List of bodies of water by salinity

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (January 2019)

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Water salinity
Salinity levels
Fresh water (< 0.05%)
Brackish water (0.05–3%)
Saline water (3–5%)
Brine (> 5% up to 26%–28% max)
Bodies of water

* Seawater
* Salt lake
* Hypersaline lake
* Salt pan
* Brine pool
* Bodies by salinity

* v
* t
* e

This is a list of bodies of water by salinity that is limited to natural bodies of water that have a stable salinity above 0.05%, at or below which water is considered fresh.

Water salinity often varies by location and season, particularly with hypersaline lakes in arid areas, so the salinity figures in the table below should be interpreted as an approximate indicator.

Salinity, g/100 g (%)  | Name  | Type  | Region or countries  | Refs

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20.0–50.0  | Lake Elton | salt lake | Astrakhan Oblast, Russia | [1]
43.3 | Gaet'ale Pond | salt lake | Ethiopia | [2][3]
40.0 | Lake Retba | salt lake | Senegal | [citation needed]
35.0 | Garabogazköl | lagoon | Turkmenistan | [4]
34.8 | Lake Assal | salt lake | Djibouti | [5]
33.8 | Don Juan Pond | salt lake | Antarctica | [6]
33.7 | Dead Sea | salt lake | Israel, Jordan, Palestine | [7]
32.4 | Lake Tuz (Tuz Gölü) | salt lake | Turkey | [8]
31.7 | Great Salt Lake, North Arm | salt lake | Great Basin, Utah, United States | [9]
30.0 | Lake Baskunchak | salt lake | Astrakhan Oblast, Russia | [10]
30.0 | Lake Sărat | salt lake | Brăila, Romania | [11][12]
8.50–28.0 | Lake Urmia | salt lake | Iran | [13]
27.0 | Deep Lake | salt lake | Antarctica | [14]
18.0 | Little Manitou Lake | salt lake | Canada | [15]
15.3 | Lake Pikrolimni | salt lake | Greece | [16]
0.00–14.6 | Lake Vanda | meromictic lake | Antarctica | [17]
14.2 | Great Salt Lake, South Arm | salt lake | Great Basin, Utah, United States | [9]
12.0 | Lake Abert | salt lake | Great Basin, Oregon, United States | [18]
9.50 | Lake Techirghiol | salt lake | Romania | [19]
8.80 | Mono Lake | salt lake | Great Basin, California, United States | [20] (as of 2015)
6.60 | Hamelin Pool | lagoon | Australia | [21]
4.40 | Salton Sea | salt lake | Great Basin, California, United States | [22]
4.10–4.50 | Great Bitter Lake | salt lake | Egypt | [23]
3.80 | Mediterranean Sea | mediterranean sea | Southern Europe, Levant, North Africa | [24]
3.60–4.10 | Red Sea | mediterranean sea | Egypt, Sudan, Arabian Peninsula, Horn of Africa | [25]
3.00–4.00 | Lake Natron | salt lake | Tanzania | [26]
3.40–3.60 | World Ocean | ocean | Worldwide | [27]
3.50+ | Lake Eyre | endorheic lake | Australia | [28][n 1]
3.40 | Lough Hyne | marine lake | Republic of Ireland | [29]
2.80–3.20 | Beaufort Sea | marginal sea | North of Alaska and Canada  | [30]
2.20 | Sea of Marmara | mediterranean sea | Between the Balkan Peninsula and the Anatolian peninsula  | [31]
3.17 | Chilika Lake | lagoon | India | [32]
1.30–2.30 | Black Sea | mediterranean sea | Between Europe and Asia - Balkan Peninsula, Eastern Europe, Anatolia, Caucasus | [33]
2.30 | Lake Van | salt lake | Turkey | [34]
1.40  | Qinghai Lake | salt lake  | China | [35]
1.25 | Caspian Sea | salt lake | Eastern Europe/ Western Asia | [36]
1.14 | Sarygamysh Lake | salt lake | Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan | [37]
1.00–1.20 | Sea of Azov | mediterranean sea | Ukraine, Russia | [38][39]
0.8–1.0 | Baltic Sea | marginal sea | Northern Europe | [40][n 2]
0.59 | Issyk Kul | salt lake | Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia | [41][n 3]

