Lake Baikal. The oldest lake

Almost in the center of the huge continent of Eurasia is a narrow blue crescent - Lake Baikal. In the Baikal mountainous region, surrounded on all sides by high ridges, it stretches for 636 kilometers in length and up to 80 km in width. In terms of area, Baikal is equal to Belgium with its almost 10 million population, many cities and industrial centers, highways and railways.

AT Baikal 336 permanent rivers and streams flow into the lake, while half of the volume of water entering the lake comes from the Selenga. The only river that flows out of Baikal is the Angara.

The area of ​​the water surface of the lake is 31,470 square kilometers. The maximum depth reaches 1637 m, the average - 730 m.

In order to realize the immensity of the Baikal water body, imagine that the Angara, which annually takes out 60.9 km3 of water from the lake, would need 387 years of continuous work to drain its bowl. Provided, of course, that during this time not a liter of water gets into it and not a drop evaporates from its surface.

Undoubtedly, Baikal most deep lake in the world. Not everyone knows that the world's second contender for this title, the African Lake Tanganyika, is behind the leader by as much as 200 meters. There are 30 islands on Baikal, the largest is Olkhon Island.

The question of the age of Baikal should be considered open. Usually, the literature gives a figure of 20-25 million years. However, the application various methods age determination gives values ​​from 20-30 million to several tens of thousands of years. But, if we assume that the traditional point of view is correct, then Baikal can be considered the oldest lake on earth.

BAIKAL WATER

Baikal water unique and amazing, like Baikal itself. She is unusually
clear, pure and oxygenated. In not so ancient times, it was considered healing, with its help, diseases were treated.

In spring, the transparency of Baikal water is as much as 40 meters! This is explained by the fact that Baikal water, due to the activity of living organisms that live in it, is very
weakly mineralized and close to distilled.

The volume of water in Baikal reaches about 23 thousand cubic kilometers, which is 20% of the world and 90% of Russian fresh water reserves. There is more water in Baikal than in all five Great American Lakes combined - they only reached 22,725 km3 in total. Every year, the Baikal ecosystem reproduces about 60 cubic kilometers of clear, oxygenated water.

RESIDENTS OF BAIKAL

The exclusivity of many physical and geographical features of the lake was the reason
extraordinary diversity of its flora and fauna. And in this respect, it has no equal among the fresh waters of the world.

The lake is inhabited by 52 species of fish of several families:

• sturgeons (Baikal sturgeon),
• salmon (davatchan, taimen, lenok, Baikal omul - endemic fish, whitefish),
• grayling (Siberian grayling),
• pike,
• carp,
• loach,
• catfish,
• cod,
• perch,
• sculpins,
• golomyanki.

The food pyramid of the lake ecosystem is crowned by a typical marine mammal - a seal,
or Baikal seal. The Baikal seal is the only representative of mammals in the lake. For almost the entire year
it lives in the water, and in autumn it forms mass haulouts on the rocky shores of the lake.

The life of many animals characteristic of Baikal is inextricably linked not only with the lake itself, but also with its coast. Seagulls, mergansers, goldeneyes, scoters, shelducks, white-tailed eagles, ospreys and many other bird species nest on the shores of the lake and on its islands.

Remarkable is such an integral part of the life of the great lake as the massive emergence of brown bears on the shores, which is entirely due to the peculiarities of the nature of Lake Baikal.

In the mountain taiga of the Baikal region, there is a musk deer - the smallest deer on the globe.

The diversity of the organic world of Baikal staggers the imagination, but its originality is no less phenomenal. Many animals and plants living in the lake are not found in any other body of water the globe. There are 848 species of endemic animals (about 60%) and 133 species of endemic plants (15%) in Baikal.

BAIKAL FOR TOURISTS

Today, everything connected with Baikal arouses genuine interest not only in our country, but also abroad. Over the past decade, Baikal has become a magnet for many tourists. Relatively well-preserved nature
lake-seas, rapidly developing infrastructure - hotels, roads, proximity to transport interchanges - give reason to believe that in the future the tourist flow to the shores of Lake Baikal will only increase.

Come to Lake Baikal! Admire its beauty and purity of water, feel that almost mystical
energy that gives the sacred sea to everyone who comes to its shore.

Based on the article "The Unique Baikal", prepared by Valentina Ivanovna Galkina, Honored Worker of Culture of Russia, head of the exposition of the Baikal Museum of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

Lake Baikal for the majority is somewhere very far away. The origin of Lake Baikal is shrouded in legends about great catastrophes on a planetary scale, about gods and their deeds. scientific point vision also exists - of course there is no mysticism in it.

Lake Baikal is located on the territory of the Irkutsk region and Buryatia. It is considered a lake of tectonic origin. The age of Baikal is estimated differently. Some scientists put 35 million years. But the doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences A.V. Tatarinov in 2009 put forward a version that the deep-water part of Lake Baikal was formed 150 thousand years ago, and the modern coastline is only 8 thousand years old. Tatarinov substantiated such results with the results of the Mirs expedition to Baikal. So, with the age of Lake Baikal, everything is also very ambiguous.

Lake Baikal is also called the Siberian Sea.

Lake Baikal contains 19% of the world's fresh water. How much water is in Lake Baikal is estimated at 23,615 km³. There is only one lake in the world, the displacement of which is greater than in Baikal - the Caspian Sea (not everyone knows, but there is a lake along this sea).

