Water Trivia

Answer: Lake Baikal: Siberia, Russia

Lake Baikal is located in Russia in the southern region of Siberia, and is the world's largest freshwater lake by both volume (22995 km3) and depth (1741m), containing 20% of the world's fresh surface water. Lake Baikal hides its vast waters under a relatively small surface area (31500 km2). The lake is home to over 1,700 plant and animal species

Lake Superior (82,100 km2) is the world’s largest freshwater lake by surface area, the third-largest by volume, and the largest, deepest, and coldest of the Great Lakes of North America. It is also Canada’s largest lake, bordering Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan in the United States. The Great Lakes Waterway passes across Lake Superior, which means “Big Sea Water,” and ferries commodities and supplies over the water. It is, nevertheless, one of the most dangerous lakes to swim in on the planet, as it can reach depths of more than 400 metres in some areas and is prone to riptides.

Lake Tanganyika (32,600 km2) in Africa is the world’s longest, second-oldest, and second-deepest freshwater lake, with a name that means “great lake spreading out like a plain.” It is also the second-largest lake in terms of surface area. Lake Tanganyika flows across Tanzania, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia, eventually emptying into the Atlantic Ocean. Swimming in the lake, which is one of the Rift Valley’s lakes, is not suggested because Nile crocodiles are known to lurk beneath the surface in some areas.

Lake Victoria (68,870 km2), also one of Africa’s Great Lakes, is the continent’s largest freshwater lake, spanning Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. It’s also the world’s largest tropical lake and the second-largest freshwater lake in terms of surface area, trailing only Lake Superior. Lake Victoria, the Nile River’s major reservoir, is home to over 200 different species of fish, including Tilapia, which provide a source of income for thousands of people who live along and around its shores.

Lake Washington with the exception of a few commercial and industrial developments (e.g., Kenmore Air at the north end and the Boeing Company in the south Lake Washington is the largest lake in Washington State west of the Cascade Mountains, with a surface area of 22,138 acres.

Answer: True

Hawaii overall is the rainiest state in the US, with a state-wide average of 63.7 inches (1618 millimetres) of rain a year. But few places in Hawaii fit the state's average.

Many weather stations on the islands record less than 20 inches (508 mm) of rainfall a year while others receive well over 100 inches (2540 mm).

Hawaii's climate is dominated by moisture-laden air rolling in off the ocean that releases massive amounts of water on an island's windward side, while the other side enjoys a rain shadow. On the Big Island of Hawaii for instance, Papaikou Mauka near the east coast gets 202 inches (5130 mm) of rain a year. But rainfall drops to just 11 inches (280 mm) annually at Kona Village on the island's western shore.

Mt. Waialeale on Kauai not only gets the most rain in Hawaii, but it's also the rainiest place in the United States. A weather station on the mountain from 1931 to 1960 averaged 460 inches (11,684 millimetres) of rainfall a year.

Louisiana: 60 inches of rain per year
Mississippi: 57 inches of rain per year
Alabama: 56 inches of rain per year
Washington: 42.0 inches of rain per year

Answer: All the above

The Dust Bowl or the Dirty Thirties in the American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 was caused by severe drought and dust storms, coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops or other techniques to prevent erosion, and deep plowing. This resulted in major ecological, agricultural and financial damage with banks closing.

With natural anchors to keep the soil in place, it dried, turned to dust, and blew away eastward and southward in large dark clouds. At times the clouds blackened the sky reaching all the way to East Coast cities such as New York and Washington, D.C.

For further research:

• Read the novel "The Grapes Of Wrath" by John Steinbeck;
• John Ford’s film adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath
• and The Worst Hard Time in Audiobook (Free Online Listen by Sandie Veronica - Issued by Timothy Egan).

Answer: Arica, Chile

The place with the lowest precipitation on earth is Arica, a port city in Chile, with 0.6 mm annually, and being that it is on the northern edge of the Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar desert in the world we are not surprised. In the USA, the state with the lowest rainfall is the Nevada with 9.5 inches (241 mm), of actual rain given that precipitation measurements for snow are given separately for the Nevada. The driest city in the USA is Yuma in Arizona, having only 2.65 inches (67.31 mm) of rainfall annually It is also the sunniest city in the world, receiving about 4,015 hours of sunshine out of possible 4,456 hours of daylight each year.

Answer: Moses

Mentioned in the Bible more than 70 times, the first example of fasting in Scripture is in Exodus 34 – “Moses was on Mount Sinai with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights. He didn't eat any food or drink any water."