Lake Malawi is Africa’s third-largest and the world’s ninth-largest lake by surface area, covering 29,600 sq. km. It is the world’s sixth-deepest and Africa’s second-deepest lake by maximum depth. However, it is the world’s fifth-largest freshwater lake by total volume. The lake has the highest fish species of any lake in the world. It is an example of a meromictic lake whose water layers do not intermix.
Lake Malawi is 560-580 km long from north to south and has a maximum width of 75 km. The lake is located at an elevation of 468 m above sea level and has an average depth of 292 m. It is 706 m deep at the deepest point, a north-central point lying in a major depression. The extreme northern part also lies in a depression, with the depth reaching 528 m. The southern portion is the lake’s shallow end, which reaches a depth of between 200 and 400 m. Lake Malawi has a volume of 8,400 cubic kilometers.
