List of bodies of water by salinity

Part of a series on
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

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
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]
  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. Bibcode:2017AqGeo..23..109P. 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. Bibcode:2014ISMEJ...8.1645W. 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. Bibcode:2020LimOc..65..569S. doi:10.1002/lno.11327.
  18. ^ Solute Balance at Abert and Summer Lakes, South-Central Oregon
  19. ^ "Lacul Techirghiol". 22 October 2021.
  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. Bibcode:2018SJBS...25..204E. 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)


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