Lake Baikal - what is it like?

Map of Lake Baikal

In outline, Baikal looks like a narrow crescent, so easy to remember that it can be easily found on the map of Russia even by those who are not particularly strong in geography. Stretching from the southwest to the northeast for as much as 636 kilometers, Baikal seems to squeeze between mountain ranges, and its water surface is at an altitude of more than 450 meters above sea level, which gives every reason to consider it a mountain lake. From the west, the Baikal and Primorsky ridges adjoin it, from the east and southeast - the massifs of Ulan-Burgasy, Khamar-Daban and Barguzinsky. And this whole natural landscape is so harmonious that it is difficult to imagine one without the other.

More Oleg Kirillovich Gusev (1930-2012), candidate of biological sciences, professional hunter, Chief Editor the oldest in Russia magazine "Hunting and hunting economy" and the author of several books on the problems of preserving the unique nature of this lake, wrote: "Baikal gives us great joy and great pleasure." And he added: “It amazes with its monumental style and the beautiful, eternal and powerful that is inherent in its very nature”, emphasizing that the more you get close to it, the more tempting it becomes, and the clearer you understand that Baikal is unique and charmingly inimitable. Anyone who visits here at least once can be convinced of the veracity of these words.

lake depth

The depth of the lake is truly impressive - 1637 meters. According to this indicator, Baikal surpasses such largest water bodies as Tanganyika (1470 m), the Caspian Sea (1025 m), San Martin (836 m), Nyasa (706 m), Issyk-Kul (702 m) and the Great Slave Lake (614 m). The remaining deepest lakes in the world, twenty-two in total, are less than 600 meters deep. BUT climatic conditions on Baikal, as they say, to match its unique features: here the sun scorches mercilessly and cold winds blow, then storms rage and the quietest weather sets in, conducive to beach holidays.

Features and mysteries of Baikal

The coastline of the Siberian "crescent" is 2100 km long, it has 27 islands, the largest of which is Olkhon. The lake is located in a kind of basin, which, as mentioned above, is surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges and hills. This gives reason to assume that the coastline of the reservoir is the same throughout. In fact, only the western coast of Baikal is rocky and steep. The relief of the eastern one is more gentle: in some places the mountain peaks are at a distance of 10 or more kilometers from the coast.

Lake Baikal water

Clear water of Lake Baikal

23,615.39 km³ - such a fantastic figure measures the reserves of Baikal water. According to this indicator, the lake is second only to the Caspian Sea. Considering that in the latter it is salty, it is Baikal that occupies the first line of the world ranking in terms of fresh water reserves, that is, suitable for drinking water. In addition, it is extremely transparent, and all thanks to a very small amount of suspended and dissolved minerals, not to mention organic impurities - they are generally negligible here. At a depth of up to 35-40 meters, you can even distinguish individual stones, especially in spring, when the water becomes of blue color. It also has a huge supply of oxygen. It is not for nothing that Baikal is called the national treasure of Russia for the combination of such unique properties and qualities.

The water in Baikal is very clean. Previously, it could be drunk directly from the lake and not even boiled. But now crowds of tourists have rushed to Lake Baikal, which still pollute this area, so now, before drinking Baikal water, you should ask the locals where you can do it.

Baikal ice

The time of freezing on the lake lasts on average from the beginning of January to the beginning of May. During this period, it freezes almost completely. The only exception is a small 15-20-kilometer section located at the source of the Angara. At the end of winter, the ice thickness can reach 1 meter, and even more in the bays - one and a half to two meters. At severe frosts Huge cracks form on the ice, which are called “stand cracks” here. They are so impressive that they can reach from 10 to 30 km in length. The width, however, is small: only 2-3 m. Such “slits” literally tear the ice cover into separate fields. If it were not for cracks, the formation of which is accompanied by a loud, like a cannon shot, sound, then lake fish would die en masse from a lack of oxygen.

