There is a correlation between lake volume and maximum depth. This is not the case with lake volume and area. Lake Victoria, for example, has a large surface area but contains a small volume of water and is quite shallow.
Most of the deep lakes are rift lakes, forming at tectonic plate boundaries.
These large lakes are often grouped together. The Great Lakes, the East African Rift lakes, and the Russian lakes near Saint Petersburg are 3 notable examples of this phenomenon.
The Caspian Sea has by far the largest area and volume of any lake.
North America contains nine of the twenty largest lakes by area, including all five Great Lakes.