Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal Latest News

In a tragic incident, seven bodies have been recently recovered from Lake Baikal in Siberia after a tour bus carrying eight Chinese tourists broke through the ice and plunged into the water.

About Lake Baikal

• It is located in the southern part of eastern Siberia, south-central Russia, near the border with Mongolia.
• It is the oldest existing freshwater lake on Earth (20 million–25 million years old). 
• It covers about 31,722 sq.km., making it the world’s largest freshwater lake. 
• It has a length of 636 km and an average width of 48 km. 
• It is also the world’s deepest lake, with a maximum depth of 1,642 meters below the water surface. 
• Below the lake’s bottom lie sediments of about 7 kilometers, making it the Earth’s deepest continental rift, with a rift floor of 8-11 kilometers. 
• It is also the world’s largest freshwater lake by volume. It contains roughly 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water. 
• There are 45 islands and islets in Lake Baikal, of which Olkhon is the largest island.
• Up to 330 rivers drain into Lake Baikal, of which Barguzini, Selenga, Upper Angara, Sarma, and Turka are the major ones. 
• However, the lake has only one outlet, the Angara River.
• Baikal’s climate is much milder than that of the surrounding territory. The lake surface freezes in January and thaws in May or June.
• It is also home to the Buryat people, who follow the Tibetan Buddhist religion and reside on the eastern side of the lake, rearing goats, camels, cattle, and sheep.
• The lake was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. 
• Known as the ‘Galapagos of Russia‘, its age and isolation have produced one of the world’s richest and most unusual freshwater faunas.

Source: N18

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