Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is the deepest and oldest
lake in the world and the largest (by volume)
freshwater lake on Earth. It contains over 20% of the world's liquid fresh surface water and more than 90% of Russia's liquid fresh surface water. A
World Heritage Site, it lies in Southern
Siberia in
Russia, between
Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and
Buryatia to the southeast, near the city of
Irkutsk. The name derives from
Tatar "Bai-Kul" - "rich lake". It is also known as the
Blue Eye of Siberia. In
Russian, it is called Байка́л (
Ozero Baykal, О́зеро literally meaning
Lake,
pronounced ), and in the
Buryat and
Mongol languages it is called
Dalai-Nor, or "Sacred Sea".
Very little was known about Lake Baikal until work began on the
Trans-Siberian railway. The scenic loop encircling Lake Baikal required 200 bridges and 33 tunnels. At the same time (1896–1902) a large hydrogeographical expedition headed by
F.K. Drizhenko produced the first detailed atlas of the contours of Baikal's depths.
Baikal has as much water as all of
North America's
Great Lakes combined " 23,600 km³, about 20% of the total fresh water on the Earth. However, in surface area, it is exceeded by the much shallower Great Lakes
Superior,
Huron and
Michigan, as well as by the relatively shallow
Lake Victoria in
East Africa and the second largest in volume,
Central Africa's
Lake Tanganyika. Known as the "
Galápagos of Russia", its age and isolation have produced one of the world's richest and most unusual
freshwater faunas, which is of exceptional value to
evolutionary science.
At 636
kilometres long and 80 km wide, Baikal has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in
Asia (
31,494 km²) and is the deepest lake in the world (1637 metres, previously measured at 1620 metres). The bottom of the lake is 1285 metres below sea level, but below this lies some 7 km (4 miles) of sediment, placing the rift floor some 8"9 km (more than 5 miles) down: the deepest continental rift on Earth. In geological terms, the rift is young and active " it widens about 2 centimeters per year. The fault zone is also seismically active: there are hot springs in the area and notable earthquakes every few years.
Its age is estimated at
25"30 million years, making it one of the most ancient lakes in geological history. It is unique among large, high-latitude lakes in that its
sediments have not been scoured by overriding continental ice sheets. US and Russian studies of core sediment in the 1990s provide a detailed record of climatic variation over the past 250,000 years. Longer and deeper sediment cores are expected in the near future. If all the sediment were scoured from the lake, the lake would be a further 7km below sea surface (the water from above would replace the scoured sediment so the depth of the lake itself would not change).
The lake is completely surrounded by mountains, technically protected as a national park and contains 22 small islands, the largest,
Olkhon, being 72km long. The lake is fed by some 300 inflowing rivers, the six main ones being
Selenga, the source of some of Baikal's pollution,
Chikoy,
Khiloh,
Uda,
Barguzin and
Upper Angara, and is drained through a single outlet, the
Angara River.
Despite its great depth, the lake's waters are well-mixed and well-oxygenated throughout the water column. (Compared to the notable
stratification of bodies such as Lake Tanganyika and the
Black Sea.)
Baikal is renowned for the unique clarity of its waters. Muted protest about the establishment of a wood pulp and cellulose plant at the south end of the lake, at
Baikalsk, first planned in 1957, originated ecological awareness among Russians, though not among the Soviet bureaucracy. The plant still pours industrial effluent into Baikal's waters. The overall impacts of watershed pollution on Baikal and similar watersheds is studied annually by the
Tahoe Baikal Institute, an exchange program between the U.S. and Russian and Mongolian scientists and university graduate students started in 1989.
The extent of
biodiversity present in Lake Baikal is equalled by few other lakes. Lake Baikal hosts 1085 species of plants and 1550 species and varieties of animals. Over 60% of animals are
endemic; e.g., 27 of 52 species of fish are endemic. The
Baikal Seal (
Phoca sibirica), the only mammal living in the lake, is found throughout the whole area of the lake.
Of note is an endemic subspecies of the
omul fish (
Coregonus autumnalis migratorius). It is fished,
smoked, and sold on all markets around the lake. For many travellers on the
Trans-Siberian railway, purchasing smoked omul is one of the highlights on the long journey.
Bears and
deer are observable and hunted along Baikal coasts.
Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill
Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM) was constructed in
1966 directly on the shore line. The BPPM
bleaches its paper with
chlorine and discharges the waste into Baikal. Despite numerous
protests, the BPPM is still in production.
Environmental activists are now in a struggle to make the pollution less harmful rather than end BPPM's production since a plant shutdown would be problematic due to local socioeconomical issues.
Planned East-Siberian pipeline
Russian state company
Transneft' is planning to build a trunk pipeline that will pass by as close as 800 m to the lake shore in a zone of substantial seismic activity. A possible accident may result in huge oil spill that will cause a devastating environmental disaster and threaten an ecosystem of the largest freshwater deposit in the world. Environmental activists in Russia ([
1],[
2],[
3]) as well as local citizens are strongly opposed to these plans. Numerous mass meetings were held recently in Russian cities, especially in
Irkutsk, though largely unreported by government-controlled national mass media. However, Russian president
Vladimir Putin ordered to consider an alternative route ([
4] map [
5]) to avoid such ecological risks. Putin declared on
April 26 2006 that the pipeline should be built along the alternative route to ensure the safety of Lake Baikal. [
6]
*
Transbaikal*
Dingling*
Su Wu*
United States Geological Survey Factsheet*
Lake Baikal: the great blue eye of Siberia.
CNN—InDepth.
*
Lake Tahoe and Lake Baikal Watersheds.
Tahoe-Baikal Institute.
*
The Oddities of Lake Baikal. Carla Helfferich,
Alaska Science Forum.
*
The World's Greatest Lakes*
USGS survey fact sheet on Lake Baikal*
World lakes database entry for Lake Baikal
*
Baikal information site in English
*
Lake Baikal travel overview in English
*
Free and independent travel guide for Lake Baikal English and German
*
Washington Post Russian Chronicles Blog that Includes visits to Lake Baikal*
Flickr photos tagged lakebaikal*
Baikal photos and traveler stories*
Save Baikal Greenpeace site
