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]
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^ 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 .
^ "Guinness World Records" .
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^ Goetz, P.W. (ed.) The New Encyclopædia Britannica (15th ed.). Vol. 3, p. 937. Chicago, 1986
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^ 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 .
^ "Bogdinsko-Baskunchaksky - Russian Nature Reserve" .
^ "About Lacu Sărat" .
^ "Observator on Lacu Sărat" .
^ "Lake Urmia" . Encyclopædia Britannica Online . 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2012 .
^ 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 .
^ Little Manitou Lake . The Canadian Encyclopedia .
^ 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 .
^ 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 .
^ Solute Balance at Abert and Summer Lakes, South-Central Oregon
^ "Lacul Techirghiol" .
^ 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 .
^ 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 .
^ "The Salton Sea" . The Salton Sea Authority . October 1997.
^ 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 .
^ "Ocean salinity" . Science Learning Hub . Retrieved 2 July 2017 .
^ 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 .
^ The Biology and Culture of Tilapias: Proceedings of the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management , p.38
^ "Ocean salinity" .
^ "Floods of Lake Eyre" . k26press .
^ "Nutrient and Ecosystem Dynamics in Ireland's Only Marine Nature Reserve (NEIDIN)" (PDF) .
^ "Beaufort Sea" . Great Soviet Encyclopedia (in Russian) .
^ "Sea of Marmara" . 25 March 2021.
^ Indian Journal of Marine Sciences - Variation of Water Quality of Chilika Lake, Orissa
^ Black Sea - Encyclopedia of Ukraine
^ 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 .
^ 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 .
^ Lake Basin Management Initiative - The Caspian Sea (2004)
^ 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 .
^ "Climatological Atlas of the Sea of Azov" . National Oceanographic Data Centre. Retrieved 6 January 2008 .
^ Kosarev, Andrey G.; Kostianoy, Aleksey N. (2007). The Black Sea Environment . Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-74291-3 .
^ Long Term Temperature & Salinity Records from the Baltic Sea Transition Zone
^ Facts about Kyrgyzstan (in Russian)
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