5 facts about Baikal - a unique lake that will take your breath away
Miscellaneous / / September 25, 2023
Who lives at the bottom of Lake Baikal? Sponges, seals, gobies. And - hypothetically - all of humanity.
1. Baikal can fit one Belgium and two Burj Khalifa skyscrapers
Baikal, the length and width of which make up 636 km and 79 km respectively, is the largest freshwater lake in Eurasia. Its area excluding islands is 31,722 km². Belgium occupies approximately the same amount. Just imagine - a lake the size of a country!
However, Baikal is not the largest lake in the world, as some believe, but only the seventh on the list. In front of him settled down Caspian Sea, Lake Superior (Canada, USA), Victoria (East Africa), Huron (Canada, USA), Michigan (USA) and Tanganyika (Central Africa).
But Baikal is definitely the deepest lake on the planet. Its maximum depth reaches 1,642 m, and the bottom located 1,186.5 m below sea level. But underneath there is still about 7 km of sediment. This is the deepest continental fault on Earth. What can you compare it to? You can fit two Burj Khalifa skyscrapers (828 m) into Baikal if you stack them on top of each other.
And also, according to former director of the Limnological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Mikhail Grachev, if the entire population of the Earth is drowned in Lake Baikal, the water level in it will increase by only 3 cm. It's that deep.
Just please don't drown anyone. This is not a call to action, but a hypothetical comparison.
2. You can drink Baikal, but it will take a little longer than many people think
Baikal is the largest freshwater reservoir on our planet, containing a fifth of all the world's fresh water reserves, or approximately 23,000 km³.
Is this too much? Pretty decent. 1 cubic kilometer is 1 trillion liters.
There are fears on the Internet that if people continue to thoughtlessly draw water from Lake Baikal, they will soon drink it and the lake will disappear. Let's check. The average water requirement per person is approximately 3 liters per day, or 0.003 m³. On the ground lives 8.045 billion people. By simple multiplication we find out that they can blow out 24 million 135 thousand cubic meters of water per day. Baikal contains 23 trillion cubic meters, and by division it turns out that humanity will drink up the lake in about 952,973 days, or 2,610 years.
So don’t worry, there will be enough fresh water for a long time. The main thing is don't forget boil Baikal before consumption, otherwise you will get an intestinal infection.
3. Baikal is the oldest lake, and it is growing
According to geologists, Baikal formed between 25 and 30 million years ago. Therefore, this is the oldest lake on our planet and its age dates back to the Oligocene period.
Then, as a result of complex geological processes associated with the collision of tectonic plates, the Amur began to separate from the Eurasian. A deep gap formed between them, which eventually filled with water. This is how the majestic Baikal appeared.
But the geological processes did not stop. Due to the movement of tectonic plates, the lake expanding by 3–4 mm per year.
And one day Baikal will become salty and turn into ocean. You just have to wait a little, just about 60 million years.
4. Baikal freezes in winter
Why? Well, the lake is fresh and located in Siberia, and it’s cold there in winter, you know. Usually Baikal begins to freeze in January, and the ice lasts until early May or even June.
Ice crust of the lake Maybe be very thick - up to 70 cm, and in areas with hummocks - up to 2 m. The surface of Baikal becomes passable, which allows local residents and tourists to move along it by ski, snowmobiles and even cars.
5. There are many interesting things to see in Baikal
The lake has an impressive animal and plant diversity. Abroad Baikal called Russian Galapagos, because its biosphere is quite isolated from the rest of the world due to the size of the water expanses.
Most of the inhabitants of Baikal, and this is from 1,500 to 1,800 different species, are endemic, that is, found exclusively in and around the lake.
Here you can find about 50 species of fish belonging to seven different families. The most numerous among them are gobies; there are 25 species of them alone. From a gastronomic point of view, omul, grayling, whitefish and sturgeon are also of interest. But the most unique fish, characteristic exclusively of Baikal, is the golomyanka from the family Comephoridae, which reproduces its offspring by viviparity.
In addition, more than 320 species of birds nest in the Baikal region, which makes the surrounding area an interesting place for observations for a diverse birdlife.
And in the lake there is the Baikal seal - the only freshwater seal in the world, a relict, inhabited here already at least two million years ago. Now in Baikal live 120–140 thousand individuals.
Finally, the bottom of Lake Baikal is covered with entire underwater forests of lake-specific sponges. They may be mistaken for algae, but sponges are actually animals. They attach to the substrate and live by filtering water and absorbing nutrients from it. One small colony of sponges per day capable filter several tens of liters of water.
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