How were our lakes created?

Our lakes were created in several different ways. 

Sweden’s bedrock is largely made up of hard basement rock.  

Depressions and ravines have filled with ground water,  

rainfall and meltwater, which are now lakes.  

 

Others, often shallow lakes,  

have formed in hollows in the loose layers of soil on top of the bedrock,  

which were left behind in the last Ice Age.  

 

When the thick ice began to melt, 22 000 years ago,  

the land slowly began to rise.  

The seabed became land and bays became lakes.  

 

There are also lakes which have developed  

in craters created by meteorites  

some 350 – 450 million years ago.  

Sweden’s largest crater lakes are  

Siljan in Dalarna and Mien in Småland.