Interesting facts about Baikal - the deepest freshwater lake on Earth

The vast expanses of Russia are famous for their natural resources. The eighth wonder of the world is called the amazing lake Baikal. Local residents respectfully call it by the sea, believe in its special energetics. Interesting facts about Lake Baikal make the lake-sea truly unique: it is the oldest, the deepest and crystal clear fresh water. He is the main reservoir of drinking water on the planet.

Map of the lake

Listing all the interesting facts about Baikal, first of all, it is necessary to pay attention to its area. The Baikal stretches in the south of Eastern Siberia, between the Irkutsk region and Buryatia. It has the shape of a crescent moon. Its length is 630 km in length, the average width is 50 km. The total area of the reservoir is about 32 thousand square meters. Km, i.e., it would easily accommodate countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium or Denmark on its surface. Imagine, only one lake of huge Russia is comparable to the territory of a whole European country!

The reservoir of the reservoir is a huge hollow, the maximum depth of which according to the latest data reaches 1642 m. This is another record. Baikal is the deepest lake on the planet. Tanganyika and the Caspian Sea are after him only in the second and third places. In order to determine the maximum depth of Lake Baikal, scientists have made more than 1.3 million measurements!

The eastern slopes of its basin are gently sloping, while the western shores are rocky, steep.

Interesting facts about Baikal concern his age. Most scientists define this lake as the oldest on Earth, noting that it was formed 25-30 million years ago. A record figure, considering that other similar reservoirs on our planet live up to 20 thousand years, gradually fading and swamping.

Water resources

Lake Baikal, interesting facts about which amaze the imagination, the most significant reservoir of fresh water in the world. According to rough estimates, its volume is 23.6 thousand cubic meters. Km, which equals 20% of all world drinking water supplies. This is more than the total volume of the fluid of the five famous Great Lakes of North America - Ontario, Erie, Upper, Michigan and Huron. This is 25 times more than in Lake Ladoga.

For greater clarity, you can imagine that if you pour all the Baikal water on the tanks, then every Russian would get 3000 tank cars! The well-known scientist Kolotilo LG estimated the utilitarian cost of Baikal reserves at 236 trillion dollars.

All the above interesting facts about Lake Baikal are of no importance to humanity that water of this reservoir is clean, suitable for drinking even without boiling and pre-cleaning. In the 21st century oil and gas pipelines, factories and plants, dumps and nuclear energy, this record belongs exclusively to Baikal. The water in it is so clean that its transparency reaches a depth of 40 m.

This factor was decisive for the inclusion in 1996 of Baikal in the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Flora and fauna

What else is Lake Baikal famous for? Interesting facts (especially for children) concern first of all its surprisingly diverse animal and plant world. In the water depths there are more than 2500 species of animals and plants. Most of the living organisms are endemic, i.e. Anywhere in the world no longer occur. These are whitefish, grayling, yellow-winged flora, Baikal sturgeon, reaching a weight of 100 kg, burbot, taimen, omul, a unique viviparous fish golomyanka, which is 40% fat, and others. At great depths live very ancient animals - sponges. The lake is famous for seals - Baikal seals. Scientists have not yet given a clear answer as to how they got here. Presumably - came along the Angara and the Yenisei from the Arctic Ocean.

Studies have confirmed that dinosaurs, mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses once walked along the territory of modern Baikal. Now here live bears, noble deer and valuable Barguzin sables. The Asian spindle, musk deer, alkhon vole and many other birds attract the attention of ornithologists around the world.

The coastal zone is rich in unique trees. Along the coast, relic fir trees, mighty Siberian cedars, stilted trees grow. Scientists have found larch, whose age is over 700 years.

Other interesting facts about Lake Baikal

What is more attractive this lake? You can enumerate for a long time.

1. 350 rivers flow into the lake (from the end of the 19th century this figure was not specified). Of these, the Upper Angara, Turka, Sarma, Snezhnaya, Barguzin and Selenga rivers are the largest. Only one river flows from Baikal - the Angara.
2. The reservoir lies in the seismically active zone. Here, earthquakes with a magnitude of 6-7 points were recorded several times, and in August 2008 the earth was shaking with a force of 9.1 points.
3. The purity of water is monitored by the microscopic endemic crustacean-Baikal epishura, which is an important element of the well-being of the lake ecosystem.
4. The water in the lake is cold, on the surface it warms up to + 10 ... + 12 degrees on average, in individual sunny bays - up to +15 degrees, at the bottom the temperature is only +2 ... + 4 degrees.

Lake Baikal, interesting facts about which are listed above, asks scientists many questions. Not yet unraveled such unusual phenomena as:

• Huge ice hills, hollow inside, characteristic only for Lake Baikal;
• Large dark rings of unexplained etymology, migrating under the ice;
• Periodically arising over the surface of optical illusions and bright mirages.