Baikal ice has a number of other features that are unique to it, and truly mysterious, which scientists have not been able to explain. Back in the middle of the last century, specialists from the local limnological station discovered the so-called "hills" - hollow ice hills in the shape of a cone, reaching a height of 5-6 meters. Being "open" to the side opposite the shore, they even somewhat resemble tents. Sometimes there are "solitary hills", that is, located separately from each other. In some cases, they are grouped, forming "mountain ranges" in miniature.

Ice of Lake Baikal

Dark rings on the lake

Another mystery is the dark rings, the diameter of which is 5-7 km (moreover, the width of the lake itself is 80 km). They have nothing to do with the "belt of Saturn", although they were also discovered through satellite imagery. Satellite photographs of amazing formations, taken back in 2009 in different parts of Lake Baikal, went around the entire Internet. Scientists puzzled for a long time: what could it be? And they came to the conclusion that the rings arise due to the rise of deep waters and an increase in the temperature of the upper layer in the center of the ring structure. And as a result, a clockwise flow arises, reaching in some zones maximum speeds. As a result, vertical water exchange increases, provoking the destruction of the ice cover in an accelerated mode.

Bottom of Baikal

It is impossible not to say about the bottom of the amazing reservoir. It also differs from others, and above all in that it has a very pronounced relief - there are even underwater mountain ranges here. The three main basins of the lake - northern, southern and middle, separated by the Akademichesky and Selenginsky ridges - are distinguished by a pronounced bed. The first ridge (its maximum height above the bottom is 1848 meters) is especially expressive: it stretches for as much as 100 km from Olkhon Island to the Ushkany Islands.

Bottom of Lake Baikal

earthquakes

Another feature of these places is high seismic activity. fluctuations earth's crust here occur regularly, but the strength of most earthquakes does not exceed one or two points. But there have been powerful ones in the past. For example, in 1862, when a ten-point “shake” led to the sinking of an entire piece of land in the northern part of the Selenga delta, one of the many tributaries of Baikal, under water. Its area was 200 km, about 1500 people lived in this territory. Later, a bay formed here, which is called the Failure. Strong earthquakes also occurred in 1903, 1950, 1957 and 1959. The epicenter of the latter, 9-point, was at the bottom of the lake in the area of ​​the rural settlement of Sukhaya. The aftershocks were then also felt in Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude - about 5-6 points. In our time, the region was shaking in 2008 and 2010: the strength of the tremors was 9 and 6.1 points, respectively.

Origin of Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal still hides the secret of its origin. Researchers often argue about its age, coming to the conclusion that it is at least 25-35 million years. The indicator is impressive, especially considering that the life cycle of most lakes, and primarily of glacial origin, does not exceed 10-15 thousand years. After this period, they either become swampy or filled with silty sediments. With Baikal, nothing like this has happened and is not happening. And, according to scientists, is unlikely to happen in the future. The lack of signs of aging is explained by the fact that the lake is ... a nascent ocean. The hypothesis did not arise out of the blue: as it turned out, its banks move away from each other by 2 cm every year.

Flora and fauna

An interesting fact: the purity of Baikal water - by the way, very cold (the temperature of the surface layers even in the warm season does not exceed an average of + 8-9 ° C) - is maintained by the microscopic crustacean epishura, one of the most famous local endemics. In the course of its life, this 1.5 mm crustacean consumes organic matter (algae), passing water through its small organism. The role of epishura in the ecosystem of the lake can hardly be overestimated: it forms 90 or more percent of its biomass, serving in turn as food for the Baikal omul and predatory invertebrates. In the processes of self-purification of Lake Baikal, oligochaetes or oligochaetes also play a significant role, 84.5 percent of which are endemic.

Of the 2600 species and subspecies of the local fauna, more than half of the aquatic animals are endemic, that is, living exclusively in this lake. Among the fish, one can also distinguish grayling, Baikal sturgeon, whitefish, taimen, pike, burbot and others. Of particular interest is the golomyanka, which, from a human point of view, “suffers” from obesity: its body contains about 30% fat. She loves to eat so much that in search of food every day she makes a “journey” from the depths to shallow water, which surprises researchers a lot. This underwater inhabitant is also unique in that it belongs to viviparous fish. The distant "neighbors" of golomyankas can be called freshwater sponges growing at great depths. Their presence here is an exclusive phenomenon: they are not found in any other lake.

