Lake Baikal is The Oldest and Deepest Lake in the World!

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Lake Baikal is the Deepest Lake in the World!

Lake Baikal is the oldest and deepest lake in the world and its foundation date probably goes to more than 25 million years back in time. It is wrapped in superlatives in southern Siberia and it is at a distance from north Mongolia in which Bayan Olgii lies.

However, a little was known about this lake for along time because it was hidden behind the mountains. People outside the area knew the lake only after the construction of the trans-Siberian railway between the years 1896 and 1902, which encircled the lake.

The lake is also one of a series of beautiful places in Russia on this website like Altai Mountains, Bering Sea, Siberia and Yamal Peninsula. Those pages are also included alphabetically in the Beautiful Site Map to facilitate your browsing.

The following article is about Lake Baikal and the threat of global warming. If you have more information about this topic, please use the form on this page to write it. I have some valuable gifts for you just for doing this. Thank you so much.

Lake Baikal, Galapagos, Siberia, Russia

The 1,700 metres deep lake is also the largest freshwater lake in relation to volume and it contains more water than all the water in North America's Great Lakes combined. That is equal to 20% of the world's fresh surface water.

The only rivers that feed the lake or flow from it are Angara River, which flows from the lake and the Selenge River, which flows into the lake. The Mongolian Orkhon River rises from the Khangai Mountains in Arkhangai Aimag in Mongolia and feeds the Selenge River.

Because of its great age and total isolation, Lake Baikal contains unique flora and fauna in the world, which is of great value to the evolutionary science. This existence of animal and plant species gave the lake its nickname "Galapagos of Russia".

It is home to more than 2,000 plant and animal species not found anywhere else on the planet, including the Baikal freshwater seal, also called nerpa.

Among these species there are also 56 freshwater fish species including 40 sculpin species, burbot, bream, bullhead, Baikal oil fish, Baikal seal, Baikal whitefish and other fish.

There are 1550 animal species, 170 migratory bird species and 1,085 plant species.

Animal species include Alpine hare, brown bear, black tailed antelopes, chipmunk, wild goats, kolinsky and gazelles.

Bird species include home and migratory birds such as swans like Cygnus or Anser cygnoides and goose, red-crested pochard duck, black stork (ciconia nigra), honey buzzard.

Plant species range from conifer forest to Alpine plants. They include old larches, cedars, wildflowers, pulp and paper plants.

Before more than 25 million years, the formation of Lake Baikal happened when the Earth's crust split up into a giant rift valley in the Siberian plateau. That rift is seemingly still active and expands about two centimetres a year, so the lake expands constantly.

For a long time it is thought that, Lake Baikal remained unaffected by human activities because of a unique self-cleaning ecosystem.

The endemic zooplankton Epischura baicalensis suck toxic particles out of the lake and cleans the waterway.

The Epischura baicalensis forms 96% of the zooplankton, works as filter, and filters the water from detritus.

However, studies have now shown that Epischura does not neutralise contamination but only pass pollution continuously to animals higher up the food chain.

Lake Baikal cannot keep itself free of global warming. Biodiversity in Lake Baikal is adapted to the long cold winters where the water freezes to ice in five months. However, in the last 60 years, the water in Lake Baikal has become 1º C warmer, and winters have become shorter.

A future increase in temperature as projected to happen will have serious consequences for the whole ecosystem, not only the Epischura that is dependent on a narrow temperature range. Pollution and global warming threaten to wipe out large parts of the ancient fauna and flora in Lake Baikal.

In addition to Lake Baikal in Russia, there are some other beautiful places in this great country such as Altai Mountains, Bering Sea, Siberia and Yamal Peninsula. You can comment or write about any of those beautiful places on the pages above and get more gifts.

Use the form below if you want to comment, correct something on the page or write about Lake Baikal and other beautiful locations in Siberia, Russia.

PLEASE BE ASSURED, no one of the commentators will capture your email address. It is only that the system that will send you notifications about replies to your comments, as this process is automated. Thanks to SBI 2.0 for offering the Web 2.0 strong tools and making nice visitors like you comment and share throughout the Web 2.0.

I have some gifts for you too for sharing your words about any beautiful places in Russia and the affects of global warming on them. Thanks.

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