Lake Baikal, located in Southern Siberia, north of the Mongolian border, has held people in awe for centuries. With scientific studies and development of tourism, more impressive facts about the lake emerged. With a volume of 23,615.39 km3, it is the largest freshwater lake in the world. No other lake in the world is as deepest, as oldest and as clearest as this rift lake of Russia.
Geology
Lake Baikal is in a rift valley, created by the Baikal Rift Zone. Surrounded by mountains, the lake has a typical crescent shape. The depth of the lake is 5,387 feet, with the sediments alone measuring up to 7 km.
As an added feature, the rift is seismically very active with minor quakes happening every few hours and major earthquakes happening every few years.
The Baikal area has 27 islands with the biggest one being the Olkhon. The lake is fed by as many as 330 inflowing rivers and it drains into the Angara tributary of the Yenisei.
The lake has unusually high oxygen levels, thus supporting thousands of species of plants and animals, some of which are not found anywhere else on the earth.
During winter, the lake freezes and it could be crossed on foot but at risk of frostbite. The ice is thick enough to allow pedestrians and snowmobiles. And other times, the water is crystal clear and one can see objects up to the depth of 130 feet. The clarity is partly attributed to the fact that it contains very few mineral salts and to a massive population, which eats algae and other particulates in the water. The tiny crustaceans filter 10 to 15 times the amount of water that flows into the lake, keeping it clean and clear.
Diverse life forms
Like the crayfish, Lake Baikal, is home to 1200 species of plants and animals, 75 per cent of which are found only here. Some of Baikal’s fish can survive more than one mile beneath the surface, One of the unique endemic species of all is the Baikal Seal or the nerpas. The seals are different from other seals as they can swim for more than 70 minutes, at great depths. It is found throughout the lake.
Another species worth knowing about is the golomyanka fish: it has no scale and a translucent body and can swim at depths of more than 1000 metres.
In total, fewer than 60 native fish species are in the lake, but more than half of these are endemic. The most important local species for fisheries is the omul, an endemic whitefish. It is sold widely in markets around the lake.
The lake home to an array of invertebrates. Epischura baikalensis is a dominant zooplankton species there, making up 80 to 90 per cent of total biomass. Among the most diverse invertebrate groups are the turbellarian worms, freshwater snails, and amphipod crustaceans.
More than 350 species of amphibians and 18 species of sponges occur in the lake.
Mystery circle
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have spotted strange circles on the frozen surface of the lake, time and again. Experts have explained that the methane gas rising from the lake floor could have probably caused the circles. The mysterious circles are usually five to seven kilometers in diameter.
It was spotted recently in March 2016. An analysis from the pictures taken by Sentinel-1À satellite showed that the circles appear in the same locations. Now, the researchers have a new theory. They say, the mysterious ice circles appear because of anticyclonic eddies that are formed under the lake's ice cover.
Fact file
* It contains roughly 20 per cent of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water
* It was declared a UNESCO Heritage site in 1996.
* Geologists estimate that Lake Baikal formed about 20-25 million years ago, during the Mesozoic.
* In winter the ice of Lake Baikal develops cracks, which enrich the water with oxygen, allowing fish to breathe.