Despite the fact that Baikal is located in, there is a lot of sun here. Climatic conditions on Baikal have their own unique features: either the sun is mercilessly hot, but cold winds are blowing, then ferocious storms fly in, then calm and hot weather sets in in summer and tens of thousands of tourists flock to Lake Baikal for beach holiday. In terms of the number of sunny days, Lake Baikal surpasses many resorts on the Black Sea and Mediterranean coasts.

The maximum depth of Lake Baikal is 1642 m. Many people write that Lake Baikal is shaped like a crescent moon. Rather, sorry if something is wrong - a banana. But very big. The length of Baikal is 620 km (as from Moscow to St. Petersburg approximately), the width reaches 80 km. Length coastline is 2100 km.

Lake Baikal has 27 islands, the largest of them. Many islands are sacred to the locals and protected by law. In general, there are many sacred places on Baikal, the history of which is shrouded in mystery and legends. The predominant religion here is rather Buddhism, at least Buddhist symbols and objects of worship are found everywhere.

Lake Baikal water

The water temperature in Baikal is a phenomenon. In summer, the lake warms up only upper layer waters and shallow coastal bays. But at a depth the temperature is always constant - about +4 ° C.

The waters of Lake Baikal are a separate mystery. Lakes of this age do not have such crystal clear water, and in Baikal it is very clean. Usually, over time, lakes silt up, and after 10-15 thousand years, swamps are already in their place. Baikal not only does not grow shallow, but also contains clean water that you can drink directly from the lake without fear. In addition, the water of Lake Baikal is saturated with oxygen to a very high degree in comparison with other freshwater reservoirs.

Lake Baikal owes its purity to a small (1.5 mm long) crustacean called epishura. There are a lot of these crustaceans in the water of the lake. They clean the water and are food for the famous Baikal omul and predatory invertebrates.

The transparency of water in Baikal is also very high. AT good weather through the 40-meter water column you can see the bottom of the lake! In winter, Baikal also has surprisingly transparent ice. You just need to find a place that is not swept up by snow, and so to speak - feel like God - walk on the water. The water above is really frozen, but below it is the same picture - the bottom, fish, and you are walking above them.

Baikal is fed by the waters of more than 300 rivers, and only one river flows out of Baikal -.

Baikal ice

Lake Baikal does not freeze evenly in winter. Bays and bays, as well as the northern part of the lake freezes in November - December. And in the south, ice rises only in February, and if the winter is warm, then even at the end of February.

The thickness of the ice on Baikal by the end of winter reaches 1 m, and in the bays - 1.5–2 m. There is a phenomenon on Baikal that the locals call "stanovye cracks". This is when cracks appear in the ice in severe frost. They break the ice into separate large fields. The length of these cracks is amazing - from 10 to 30 km, and the width is only 2-3 m. As you understand, it is better not to be in such a place at the time of the break. Breaks occur every year and in approximately the same places of the lake. The sound effect is similar to gun shots.

Such gaps save the fish in the lake from lack of oxygen. Here is such a mysterious, but necessary natural mechanism for the lake. And due to the transparency of ice, sunlight penetrates through it, due to which planktonic algae that release oxygen in the water develop rapidly even in winter.

Another amazing phenomenon with ice on Baikal is ice hills. These are hollow cone-shaped ice hills that reach a height of 5-6 meters. In some of them you can find the "entrance", and it is usually located in the direction opposite to the shore. Such an ice tent turns out. Sometimes such tents stand alone, but often they are grouped, resembling mountain ranges, only in miniature.

Another mysterious phenomenon was discovered using space photography - dark rings.

The rings have a diameter of up to 7 km. Scientists came to the conclusion that the rings are formed due to the rise of water from the depths of the lake. Due to the temperature difference, a clockwise flow occurs, reaching separate zones different speeds. As a result, the ice cover is destroyed, and the shape of the destroyed areas is ring-shaped.

Shores of Lake Baikal

The landscape of the coast is very diverse. The largest part is occupied by the taiga, in some places it is swampy. There are many hard-to-pass places where there are neither roads nor settlements. But there are many such areas that look quite hospitable, sand, pines, cedars, wild rosemary. But from the side of the Tazheran steppe, in the vicinity and on the island, the landscapes of the Baikal region are different - steppes, rocks with forests of Siberian larch.

The terrain on the coast of Lake Baikal is generally mountainous and the transport infrastructure suffers greatly because of this. Many places to drive on road transport from one settlement located on the coast to another located, you need to make a big detour of tens of kilometers. A quarter of the coast of Lake Baikal does not have public highways generally and practically uninhabited (there is a place for the Chinese to settle, they think with joy).

Bottom relief

Lake Baikal is unique in terms of bottom topography. It has its own underwater mountain ranges, the largest of which are Akademichesky and Selenginsky. These ridges divide the lake into three basins.

Earthquakes are not excluded on Baikal. More precisely, this is a common thing. But tremors usually do not exceed 2 points. But there were other cases:

• in 1862, an earthquake of 10 points was recorded, as a result of which a land area in the northern part of the Selenga delta went under water
• there were points about 9 points in 1903, 1950, 1957 and 1959
• in 2008 - 9 points
• in 2010 - 6 points

Fauna and flora of Baikal

vegetable and animal world are unique here. The lake serves as a safe haven for almost three thousand species of animals and thousands of plants. Many species are found only here. And this despite the fact that, as scientists suggest, more than 20% of the living organisms living in the lake are still unknown to science. Fishing lovers will be fine on Baikal (if the bite goes, of course). Grayling, taimen, whitefish, sturgeon, omul, lenok, golomyanka are common. There are about sixty species in total.