If the biosphere of the lake is presented in the form of a pyramid, then it will be crowned by the Baikal seal or seal, which is the only mammal in this reservoir. Almost all the time he lives in the water. The only exception is autumn, when seals lie en masse on rocky shores, forming a kind of "settlement". Many other inhabitants of Baikal also explore the coast and islands, for example, gulls, goldeneyes, shelducks, mergansers, white-tailed eagles and other birds. Characteristic for these places is such a phenomenon as coming to the coast, and in droves, brown bears. And in the mountainous Baikal taiga you can meet musk deer - the smallest deer on Earth.

Attractions of Baikal

Lake Baikal is so majestic that it is often called the Siberian Sea. In 1996, it was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. But not only due to the unique ecosystem that requires careful treatment - there are also many historical and architectural sights, not to mention natural and cultural monuments.

One of them is located near the lake, at the source of the Angara, a reserved rock called the Shaman-stone. It can be seen in the middle of the river, between capes Rogatka and Ustyansky. If you focus on the line of the Port-Baikal ferry crossing, then the rock will be 800 meters lower. Since ancient times, the Shaman-stone was endowed by the inhabitants of the Angara region with unusual power, they prayed near it and performed various shamanic rites.

Between the mainland and the Svyatoy Nos peninsula is perhaps the most famous bay on Baikal - Chivyrkuisky. Its area is approximately 300 km², it is the second largest on the lake, and it is also shallow (about 10 m deep). Thanks to the latter circumstance, the water in the bay warms up well, on average up to +24 degrees. On the southwestern coast there are such settlements as Kurbulik, Katun and Monakhovo. The main wealth of the bay is fish resources. Here you can find pike, perch, horned catfish, the weight of which can reach tens of kilograms. However, fishing on an industrial scale is prohibited - only amateur. The Chivyrkuisky Bay is also known for its thermal spring, one of the hottest: the temperature of the water used to treat diseases of the musculoskeletal system ranges from 38.5-45.5 ° C. The source is located in the Zmeina Bay, on the western side.

On the northeastern coast of Lake Baikal there is a tract belonging to the natural-geographical region of Podlemorie. It is called Frolikha and includes the river of the same name, which flows into the Baikal Frolikha Bay and flows out of the lake with the same name. In the river valley - its channel, by the way, crosses the well-known tourist route 95 km long - there is the Frolikhinsky nature reserve. Together with the Trans-Baikal National Park and the Barguzinsky Reserve, it is subordinate to the federal budgetary state institution "Reserved Podlemorye".

Other attractions:

• Northern Baikal is the last site on the great lake, the nature of which, due to its remoteness and lack of highways retains its originality
• Barguzinsky Bay is the largest and deepest in Baikal,
• Ushkany Islands is a small archipelago with rocky shores in the Barguzinsky district of Buryatia,
• Peschanaya Bay, known for its unique beauty,
• Cape Ryty is the northernmost point of the coast, where there are extensive pastures, and one of the most anomalous places,
• Cape Ludar, located near the old village of Zabaikalskoye,
• Chersky Peak - from its slopes the Slyudanka and Bezymyannaya rivers begin, flowing into Baikal,
• The Circum-Baikal Railway, which has historical significance.

Rest on Baikal

It was along the Circum-Baikal Railway in the 80s of the XX century that the Bureau of International Youth Tourism "Sputnik" (Irkutsk) developed the first ecological tour. Since that time, ecotourism on Baikal has been actively developing, despite the fact that the tourist infrastructure is not well developed here, there are some transport difficulties. There are also problems associated with pollution. environment emissions from the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill. But all of them are to some extent compensated by the activities for the creation and arrangement of excursion trails, regularly carried out by tourist organizations in the region.

