Amethyst Lakes & Tonquin Valley Ramparts

This is a list of lakes in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Most of Alberta's lakes were formed during the last glaciation, about 12,000 years ago. There are many different types of lakes in Alberta, from

glacial A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...

lakes in the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...

to small shallow lakes in the

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

s, brown water lakes in the northern

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...

and

muskeg Muskeg (Ojibwe: mashkiig; cr, maskīk; french: fondrière de mousse, lit. ''moss bog'') is a peat-forming ecosystem found in several northern climates, most commonly in Arctic and boreal areas. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or ...

, kettle holes and large lakes with sandy beaches and clear water in the central plains. Distribution of the lakes throughout the province of Alberta is irregular, with many water bodies in the wet

boreal plains The Boreal Plains Ecozone, as defined by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), is a terrestrial ecozone in the western Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. It also has minor extensions into northeastern British C ...

in the north, and very few in the semi-arid

Palliser's Triangle Palliser's Triangle, or the Palliser Triangle, is a semi-arid steppe occupying a substantial portion of the Western Canadian Prairie Provinces, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, within the Great Plains region. While initially determined to be uns ...

in the southeast. __TOC__

River basins

Most of Alberta's waters are drained in a general north or northeastern direction, with six major rivers forming four major watersheds collecting the water and removing it from the province:Alberta Environment
- Alberta's River Basins * The

Peace River The Peace River (french: links=no, rivière de la Paix) is a river in Canada that originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta. The Peace River joins the Athabasca River in th ...

and

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is pro ...

flow north and east, meeting in the massive

Peace–Athabasca Delta The Peace–Athabasca Delta, located in northeast Alberta, is the largest freshwater inland river delta in North America. It is located partially within the southeast corner of Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada's largest national park, and also ...

, eventually feeding the Mackenzie River in south-central

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

and draining into the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

* The

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South Saskatchewan River The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada that flows through the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. For the first half of the 20th century, the South Saskatchewan would completely freeze over during winter, creating spectacular ...

s flow east and form the

Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...

in central

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, flowing into

Lake Winnipeg Lake Winnipeg (french: Lac Winnipeg, oj, ᐑᓂᐸᑲᒥᐠᓴᑯ˙ᑯᐣ, italics=no, Weenipagamiksaguygun) is a very large, relatively shallow lake in North America, in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Manitoba, Canada. I ...

, which drains into

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

on the Arctic/

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

oceans ** There is an

endorheic An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

area between the North and South Saskatchewan basins, the Sounding Creek system, where most of the water drains to Manitou Lake (not to be confused with the more famous

Little Manitou Lake Little Manitou Lake is a small saltwater lake about 120 kilometres south-east of Saskatoon in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The lake was formed by receding glaciers during the most recent ice age. It is fed by underground springs, ...

) and evaporates. * The smaller Beaver River in east-central Alberta flows east into the Churchill River in north-central

and then drains into Hudson Bay * The smaller Milk River in southeast Alberta flows south into the Missouri River in northeastern

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

, which joins the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

and drains into the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

As with other basins on the planet, the topographical highlights in the

drainage divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a singl ...

s between these basins can be difficult to discern. For example, there is little elevation change in the short of land between Lac la Biche and Beaver Lake, yet the former is in a watershed that drains north into the Arctic Ocean, while the latter is in a watershed that drains east into Hudson Bay.

Largest lakes

Lake Athabasca is the largest lake in both Alberta and

. This lake has of its surface area in Alberta and in Saskatchewan. The largest lake completely within Alberta is Lake Claire, at . Lake Claire is just west of Lake Athabasca, with both located in the remote Peace-Athabasca Delta. This section provides a list of lakes of Alberta with an area larger than .

List of lakes

This section provides a list of numerous lakes of Alberta, including the "large" ones shown in the previous section. Note that the lakes are listed alphabetically by their main name, dropping any leading "lake", "lac", "lac la", "upper/lower", "north/south". For example, Lac la Nonne (''the nun lake'') is entered under "N". If desired, using the table sort function will give the list sorted by the leading word.

References

{{Canada topic, List of lakes of *

Lakes A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

River basins

Largest lakes

List of lakes

See also

References