The top of the biosphere on Lake Baikal is occupied by the Baikal seal. There are no other mammals in this reservoir. Until now, there are heated debates about how the Baikal seal, a purely marine mammal, got to Baikal and comfortably settled down here. It is assumed that she came here in ancient times. ice age, moving from the Arctic Ocean along the Angara and the Yenisei. Now tens of thousands of animals live here.

Many animals and birds also live along the shores of Lake Baikal. Here you will meet gulls, goldeneye, there are shelducks, mergansers, white-tailed eagles, and other birds. You can see the mass bathing of brown bears (just be careful!). Musk deer, the smallest deer on Earth, lives in the mountainous part of the Baikal taiga.

Where does the name Baikal come from?

Researchers are still arguing about the origin of the name of the lake. Several guesses:

• Bai-Kul - translated from Turkic means "rich lake";
• Baigal - from the Mongolian "rich fire";
• Baigal Dalai - in the same Mongolian means "big lake";
• Beihai - on Chinese means "north sea";
• Baigal-Nuur - Buryat name;
• Lamu - this is what the Evenki called the lake.

It is believed that the first explorers who appeared here in the seventeenth century eventually adopted the Buryat name, but softened the letter “g”, giving the name the current sound.

Tourism and recreation on Lake Baikal

There are a lot of beautiful places on Baikal. On my site you will find many stories of our tourists about trips and holidays on Baikal (see the section "Stories"). A feature of tourism on Baikal is that the places you would like to see are often located at great distances from each other. So if you want to see not everything, but many of the beauties of Lake Baikal, you need to work out a competent route. If you feel that you can’t do it yourself, contact private guides or buy a comprehensive tour to Baikal.

In any case, you will not be able to see everything on Baikal at one time. Baikal is large, to go around it all you will need more than one vacation.

The most massive tourist visit to Lake Baikal takes place, of course. summer. The most popular places are the village of Listvyanka, the Small Sea and Olkhon Island. People with a small budget, and even the most demanding, will find a place for themselves. Lake Baikal is visited not only by Russians, but by many tourists from all over the world. The latter, moreover, sometimes give fabulous money for such a vacation, but they still go.

In general, judging by the reviews, holidays on Lake Baikal are not among the cheapest, especially if you need to travel from other than nearby cities. Nevertheless, Baikal sets attendance records - the number of tourists is estimated at seven figures per year.

In summer, people relax on the beaches, go on bicycle and car tours, and go hiking along the coast. There are rafting on the rivers flowing into Baikal, and much more.

Climbing cliffs, mountains and descents into grottoes and caves are popular in all seasons.

Fishing

There are a lot of fish in Baikal and lovers find a variety of places in the hope of catching omul or other fish on their own. For the most gambling there are specialized bases with different levels comfort. Fishing is done on rented boats.

The most popular places for fishing on Baikal are Chivyrkuisky Bay, Mukhor Bay, shallow bays of the Small Sea and, of course, rivers flowing into the lake.

Lake Baikal in winter

Despite the harshness of the Siberian climate, there are people who like to come to Lake Baikal in winter. The fantastic ice world of Baikal is fascinating. Snowmobiling and dog sledding are popular.

Most Popular Attractions

Many historical and architectural sights, even more monuments of nature and culture are concentrated on Baikal.

One of the most famous attractions is shaman stone. This is a pair of boulders rising above the water at the source of the Angara. Locals have been worshiping these stones since time immemorial and consider them endowed with special powers.

Another rock, the photo of which is unusually distributed on the Internet at the request of "Baikal" and "Olkhon Island" - Rock Shamanka. Also a sacred place for the Buryats, access here for tourists was not always open.

There are also many other religious and historical places on Olkhon Island. Olkhon is good because in the summer you can sunbathe there, swim, and visit a bunch of excursions or travel around the island on your own.

Holiday seasons on Baikal

Baikal is beautiful in all seasons. Summer, as well as throughout Russia, is the most popular season. The warmest from the second half of July to the beginning of August. Since November, it has become not very hospitable here, until the ice rises. In March and early April, tourists flock to Lake Baikal, especially those who like to take photos. The reason for this is the sparkling, transparent ice of Baikal. There is another one - ice fishing. In spring, Baikal is also very beautiful, severe frosts and there are no more winds. Winter lovers find the combination of weather conditions and the beauty of landscapes very attractive.

Relax on Baikal, enjoy its nature and energy. Take care of Lake Baikal, do not leave dumps behind you, do not arrange logging. This lake is thousands of years old, and after many, many years, it needs to be as beautiful and attractive as it is now.

Tourists who have ever visited Baikal talk not only about the marvelous views, distances, water horizons of the lake, but first of all about the energy and grandeur that come from Baikal, many note its unearthly deep beauty, strength. Writers called Baikal sacred, healing, omnipotent…

Talking about beauties Russian land, it is impossible not to tell about a wonderful place - Lake Baikal. It is, perhaps, one of the main attractions and marvelous landscapes, treasures of the pantry of nature in our country.