The most favorable time for relaxing on the lake is from May to October. You can swim in July and August, since these months are the hottest - the air warms up to + 30 ° C, shallow water - up to + 25 ° C. Vacation on Lake Baikal will satisfy the needs of even the most demanding tourists. beach holiday, cycling and car tours, hiking along the coast, rafting on catamarans and kayaks, quad biking and even helicopter tours - these are far from complete list what travel agencies offer to their customers. Climbing coastal cliffs and descending into caves are popular.

Fishing

Fishing should be mentioned separately. Many amateurs fish from the rocks adjacent to the lake. The most reckless anglers prefer to settle in specialized bases, of which there are many, and which differ different levels comfort. They go fishing on rented vessels. The most popular places for fishing on Baikal are the already mentioned Chivyrkuisky Bay, Mukhor Bay, the shallow bays of the Small Sea and, of course, the rivers flowing into it. The largest of them (besides the Selenga) are the Upper Angara, Snezhnaya, Barguzin, Kichera, Turka, Buguldeyka and Goloustnaya. And only one river flows out of the lake - the Angara.

Fishing on Baikal

Fishing, only now under the ice, finds its fans in the winter season, which here lasts from late December to mid-May. Fans of the "second Russian hunt" are helped by professional instructors: without them, it is difficult for inexperienced fishermen to do in an unusual transparent ice correct hole. They willingly share the secrets of how to organize comfortable rest in conditions of 40-degree frosts, which are not uncommon for Baikal. And those who do not want to test their health with extreme cold, go underwater fishing in March and April. At this time, the ice is still strong, and the air temperature begins to reach positive levels.

Winter sports

Of winter entertainment, tourists are also offered dog sledding (routes are very different both in complexity and length), snowmobile rides (excursion programs are also different and depend on the level of preparedness of the riders), skiing, sledding and snowboarding (rent ski equipment is available at numerous rental points on the coast). In winter, as, indeed, in summer, helicopter excursions are held in high esteem among vacationers, giving unforgettable experience for life.

Children and youth tourism

Sufficiently developed on Baikal is children's tourism, which involves rest in summer camps. We will immediately please parents: your children will not be bored here. Stay in children's institution involves a rich excursion and creative program, including conducting sanatorium and health-improving events at specialized bases. One of the most convenient places on Baikal for recreation with young children is Mandarkhan Bay. It is as if it was specially created by nature for this very purpose: it is very small, and in summer it is perhaps the most warm water and children are not at risk of catching a cold.

The youth is not left unattended. For her interregional public organization"Great Baikal Trail", created in 2003, various international programs taking into account the specifics and needs of the age of up to 30. For example, the arrangement and reconstruction of ecological paths, the holding of educational lectures on the topic of nature protection. Schoolchildren are also actively involved as listeners of the latter.

Video: The underwater world of Lake Baikal

Hotels and recreation centers on Lake Baikal

Many tourists come to rest on Baikal, as they say, savages, getting on their cars. They choose a place they like on the coast and stop there, spending the night in tents. There are very few campsites specially equipped for motorists on the lake. If you plan to stop at such a site, you should take into account that there may not be firewood and basic amenities (for example, a toilet) in this place. Therefore, think in advance about how you will “survive”.

Such experiences will be spared by those who prefer to travel in comfort, even minimal. At their service are many hotels, recreation centers and guest houses scattered along the entire coast of Lake Baikal. Moreover, each tourist will be able to find the most suitable accommodation option for him - taking into account, of course, individual preferences and financial capabilities. Forced to upset the bohemian public: five-star hotels with the highest level there is no service here. She, like "mere mortals", will have to be content with ordinary rooms with all amenities. Another note: some recreation centers accept tourists only in the summer.

Tourists traveling on their own run the risk of running into unscrupulous intermediaries when booking a hotel room or recreation center. To prevent this from happening, book a hotel room only through proven and reliable services, which will not only save you from scammers, but also allow you to rent a room at the lowest cost, without unnecessary markups. We recommend Booking.com, one of the first and most popular online hotel booking systems.