## See also

[edit]

* List of brackish bodies of water

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Lake Elton Biosphere Reserve, Russian Federation". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
2. ^ Perez, Eduardo; Chebude, Yonas (April 2017). "Chemical Analysis of Gaet'ale, a Hypersaline Pond in Danakil Depression (Ethiopia): New Record for the Most Saline Water Body on Earth". Aquatic Geochemistry. 23 (2): 109–117. doi:10.1007/s10498-017-9312-z. S2CID 132715553.
3. ^ "Guinness World Records".
4. ^ Aladin, Nicolai; Plotnikov, Igor (28 June 2004). Lake Basin Management Initiative - The Caspian Sea (PDF) (Report). p. 6. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
5. ^ Woodward, Susan L. "Saline Lakes". Biomes of the World. Radford, Virginia: Department of Geospatial Science, Radford University. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
6. ^ Hammer, U.T. (1986). Saline Lake Ecosystems of the World. Springer. p. 109\. ISBN 9789061935353. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
7. ^ Goetz, P.W. (ed.) The New Encyclopædia Britannica (15th ed.). Vol. 3, p. 937. Chicago, 1986
8. ^ "Lake Tuz Special Environmental Protection Area (SEPA) - UNESCO World Heritage Centre". Unesco World Heritage Center. 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
9. ^ a b White, James S.; Null, Sarah E.; Tarboton, David (2004). "More than Meets the Eye: Managing Salinity in Great Salt Lake, Utah" (PDF). LakeLine (Fall 2004): 25–29. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
10. ^ "Bogdinsko-Baskunchaksky - Russian Nature Reserve".
11. ^ "About Lacu Sărat".
12. ^ "Observator on Lacu Sărat".
13. ^ "Lake Urmia". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
14. ^ Williams, Timothy J; Allen, Michelle A; DeMaere, Matthew Z; Kyrpides, Nikos C; Tringe, Susannah G; Woyke, Tanja; Cavicchioli, Ricardo (20 February 2014). "Microbial ecology of an Antarctic hypersaline lake: genomic assessment of ecophysiology among dominant haloarchaea". The ISME Journal. 8 (8). Springer Science and Business Media LLC: 1645–1658. doi:10.1038/ismej.2014.18. ISSN 1751-7362. PMC 4817606. PMID 24553470.
15. ^ Little Manitou Lake. The Canadian Encyclopedia.
16. ^ Dotsika, E.; Maniatis, Y.; Tzavidopoulos, E.; Poutoukis, D.; Albanakis, K. (1 January 2004). "Hydrogeochemical Condition of the Pikrolimni Lake (Kilkis Greece)". Bulletin of the Geological Society of Greece. 36 (1): 192–195. doi:10.12681/bgsg.16618.
17. ^ Schutte, C.A.; Samarkin, V.A.; Peters, B.; Madigan, M.T.; Bowles, M.; Morgan-Kiss, R.; Casciotti, K.; Joye, S. (1 March 2020). "Vertical stratification and stability of biogeochemical processes in the deep saline waters of Lake Vanda, Antarctica". Limnology and Oceanography. 65 (3): 569–581. doi:10.1002/lno.11327.
18. ^ Solute Balance at Abert and Summer Lakes, South-Central Oregon
19. ^ "Lacul Techirghiol".
20. ^ Willever, Katherine (1 August 2016). Biogeochemistry of a Saline, Alkaline, Terminal Lake Ecosystem in Transition; Walker Lake, Nevada. UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones (Thesis). doi:10.34917/9302977.
21. ^ Suosaari, Erica; Reid, Pamela; Playford, Phillip; et al. (2016). "New multi-scale perspectives on the stromatolites of Shark Bay, Western Australia". Scientific Reports. 6 (20557): 20557. Bibcode:2016NatSR...620557S. doi:10.1038/srep20557. PMC 4738353. PMID 26838605.