In addition to the fact that Lake Baikal is a masterpiece of Russian land, Eastern Siberia, it also occupies an honorable place among the water beauties of the planet: it is the deepest lake in the world, and one of the largest reservoirs of fresh water (by the way, there are only a few percent of fresh water on Earth). of the total volume of water).

About the beauty of the lake documentary"Baikal without borders":

About Lake Baikal

« Baikal is a lake of tectonic origin in the southern part of Eastern Siberia.

The lake and coastal areas are distinguished by a unique variety of flora and fauna, most of the animal species are endemic (that is, they are found only here).

Locals and many in Russia traditionally call Baikal the sea (as A. Chekhov said).

However, the deepest freshwater lake in the world is not only a beautiful place in Russia, but also an enviable tidbit for other countries.

Baikal is located in the center of Asia on the border of the Irkutsk region and the Republic of Buryatia in Russian Federation. The lake stretches from northeast to southwest for 620 km in the form of a giant crescent. The width of Lake Baikal ranges from 24 to 79 km. The bottom of Baikal is 1167 meters below the level of the World Ocean, and the mirror of its waters is 455.5 meters higher.

The area of ​​the water surface of Lake Baikal is 31,722 km² (excluding the islands),which is roughly equal to the area of ​​countries such as Belgium or the Netherlands. In terms of water surface area, Baikal ranks seventh among the largest lakes in the world.

The length of the coastline is 2100 km.

The lake is located in a kind of basin, surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges and hills ”(Wikipedia)

The “deepest” established value of the lake is 1642 m (recorded by the expedition in 1983), average depth- 744.4 m, which far exceeds the parameters of the depths of the deepest lakes. Only the Caspian Sea (1025 m) and Tanganyika (1470 m) are deeper than the average depths of Baikal.

“The water reserves in Baikal are gigantic - 23,615.39 km³ (about 19% of the world's fresh lake water reserves - all fresh lakes in the world contain 123 thousand km³ of water).

In terms of water reserves, Baikal ranks second in the world among lakes, second only to the Caspian Sea, but the water in the Caspian Sea is salty. There is more water in Baikal than in all five Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario) combined, and 25 times more than in Lake Ladoga.”

"Interesting Facts. If all the water contained in Baikal is divided among all citizens of Russia (141,927,297 people), then each will have about 166.4 thousand cubic meters of water, which is approximately 2,773 railway tanks of 60 tons each.”

Baikal water has unique properties : it is always clean, transparent, especially in spring, stones can be seen at a depth of several tens of meters; “It contains very few dissolved and suspended minerals, negligibly few organic impurities, a lot of oxygen "- mineral salts over 96 mg / l.

Some "experts" believe that water from Baikal can be drunk without treatment, while others are sure that it must either be boiled or passed through filters. There is garbage near the shore, where there is a lot of algae, especially in the heat, even if Baikal itself remains cold, but in small creeks it is warmer (where many decomposition products can accumulate off the coast), or after a storm - it’s better not to try raw water after all .

Collected far from the coast, at a depth, in a clean backwater, and raw or (at will and preference) passed through filters - Baikal water is the most useful product.

The temperature in the lake, as a rule, is always cold, even in summer it does not exceed +9 degrees Celsius (at a depth of +4), in some creeks it can reach +15 and even up to +23 degrees Celsius.

Spring on Baikal and its environs usually comes with a two-week delay, and autumn drags on. If there is a sizzling heat in the area - which, of course, is almost unrealistic for Siberia and Russia, but everything happens - then a fresh, slightly "cold", saving breeze will blow near the lake, and the cool temperature of the water will cool "as it should" anyone.

The age of the lake, according to scientists, is about 25-35 million years.. First mention: "110 BC. e. - under the name "Beihai" the lake is first mentioned in Chinese chronicles.

The largest island of Baikal - Olkhon:

« 71 km long and 12 km wide, located almost in the center of the lake near its western coast, area - 729 km², according to other sources - 700 km². There are 27 islands on the lake in total.

About 336 rivers and streams flow into Baikal (sometimes, during floods, during ravines, these figures reach - according to various estimates up to 1123) rivers and streams.

“The largest of Baikal's tributaries are the Selenga, Upper Angara, Barguzin, Turka, Snezhnaya, Sarma. One river flows out of the lake - the Angara.

About the flora and fauna of Baikal, the Baikal Reserve clearly in the film "Baikal Fantasies":

Flora of Baikal rich in algae, among which there are unique representatives, endemics. Fauna also very diverse and unusual, for example - Baikal epishura (a type of planktonic crustaceans from the copepod subclass) - a microscopic crustacean (about 1.5 mm in size), actively maintains the cleanliness of the lake, passing organic matter through its body.

In addition to epishura, about 2600 species and subspecies of endemic aquatic animals live in the water depths of Lake Baikal: fish, worms, crustaceans, sponges, etc.

Of the fish found here: Baikal omul, grayling, Baikal osset, pike, whitefish, burbot, taimen - a total of 58 species. Birds and animals living in the vicinity of the lake are also unique.

Even during the icing of the lake, algae actively live under water, ensuring the existence of the fauna, and thanks to the cracks in the ice, oxygen enters the lake.

In winter, the thickness of ice on the surface of the lake is from 1 m to 5 m. Frozen Baikal on a sunny winter day with cracks in the ice shimmering in the light is a most beautiful sight.

