Lake Baikal-The Deepest Freshwater Lake
Lake Baikal is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a popular tourist destination. Over 320,000 tourists from around the world visit here every year. What is it that attracts so many visitors from around the globe?
Peoples through over the centuries have actually prayed to the lake and believed that it had power.
Although a number of lakes have a larger surface area, Baikal is the deepest freshwater lake in the world (5,370 ft deep), and has by far the largest volume of water. The name is thought to mean `Wealthy Lake` or `Sea.` How many lakes do you know where sailors talk about `going to sea.`
With its many breathtaking shores, fantastically clear water, and a number of unusual creatures found nowhere else, it stands unique.
Lake Baikal measures about 395 miles in length and 50 miles in width at its widest point. It contains almost one fifth of all the freshwater on earth, more than in North America’s five Great Lakes combined! Lake Baikal is very deep in parts, over one mile in fact! Hundreds of rivers and streams flow into the lake, but only one runs out of it.
Unlike most of the world’s ancient lakes, Baikal has not filled with sediment. The lake is in a rift, so perhaps active tectonic plates beneath the lake are still moving apart and widening the rift. So the lake gets deeper year by year.
The lake is so clear due to tiny crustaceans which act like filters, straining out the algas and bacteria that affect many lakes. Eating organic waste is taken care of by Crayfish, so little dead matter gets chance to decompose. All this helps to maintain the purity of the water.
Below a certain depth most lakes have much reduced oxygen, which results in most of their aquatic life living in the upper waters. Lake Baikal, however, is unusual, having vertical and horizontal currents which carry oxygen to the lake’s lowest depths. It`s like having a fish aquarium which has an oygenator built in. As a result, the entire lake teems with life.
Out of the more than 2,000 aquatic species that live in the lake, the majority are found only in an underwater forest which thrives in the icy, pure water.
Lake Baikal is famous for the omul, prized by fishermen. It is caught, smoked and then sold widely in markets around the lake. Fish is also often sold from the homes of fishermen. It`s prepared in several ways. It can be salted, or dried and smoked above a fire. Baikal fish can be used in soups, such as Ukha. One kind of flatworm grows to over a foot in length and eats fish. There are even one-celled organisms living between sand particles!
The tiny golomyanka thrives in the lake, and is translucent. They tend to live close to the bottom of the lake. A third of its body consists of fat, rich in vitamin A. Amazingly it can withstand the crushing pressure at very low depths; yet, when it is exposed to sunlight, its body melts away, leaving just its bones and fat. The Baikal seal-the only seal that lives exclusively in freshwater-enjoys golomyanka as an essential part of its intake of food.
For about five months of the year, Lake Baikal is encased in ice. By the end of January the ice is several feet thick. The lake is so clear that if you walk on the ice it looks thinner than it is.
During spring, over a few months, the ice breaks up with the warming of the weather, and chunks end up on the shores.
Many animals, waterfowl and birds, make their way to the shore at this time, hoping for a feast, as the lake deposits fish and other waterlife on to the shore.
Algas give the water a green hue. Viewed from above, Lake Baikal’s open waters are dark blue, just like we might expect an ocean to look.
During the Fall powerful winds can quickly create huge waves, reaching up to 20 feet in height. In fact, winds have been known to cause boats and bigger ships to capsize. The fact that Baikal is surrounded by mountains may have something to do with the winds which pick up speed as they come off the rising slopes.
With so much of nature`s activity to see, it`s no wonder so many visitors go to Baikal lake, the lake of changing seasons.
As for its future, according to the UNESCO site, it reports- “It also noted that the special Lake Baikal Law is now in its second reading in the Duma. Finally, it noted concern over a number of integrity issues including pollution, which should be brought to the attention of the Russian authorities.”
