level, Xuan Houng Lake creates a beautiful city landscape. Xuan Houng has a large area and it’s located in the city center; therefore, many people love spending their time around the lake. Furthermore, the lake attracts more tourists due to its flower gardens and old French buildings around the lake.
- Tonle Sap Lake
Tonle Sap Lake is also the 10 deepest lakes in South East Asia, it’s located in Cambodia. This is the largest one in Cambodia, even the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia. Therefore, Tonle Sap Lake is an essential place for biodiversity. ‘Tonle Sap’ literally means ‘big lake’. The lake is quite unique, since it’s like a combination of lake and river. If you look at from above, it looks lengthways. Tonle Sap Lake has some uniqueness, like the water stream is changing twice a year, and the lake’s size dramatically becomes bigger and smaller depends on the seasons. During dry season, the water is going to Mekong River. But it’s going the other way during rainy season, so the lake will become larger. The largest size of the lake is around 16.000 km2 with the depth of 9 meters, creating a local flood to its surrounding land and forest.
- Taal Lake
Taal Lake is located in the Philippines. It is also the largest lake in the Philippines. The lake is located in 37-38 mil to the south of Manila. Taal Lake becomes famous due to two things, its depth and its correlation with a mountain. The lake has a depth of 564 feet, and acts as a place for the smallest and most active volcano in the world, Taal Mountain. Taal Lake was formed after the volcano eruption left such big hole. Places around the lake are determined as danger spots, however, plenty of tourism spots still can be found around the lake.
- Lanao Lake
Lanao Lake is the second largest lake in the Philippines, after Laguna de Bay. This lake has an area of 340 km2, with the maximum depth of 112 meter. Lanao Lake is the biggest lake in Mindanao Island, it’s located in Lanao del Sur Province.
So, there are the 10 deepest lakes in South East Asia. Moreover, those are the largest and deepest lakes in South East Asia. The lakes have some useful potentials; thus, people need to take care of it.