In the Baikal Reserve (located on the eastern shore in the southern part of Lake Baikal and covers an area of ​​165.7 thousand hectares of the Khamar-Daban mountain range) there are brown bears, wild boars, roe deer, sables, black kites, capercaillie...

Most of the reserve is occupied by taiga, protected plants: calamus, common viburnum, yellow egg pod, edible honeysuckle, etc.

It happens that Baikal “shakes”, there is a rather high seismic activity: earthquakes of 1-2 points were the norm, but more serious ones last happened in 2008 (9 points) and in 2010 (6.1 points).

From whom and from what is it worth saving Baikal?

Any miracle of nature is sure to suffer encroachment ... from whom would you think in the first place? Naturally - from the people themselves, the industries they built, decay products, garbage.

“Lake Baikal is a unique ecological system, legal framework whose protection is governed by the 1999 federal law"On the protection of Lake Baikal".

In 1996, Baikal was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Several foundations and environmental organizations are also engaged in the protection of Lake Baikal.

One of the main problems is poachers. They kill, catch the Baikal seal. her cubs, spawning omul.

In addition, forests in the vicinity of Lake Baikal are regularly cut down.

The Transneft company is building an oil pipeline near Lake Baikal.

Vacationers near the lake, remember that nature must be protected, because even though it is silent, it is priceless for our prosperous existence, it is better not to conduct experiments with the meaning of checking what will happen to us if the best wonders of nature do not become, clean up your garbage at least - it's such a small thing.

Chop, saw and damage trees , any, regardless of size.

Leave trash behind. If you were able to drag a full bottle here, then do you really have to carry it when it is empty?

Light a fire where there has never been one. Nature heals the wound inflicted by fire over the years. If the parking lot is not equipped with a bonfire, and you need a bonfire to the point, make it on the shore, on pebbles, after making sure that there are no trees nearby whose roots can be damaged by fire.

Decorate with cretin writing, i.e. with their own names, names of places of residence and other outrages coastal cliffs . Do not flatter yourself, nature is self-sufficient, a person can only worsen it.

Catch fish by poaching methods. I'll explain how to trap her. Or do you care what your grandchildren will eat?

Pick flowers. Are they more beautiful dead?

Turn on loud music. Yes, and do not turn it on quietly, listen better to the rustle of leaves and the splash of waves. Or did you not come here for this?

Rest on Lake Baikal

Every year, Baikal and the Baikal Reserve are visited by over 400 thousand tourists, including those from other countries.

Basically, all roads to the lake go through the nearest big cities: Ulan-Ude, Irkutsk, Severobaikalsk. From any of these points you can easily get to Lake Baikal by bus.

For example, from Irkutsk (70 km to Baikal) you can get: by railway transport (electric trains, trains), from the bus station or the central market by bus, fixed-route taxi, in summer (from mid-June to August) from the Rocket pier on a yacht , ship.

More detailed routes, options for overcoming the path from experienced travelers can be found on the resources: www.magicbaikal.ru, baikalholiday.ru, www.baikalvisa.ru, baikal-tourist.ru, you can order tours to Baikal, cruises, excursions on exatourbaikal.com - and other sites, agencies offering tours to Baikal - a lot.

You can set off on your own, the main thing is to book a place at a recreation center, in a hostel, hotel:

About cruises in reality:

“Often, tourists who are going on a Baikal cruise do not realize the true size of the lake. Only from the southern to the northern tip, its length is 636 kilometers.

At average speed Baikal motor ships 15-18 kilometers per hour, the passage along the lake from Kultuk to Severobaikalsk (from south to north) will take 36 running hours without stops. And this is with good weather conditions, in the absence of a wave. Well, to get around the entire coast - this is more than two thousand kilometers - it is possible only in three to four weeks!

For example, a 9-day tour by flight from Moscow (for two people, excluding the cost of the flight) will cost, depending on the tour program and the place of rest on Lake Baikal, 26-50 thousand rubles.

A popular and favorite place for tourists is the village of Listvyanka, there is a recreation center, there are excursions, cruises.

« The most visited places on the western coast of Lake Baikal:

the entire coast of the Small Sea;

western (little sea) coast of Olkhon Island;

Peschanaya Bay and its environs;

Circum-Baikal Railway;

northwestern coast from the city of Severobaikalsk to the village of Baikalskoe;

any place that can be reached by car.

If you like to relax in the midst of the masses, delighting your ears with the round-the-clock heart-rending howl of pop music, the roar of jet skis and the roar of a motorized hang glider over your head, choose any of the places listed.

If you want peace and quiet, then you need to look for places that are inaccessible. They still exist even on Olkhon, but you will have to get there either on foot or by water.

I note that silence in the most visited places also happens, but outside the summer season. Unfortunately, along with the hubbub, the unsightly consequences of a valiant pastime do not disappear” (Magiya Baikal.ru).

Most the best time for trips to Baikal, if you want to swim or fish - July-August: in June it is still cool, and after August cold winds are already blowing. But in winter, when Baikal is covered with a thick layer of ice, it’s also beautiful there, you just need to dress appropriately and think more thoroughly about travel options, where to stay, etc.

“It’s better to see once than hear a hundred times!”, say enthusiastic travelers who returned from Baikal. Among Russians' favorite vacation spots, Baikal is in 6th place after resorts. Krasnodar Territory, Crimea, Caucasus and Mineralnye Vody. Baikal is no less beautiful, it's just not as hot there as on sunny coasts.