22. ^ "The Salton Sea". The Salton Sea Authority. October 1997.
23. ^ El-Serehy, Hamed A.; Abdallah, Hala S.; Al-Misned, Fahad A.; Irshad, Rizwan; Al-Farraj, Saleh A.; Almalki, Esam S. (2018). "Aquatic ecosystem health and trophic status classification of the Bitter Lakes along the main connecting link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean". Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences. 25 (2): 204–212. doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2017.12.004. ISSN 1319-562X. PMC 5816010. PMID 29472766.
24. ^ "Ocean salinity". Science Learning Hub. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
25. ^ A. Anati, David (March 1999). "The salinity of hypersaline brines: Concepts and misconceptions". International Journal of Salt Lake Research. 8: 55–70. doi:10.1023/A:1009059827435.
26. ^ The Biology and Culture of Tilapias: Proceedings of the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management, p.38
27. ^ "Ocean salinity".
28. ^ "Floods of Lake Eyre". k26press.
29. ^ "Nutrient and Ecosystem Dynamics in Ireland's Only Marine Nature Reserve (NEIDIN)" (PDF).
30. ^ "Beaufort Sea". Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian).
31. ^ "Sea of Marmara". 25 March 2021.
32. ^ Indian Journal of Marine Sciences - Variation of Water Quality of Chilika Lake, Orissa
33. ^ Black Sea - Encyclopedia of Ukraine
34. ^ Yama, Tomonaga (22 March 2017). "Porewater salinity reveals past lake-level changes in Lake Van, the Earth's largest soda lake". Scientific Reports. 7 (7): 313. Bibcode:2017NatSR...7..313T. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-00371-w. PMC 5428207. PMID 28331216.
35. ^ Zhang, Renyi; Ludwig, Arne; Zhang, Cunfang; Tong, Chao; Li, Guogang; Tang, Yongtao; Peng, Zuogang; Zhao, Kai (6 May 2015). "Local adaptation of Gymnocypris przewalskii (Cyprinidae) on the Tibetan Plateau". Scientific Reports. 5 (1): 9780. Bibcode:2015NatSR...5E9780Z. doi:10.1038/srep09780. PMC 4421831. PMID 25944748.
36. ^ Lake Basin Management Initiative - The Caspian Sea (2004)
37. ^ Orlovsky, Leah; Matsrafi, Offir; Orlovsky, Nikolai; Kouznetsov, Michael (2014). "Sarykamysh Lake: Collector of Drainage Water – the Past, the Present, and the Future". The Turkmen Lake Altyn Asyr and Water Resources in Turkmenistan. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry. Vol. 28\. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. pp. 107–140. doi:10.1007/698_2012_191. ISBN 978-3-642-38606-0.
38. ^ "Climatological Atlas of the Sea of Azov". National Oceanographic Data Centre. Retrieved 6 January 2008.
39. ^ Kosarev, Andrey G.; Kostianoy, Aleksey N. (2007). The Black Sea Environment. Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-74291-3.
40. ^ Long Term Temperature & Salinity Records from the Baltic Sea Transition Zone
41. ^ Facts about Kyrgyzstan (in Russian)

### Notes

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1. ^ When full, Lake Eyre salinity is the same as oceans; due to a 45cm thick salt layer when dry, it rises as water evaporates.
2. ^ Some bays have considerably lower salinity.
3. ^ Deeper water areas of lake Issyk Kul have higher salinity

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Johanna Laybourn-Parry; Jemma L. Wadham (2014). Antarctic Lakes. Oxford University Press. pp. 92–94. ISBN 978-0-19-967049-9.

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