Lago Lauricocha is a lake

Lake

A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...

 in the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 mountains of central Perú

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

.

Location

Lago Lauricocha at 10°19′00"S 76°42′00"W is the northernmost of the lakes fed by the Andean glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

s, 20 km east of mount Yerupajá

Yerupaja

Yerupajá or Nevado Yerupajá is a mountain of the Cordillera Huayhuash in west central Peru, part of the Andes. At 6,635 m/21,768 ft it is the second-highest in Peru and the highest in the Cordillera Huayhuash...

 and 190 km NNE

NNE

As an abbreviation, NNE may stand for:*Non-viable National Economy*North-northeast*Novo Nordisk Engineering...

 of the Peruvian capital Lima

Lima

Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

. The lake lies at an elevation of 3,845 m in a sparsely populated area.

Size

The lake's east-western extension is 7,000 m, from north to south the widest extension is 1,400 m.
Depth 75 m.

River System

Lago Lauricocha gets its water from small rivers coming down from the Cordillere Raura. The Río Lauricocha issues from Lago Lauricocha and later joins Río Marañón, which is one of the headwaters of the Amazon River

Amazon River

The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...

. For a couple of centuries, Lago Lauricocha had been seen as the source of the Amazon River, until in 1971 the US-American Loren McIntyre discovered the source of the Río Apurímac to be the origin of the Amazon River which was confirmed by a 2001 expedition.