On Olkhon, for example (according to the reviews of tourists who were there in the summer of 2014), gorgeous views, beaches, very bright sun, cold water - it’s difficult to swim, there is a lot of garbage everywhere and this is a whole problem, people don’t clean up after themselves, bottles from under alcohol, dishes, dirt left by people, contrast with the background of beautiful nature.

Still, if you have never been to Baikal yet, be sure to visit this beautiful place - you will not regret it, and then it good alternative now expensive overseas vacation. Just don't forget to pick up your trash.

Lake Baikal and its drainage basin belong to the unique geosystems of the world. Baikal is located in the central part of Eastern Siberia, not far from the conventional geographical center of Asia. The mountain basin of the lake is the most important natural frontier of Siberia. In this area, the boundaries of various floristic and faunal areas converge, creating biogeocenoses that have no analogues.

Baikal is one of the greatest lakes on the planet, a lake of "superlative degree": the deepest (1637 m) and the oldest (about 25 million years), containing the most a large number of endemics (more than 1000 species) and representatives of flora and fauna (more than 2600 species) living in fresh water bodies of the Earth. The lake has a unique in terms of volume (23.6 thousand cubic km) and quality of fresh water (20% of the world). The Baikal depression is the central link of the Baikal rift zone, which arose and developed simultaneously with the world rift system. A number of factors suggest that the lake is a nascent ocean. The climate of the Baikal coasts is unusually mild for Siberia - the number of sunny days here is higher than in many Black Sea resorts. 336 rivers flow into Baikal (Selenga, Barguzin, Upper Angara, etc.), and one flows out - Angara.

The entire lake basin total area catchment of 557 thousand sq. km, of which 332 - in Russia) is a peculiar and very fragile natural geosystem, the basis of which is the system of the lake itself with its natural process of formation purest waters drinking quality.

Baikal - the largest lake in the world

Baikal is one of the largest lakes in the world, the largest freshwater lake in Russia. Its length is 636 kilometers, the water surface area is 31,500 square kilometers. Baikal is 1.7 times larger than Lake Ladoga, the largest in Europe. Among the fresh lakes of the world, it ranks sixth. Larger than it are two African lakes - Victoria and Tanganyika, and three of the five Great American Lakes - Superior, Huron and Michigan.

Baikal is not only one of the largest lakes, but also the deepest lake on the planet. As already mentioned, its greatest depth is 1637 meters.

The maximum depth of Tanganyika is 1435 meters, Issyk-Kul is 702. On Earth, only 8 lakes have a depth exceeding 500 meters (L. Rossolimo).

Tanganyika - fresh water, but its water contains a high content of magnesium salts. The entire thickness of fresh water deeper than 800 meters can only be studied in Baikal.

The average depth of the lake is also very high - 730 meters. It exceeds the maximum depths of many very deep lakes. This is what determines the water reserves in Baikal.

Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake in terms of water resources. Its volume is 23,600 cubic meters. kilometers, which is about 20% of the planet's fresh lake waters - much more than in all fresh lakes in the world. The volume of the latter is estimated at 123 thousand cubic kilometers of water. There is more water in Baikal than in all five of the American Great Lakes combined. The Baikal volume of water is almost twice as much as in Lake Tanganyika, 90 times more than in the Sea of ​​Azov, 23 times more than in Lake Ladoga. Based on the current need of people for water, equal to 500 liters per person per day, Baikal water can provide the entire population of the Earth for about 40 years (G.N. Galaziy, 1984).

Geological features of the structure of Lake Baikal

The most great feature Baikal - its antiquity. Given the deep relict endemism of the fauna of the lake, most researchers determine its age at 20-30 million years. The vast majority of lakes, especially those of glacial and oxbow origin, live for 10-15 thousand years, then they are filled with sediments, dragged by rafts and sooner or later turn into swamps, and then dry up. Research recent years allowed geophysicists to hypothesize that Baikal, on the contrary, is a nascent ocean. This is confirmed by the fact that its shores diverge at a speed of up to 2 cm per year, just as the continents of Africa and South America, the shores of the Mediterranean and Red Seas, etc. Along with active movements of the earth's crust, significant magnetic anomalies along its axis were noted in the Baikal region. These anomalies are comparable in scale with similar anomalies in the area of ​​the mid-Atlantic fault. The lake has many features inherent in the ocean - abyssal depths, a huge mass of water, internal waves and seiches, tides, strong storms, high waves, expansion of the basin due to the spreading of the banks, large values ​​of magnetic anomalies, etc.

The lake lies in the Baikal depression - bottomless stone bowl surrounded on all sides by mountains. The depression is framed by the medium-altitude mountain ranges of Primorsky and Baikal - with west side, Barguzinsky (with a maximum height of 2840 m.) and Khamar-Daban - from the eastern and southeastern. The depth of the depression is determined by the height of the mountains above it, the depth of the lake and the thickness of the loose sediments lining its bottom. The layer of these lake sediments in some places reaches 6,000 meters, and their volume is twice the volume of the lake and reaches 46,000 cubic kilometers. It is easy to calculate that the depth of Baikal's crystalline bed reaches 8-9 kilometers.