How to get there

There are various ways to get to Baikal. The starting point is usually the nearby big cities: Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Severobaikalsk. Tourists first come to one of these settlements and plan their further route in detail there. The trip on the section of the Trans-Siberian Railway between Ulan-Ude and Irkutsk is especially memorable: the lake stretches right outside the train windows and you can admire its magical panorama for hours.

One of the most popular tourist destinations on the Siberian Sea is the village of Listvyanka, located at the source of the Angara, 65 km from Irkutsk. From the regional center you can get here by bus or boat, the travel time is a little more than an hour. All water transport routes originate in Irkutsk, plying not only on Baikal, but also on the Angara.

- most deep lake . Depth of Baikal about 1700 meters. In the world only one lake can be compared to depth with Lake Baikal. This is lake Tanganyika in East Africa. Its depth is about 1400 meters. Depth of Lake Baikal comparable to the depth of the Arctic Ocean, the average depth of which is 1220 meters.

Baikal - most big lake in Asia. Water surface area Lake Baikal over 30 thousand square kilometers.

Lake Baikal water is its main value. Lake Baikal – most large reservoir of fresh water in the world. Baikal contains approximately a fifth of the world's reserves.

The deepest bay Lake Baikal- Barguzinsky. The depth of the Barguzinsky Bay is almost 1300 meters.

The largest bay Lake Baikal- Barguzinsky. The area of ​​the bay is 725 square kilometers.

The youngest bay of Baikal- Fail Bay. Proval Bay was formed after a powerful earthquake in 1862. Part of the Selenga delta with an area of ​​about 200 square kilometers has gone under water. This earthquake also caused the formation the youngest cape of Baikal- Cape Oblom.

The largest island Lake Baikal- Olkhon. The island is located in the middle Baikal and divides lake to the Big and Small seas. The island is 71 kilometers long and 12 kilometers wide.

On Cape Kotelnikovsky is the most. The water temperature in the mineral springs of Cape Kotelnikovsky is plus 81 degrees Celsius.

The basin of Lake Baikal – deepest mainland depression. Bottom of Lake Baikal lies below the level of the world ocean by about 1200 meters.

The largest influx Lake Baikal the Selenga river. The Selenga has a length of about 1000 kilometers. About half of all the water that enters lake, brings precisely the Selenga.

The largest peninsula Lake Baikal- Holy Nose. The peninsula measures about 50 kilometers long and about 20 kilometers wide.

Depth of Lake Baikal

Basin of Baikal consists of three rather separate parts. The middle basin is the deepest. It is here near the eastern coast of Olkhon Island depth of Lake Baikal reaches almost 1700 meters. Depth southern basin Lake Baikal approximately 1432 meters. The largest measured depth northern part Lake Baikal 890 meters. Medium lake depth also very large - more than 700 meters. The biggest depth Small Sea - near the northwestern coast of Olkhon Island. It is approximately equal to 250 meters. The smallest depth in the open Baikal- about 30 meters. Northern and middle basins Lake Baikal separates the underwater Academic Ridge. lake depth in these places about 260 meters. Between the middle and southern basins Lake Baikal the Selenga bridge is located. The smallest depth here 360 ​​meters.

Where is Baikal located?

Baikal is located in the middle of Asia in the south of Eastern Siberia between the Republic of Buryatia and the Irkutsk region Russian Federation. Near lakes the cities of Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude are located.

Length, length, width of Baikal

Lake Baikal is a fracture in the earth's crust filled with water. water in lake carry several hundred large and small streams. Lake Baikal stretched from south to northeast: length or length of Baikal about 640 kilometers. The largest width of Baikal 80 kilometers. Small earthquakes constantly occur in the vicinity of the lake. Occasionally there are big ones. coast Baikal moving away from each other at a rate of 2 centimeters per year - Baikal is growing!

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 the deepest 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.

As the famous Russian song says, Baikal is sacred. