What Are the World's Largest Bodies of Water?

Why is there not a definitive list of the largest bodies of water in the world on the internet?! This one leaves out at least 6, including the largest seas in the world, the Philippine Sea. Also missing: The Coral Sea, Tasman Sea, Labrador and many others. How hard can this be?

@Perdido – If the winds are strong enough, the Great Lakes can make waves that are high enough to surf. I've actually seen people out there in winter in diving suits with surfboards!

The wind across that much water makes big waves. Even though they do look nearly identical to ocean waves, they come closer together since the lakes are not as big as the ocean, so it is actually more dangerous to surf there than in the ocean. Also, it's harder to float in freshwater than it is in saltwater.

There are lots of rip currents, especially around sandbars, harbors, or decks of some sort. Anything jutting out in the ocean that messes with the current can make it really dangerous to swim in that area.

I've heard that the Great Lakes have waves that look and act just like ocean waves. Is this true?

It just seems so strange that a freshwater lake could have waves and rip currents. I've heard that lots of people have died there from the undertow, but I have a hard time picturing strong waves and currents in a lake.

@OeKc05 – That's the way it goes all up and down the Atlantic coast, too. After the oil spill in the spring of 2010, my husband and I decided to switch our vacation destination that year to somewhere other than the Gulf of Mexico while cleanup was being done. Since the Atlantic Ocean is so vast, we had plenty of destinations to choose from across many states, but we chose Georgia because it was close to us.

The water there was much murkier than I expected, and this was because it was so close to the Savannah River. The waves weren't terribly rough, though, which I appreciated.

One year, I went to Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic coast of Florida, far away from this beach in Georgia. The waves there were seriously high and strong, and the water wasn't quite as muddy.

The Gulf of Mexico is huge. I've vacationed on its shores at beaches that were many miles away from each other and in different states.

If you go to the Mississippi coast, the waters of the Gulf there are rather brown and murky. This is because a river dumps into the ocean nearby.

If you travel over toward Alabama, the waters become a bit more clear. By the time you reach the boundary of Alabama and Florida, you will see pretty blue-green water, and the further down Florida's coastline you go, the clearer it will get.

@anon136870 -- That's true, but I think that generally speaking on maps and in geography books and things like that, they're considered to be distinct bodies of water. I'm assuming that's why they're listed in the table as they are.

How come the Philippine Sea (2 million sq miles), the Coral Sea (1,850,000 sq m), the Arabian Sea (1,491,000 sq m), the Weddell Sea (1,080,000 sq m ) and the Tasman Sea (900,000) are not included in the list of largest bodies of water in the world? In order, the Philippines, the Coral, the Arabian Sea and the South China Sea are actually the largest seas in the world. And the Philippine Sea or the Coral Sea are the deepest.

Lake Erie is actually shared by both the US and Canada. I mean, Canada does deserve the entire lake because the US gets all of Lake Michigan, but no one ever said life was fair.

Lake Michigan and Huron are actually a single body of water and make up the largest lake in the world (in area, not volume).

I'm confused. When talking about depth or area, everyone leaves out the Labrador Sea. It would be the eighth deepest body of water, and the 10th largest in area. Does it not count as a sea for some reason?

It's interesting, the list of largest lakes varies depending on what you are considering when you consider size: volume or surface area. In coming to this realization I also learned an acronym to remember the great lakes -- HOMES: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.

When the area of the Black Sea does not include the Sea of Azov its something like 436,400 sq km. But sometimes people include the Sea of Azov when they give the Black Sea's total area.