The deepest point of the Baikal root basin lies about 7,000 meters below the ocean level. The Baikal depression is the deepest basin on earth's land. Its "roots" cut through the entire earth's crust and go into the upper mantle to a depth of 50-60 kilometers.

Hydrology of Lake Baikal

Every year about 60 cubic kilometers of beautiful and unique water quality is produced in Baikal, which in some cases can be used instead of distilled water. The rare purity of water is ensured by the vital activity of its unique flora and fauna. The main properties of Baikal water are characterized as follows: there are very few dissolved and suspended mineral substances in it, negligible organic impurities, and a lot of oxygen. The total mineralization of water in Baikal is 120 milligrams per liter, while in many other lakes it reaches 400 or more milligrams per liter. The total content of ions in the water of the lake is 96.7 milligrams per liter.

Its transparency depends on the purity of water. Baikal is not only extremely clean, but also the most transparent lake in the world. In the spring, after being freed from ice, the transparency of its water reaches 40 meters - ten times more than in many other lakes. Water is considered the standard of the highest transparency. Sargasso Sea approaching the transparency of distilled water. Here, the Secchi disk disappears from view at a record depth of 65 meters. Recent studies have shown that at depths of 250 - 1200 meters the transparency of Baikal water is no less than in the Sargasso Sea.

Climate characteristics

In terms of the number of hours of sunshine, Baikal is richer than the neighboring territories of Siberia and even some western and southern regions of the country - in the north of the Baikal depression (Nizhniangarsk) 1948 hours per year, in the south of the lake (Babushkin) and in the middle part (Khuzhir) 2100 and 2277, and on the Riga coast, located at the same latitude - an average of 1839 hours a year, in Abastumani in the Caucasus - 1994. The average annual air temperature in the depressions of the lake is distributed as follows: in the southern basin -0.7 C, in the middle -1.6 C , in the north -3.6 C.

The water temperature in the surface layer varies from +14, +15 C (in August) to 0 C (in December-January). In coastal areas, during surges, the temperature can reach +16, +17 C, mainly under the eastern coast. In shallow bays and sors, it rises to +22, +23 C in summer. On average, the freezing of Lake Baikal begins on December 21 and ends on January 16 - it takes about a month to completely freeze. It also takes about a month or more from the beginning of the destruction of the ice cover in the southern basin, which occurs in April, to the complete cleansing of the entire reservoir in May-June. Most precipitation falls on the Khamar-Daban coast - about 800 mm / year or more, as well as in the mountains - from 1200 to 1400 mm; least of all - on the islands of Olkhon and Ushkany, on the Malomorsky coast of the lake and on the middle section of the western and eastern coasts. On average, it receives from 160 to 300 mm of precipitation per year.

Flora and fauna

The exclusivity of many physical and geographical features of the lake was the reason for the extraordinary diversity of its flora and fauna. And in this respect, it has no equal among the fresh waters of the world. Almost half of all species of freshwater mollusks live in Baikal, as well as more than half of all species of oligochaetes, shellfish, etc. /3 are endemic, originated in it and are not found anywhere else in the world. Of the algae, the most numerous are diatoms - 509 species, tetraspore and chlorococcal - 99, blue-green - 90, conjugates - 48, ulotrix - 45, golden - 28, volvox - 13 species, etc. Of the animals, the most common amphipods (gammarids) - 255 species; more than 100 species of shell crustaceans, or ostracods, more than 100 species of gastropods, 83 oligochaetes, more than 100 planarians, about 50 planarians, 56 harpacticides, more than 300 protozoa. 52 species of fish belonging to 12 families live in the lake: sturgeons, Acipenseridae, (1 species - Baikal sturgeon); salmon, Salmonidae, (5 species - davatchan, taimen, lenok, Baikal omul, Coregonus autumnalis migratorius Georgy, whitefish); graylings, Thimallidae, (1 species - Siberian grayling); pike, Esocidae, (1 species); cyprinids, Ciprinidae, (13 species); loaches, Cobitidae, (2 species); catfish, Sibiridae, (1 species); cod, Gadidae, (1 species); perch, Percidae, (1 species); sculpins, Cottidae, (7 species); Abissocottidae, (20 species); golomyankas, Comephoridae, (2 species). 29 species - very diverse in body shape, color and lifestyle of sculpins, or sculpins. Two species - viviparous fish, large and small golomyanka - are known to ichthyologists around the world.

The food pyramid of the lake ecosystem is crowned by a typical marine mammal - the seal, or the Baikal seal, Pusa sibirica Gmel.

There are 848 species of endemic animals in Baikal - about 60% and 133 species of endemic plants - 15%. Completely endemic in Baikal are 11 families and subfamilies, 96 genera, uniting about 1000 species. All this makes it possible to distinguish the lake into the Baikal subregion of the Holarctic, which is equivalent to the vast European-Siberian subregion in terms of area.

Angara river

The Angara is the "daughter of Baikal", the only river flowing out of the lake, its length is about 1860 km. Annually, the Angara carries out 60.9 cubic km of water from Baikal, and all its tributaries bring 58.75 cubic km per year. at the confluence of the Angara has a water discharge of only about 100 cubic km. The source of the river is located at the level of Baikal, i.e. at an altitude of 456 m above sea level, and the mouth - at an altitude of 76 m. The difference is 380 m, which is used by the cascade of hydroelectric power stations built on the Angara. The width of the Angara at the source is about 1 km, the depth varies in the range of 0.5 - 6 m, the speed of the current along the fairway is 1-2 m / s.

