Which Lakes Swallow Tokyo Tower? From Biwa to Baikal, at the Same Scale | Scale Side by Side #05
Short answer
- Lake Tazawa (deepest point 423.4 m) in Japan is deep enough to swallow Tokyo Tower (333 m) whole.
- In Japan, only two lakes can swallow Tokyo Tower whole: Lake Tazawa and Lake Shikotsu (360.1 m).
- Lake Baikal (1,642 m), the deepest lake in the world, can hold four Tokyo Towers stacked up.
Also calleddeepest lake in Japanlake depth comparisondeepest lake in the world
Video
Pressing play loads the YouTube player on this page. Watch on YouTube
Explained
In the video
- 0:00What happens if we drop Tokyo Tower into Lake Tazawa?
- 0:47Lake Biwa, Lake Towada and Lake Shikotsu
- 1:44Can any lake in Japan sink the Skytree?
- 2:06Is huge Lake Superior also deep?
- 2:35What if we fill the world's lakes with water?
- 3:42How many Tokyo Towers fit in Lake Baikal?
- 4:36What if the widths go back to their true length?
- 6:00What color is a clear, deep lake?
Lake Tazawa in northern Japan is deep enough to swallow Tokyo Tower whole. We built true-to-scale 3D models of real lakes from terrain, lakebed and satellite data, then compared the depths of lakes in Japan and around the world at the same scale.
Key takeaways
- In Japan, only two lakes are deep enough to swallow Tokyo Tower (333 m) whole: Lake Tazawa (423.4 m) and Lake Shikotsu (360.1 m). In Lake Towada (326.8 m), the top 6.2 m of the antenna sticks out.
- A bigger lake is not always deeper. Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan, is 103.58 m deep, and Lake Superior (406 m), the largest of the Great Lakes, is 17.4 m shallower than Lake Tazawa.
- Lake Baikal (1,642 m), the deepest lake in the world, can hold four Tokyo Towers, yet a straight cut through its deepest point (about 446 km) is about 270 times longer than the lake is deep. Seen from the side at the same scale, the lake is a thin layer of water.
Sources
Where the facts and numbers in the video and on this page come from.
References
- Photos: Lake Tazawa by Kurofune (くろふね) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0) / Winter ice on Lake Baikal by Vladislav Bezrukov / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) / Crater Lake by the National Park Service (public domain)
- Music (OpenTracks): “キューブスカイ” by かずち / “宇宙の神秘” by 田中芳典 / “海底の神殿” by KK / “星屑サラウンド-1chorus-” by 龍崎一 (lyrics and vocals: 白井舞)
Links
- GSI Japan, surveyed lakes list and lake data for Lake Tazawa (in Japanese)gsi.go.jp/kankyochiri/koshouchousa-list.html
- NPS, The World's Deepest Lakesnps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/upload/World-s-Deepe…
- Guinness World Records, Deepest lakeguinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/deepest-lake
- Shiga Prefecture, Overview of Lake Biwa (in Japanese)pref.shiga.lg.jp/de51/2878.html
- MLIT Japan, multilingual sign for Lake Towadamlit.go.jp/tagengo-db/H30-00158.html
- GSI Japan, lake data (in Japanese)gsi.go.jp/kankyochiri/lakedatalist.html
- US EPA, Physical Features of the Great Lakesepa.gov/greatlakes/physical-features-great-lakes
- NPS, Crater Lakenps.gov/places/crater-lake.htm
- NPS, Introduction to Crater Lakenps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/upload/Introduction-…
- Guinness World Records, Largest lakeguinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/66669-largest-lake
- Tokyo Tower (in Japanese)tokyotower.co.jp
- Tokyo Skytree (in Japanese)tokyo-skytree.jp/about
- CTBUH, Burj Khalifaskyscrapercenter.com/building/burj-khalifa/3
- NOAA ETOPO 2022ncei.noaa.gov/products/etopo-global-relief-model
- Britannica, Lake Baikalbritannica.com/place/Lake-Baikal
- Sentinel-2 (Copernicus) via Earth Searchearth-search.aws.element84.com/v1
- NASA GIBSearthdata.nasa.gov/engage/open-data-services-software/eart…
Voice, music, art
- Music (OpenTracks): “キューブスカイ” by かずち / “宇宙の神秘” by 田中芳典 / “海底の神殿” by KK / “星屑サラウンド-1chorus-” by 龍崎一 (lyrics and vocals: 白井舞)
- Sound effects: made in-house + Freesound (CC0). Voices: Irodori-TTS (Japanese), Kokoro (English). Fonts: Noto Sans JP, Inter, M PLUS Rounded 1c (SIL OFL).
