Onega, Lake, Finnish Aäninen, Rus. Onezhskoye Ozero, lake, c.3,800 sq mi (9,800 sq km), NW European Russia, in Karelia, between Lake Ladoga and the White Sea. The second largest lake in Europe, it is c.150 mi (240 km) long with a maximum width of c.60 mi (100 km) and a maximum depth of c.360 ft (110 m). The lake is located on the heavily glaciated Baltic Shield. Its shores are low and sandy in the south, rocky and indented in the north. It is frozen from November to May. The lake receives the Vytegra and the Vodla rivers and drains SW through the Svir River into Lake Ladoga. The Baltic–White Sea Canal has its southern terminus at Povenets on the lake's northern shore. Petrozavodsk is the chief city and port on Lake Onega. Parallel to the southern shore of the lake runs the Onega Canal, 45 mi (72 km) long, which joins the Svir and Vytegra rivers and forms part of the Volga-Baltic Waterway.
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