Baikal omul

The Baikal omul (Coregonus autumnalis migratorius Georgy) is an endemic fish that came to Baikal relatively recently (during the glacial or post-glacial period), presumably from the estuarine sections of rivers flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The omul adapted well to its new ecological niche, underwent significant changes and acquired the biological characteristics of the subspecies. Four populations of omul live in Baikal: Selenga, Chivirkuy, North Baikal and embassy. The most numerous population is Selenga. It spawns mainly in the Selenga and in a number of tributaries of the lake. It lives in the southern basin of Baikal and in the southern part of the middle basin. The omul goes to spawn in the rivers from the end of August - the beginning of September to the end of November. In terms of numbers, the spawning herd reaches from one and a half - two to six - eight million individuals.

The total biomass of all age groups of omul in Baikal is about 25 - 30 thousand tons. The life expectancy of omul is up to 20-25 years, it spawns up to 6 times during its life at the age of 5-6 to 14-15 years. The average size and weight of each population is different. Size 30 - 35 cm, weight from 300 to 600 gr. The largest of the encountered specimens of the Selenga population had a weight of up to 5 kg and a length of about 50 cm.

Baikal seal

The Baikal seal (Pusa sibirica Gmel.) is the only mammal in the lake. According to the classification, the seal belongs to the family of true seals (Phocidae), the genus Pusa. Researchers believe that the Baikal seal came from a common ancestor with the ringed northern seal. It is believed that the seal penetrated from the Arctic Ocean along the Yenisei and Angara during the Ice Age, when the rivers were dammed by ice advancing from the north. In the mid-80s, there were about 70 thousand heads of seals in Baikal. The age limit of the Baikal seal (according to V.D. Pastukhov) is 56 years for females and 52 years for males. Childbearing age lasts from 4-7 to 40 years, pregnancy lasts 11 months. During the life of the female can bring more than 20 cubs. The average weight of the seal in Baikal is about 50 kg, the maximum weight of males is 130-150 kg, the length is 1.7-1.8 m. The females are smaller in size - 1.3-1.6 m and up to 110 kg. (+ video clip - Baikal seal on the ice of the lake, 5-10 sec) (According to O.K. Gusev and G.N. Galaziya)

The nature of anthropogenic impact in the basin of the lake. Baikal.

Based on the materials of the TERKSOP of Lake Baikal and the "National Report of the USSR to the 1992 UN Conference on environment and development" in the basin of Lake Baikal, 4 main areas of harmful anthropogenic impact on the ecosystems of the region.

1. The basin of the Selenga River in its lower reaches with 3 large industrial centers: the Gusinoozerskaya State District Power Plant, the Selenginsky Central Control Commission and the city of Ulan-Ude. Ulan-Ude is the largest polluter of the Selenga, it accounts for 53% of all wastewater discharged into the largest river of the Baikal basin. Above the city, the total concentration of impurities in the waters of the Selenga is 0.76 conventional units, below it increases to 62 conventional units. In 1988, the city's emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere amounted to 152.2 thousand tons, of which 58.2 thousand tons accounted for industrial enterprises, 94 thousand tons - vehicles.

In the same year, the Selenginsky PPM emitted 44.1 thousand tons of pollutants into the atmosphere. The plant dumped 11.9 thousand tons of mineral substances, 3.4 thousand tons of organic substances and 135 tons of suspended matter into the waters of the Selenga. Emissions into the atmosphere of Gusinoozerskaya GRES exceeded 63 thousand tons/year.

2. The southern end of the lake, where the main pollutant is the Baikal pulp and paper mill. In 1988, the plant's emissions into the atmosphere amounted to 30.4 thousand tons. harmful substances, into the water of Baikal - 51.9 thousand tons of mineral substances, 4.7 thousand tons of organic and 532 tons of suspended substances. The maximum allowable concentrations (MPC) of oil products, phenols were exceeded by 3-4 times, and the MPC of sulfates and chlorides was exceeded. As a result of the plant's activity, an extensive pollution zone was formed. The area of ​​pollution of bottom sediments is 20 sq. km. Over the past 10 years, the number of benthic species of living organisms has decreased here from 27 to 10, and the biomass of zoobenthos has decreased by 3 times.

3. Valley of the Barguzin River in the middle and lower reaches. Here, the cut down areas of the allowable cutting area are significantly exceeded, 67% of arable land is covered by erosion processes. Unregulated use mineral fertilizers in this agricultural area may contribute to the eutrophication of the lake.

4. Severobaikalsky area - a section of the coast between the cities of Severobaikalsk and Nizhneangarsk. The commissioning of the Baikal-Amur Railway has significantly increased the anthropogenic load here. Atmospheric emissions of harmful substances in the city of Severobaikalsk in 1988 amounted to 15 thousand tons. The content of oil products in water near Severobaikalsk is 3-5 MPC, if the index is 238 tons. An additional source of pollution of Lake Baikal is the bank protection works carried out in this area.

The current influence of local anthropogenic foci in the lake basin is of a local nature, but if we consider the characteristics of the atmosphere, it covers large parts of the lake, mainly its southern basin. This influence, in addition to local sources, is due to the transfer of air masses from the Irkutsk territorial complex, especially the Novo-Irkutsk CHPP.