Visiting Lake Baikal in Russia
Lake
Baikal is special. Very special. It is the deepest, purest, oldest and,
in volume, the biggest lake in the world. It holds 20 percent of the
world's unfrozen fresh water. It is so large that all the rivers in the
world combined would take a year to fill it. It is in an active
continental rift, which is spreading by about 2 cm (3/4 inch) a year and
earthquakes occur regularly.
No fewer than
336 rivers and streams flow into the lake, while only one, the Angara,
drains out of it. About 636 by 80 km (395 by 50 miles), with a coastline
of about 2,100 km (1,305 miles) and containing 30 islands, Lake Baikal is
in an immense area of breathtaking physical beauty, surrounded by
mountains and forest in southern Siberia close to the Mongolian border.
Wildlife in the national park surrounding the lake includes bear and
deer, but it is the flora and fauna within the lake that make it really
special. Baikal is home to more species of plants and animals that occur
in only one place than any other lake in the world, including the world's
only fresh water seal, the nerpa (Baikal seal). There is also a huge
variety of edible fish from pike and perch to sturgeon and salmon.
Lake Baikal's
deep waters are well oxygenated - unlike the dead waters found in the
lower depths of other deep lakes - and are therefore rich in aquatic
life. The water is so clear that in most parts of the lake you can see to
a depth of 50 meters (165 feet), although, as in so many places, human
activity has begun to damage the lake, chiefly through the construction
of the Irkutsk Dam and a wood pulp plant that pours effluent into the
southern end of the lake.
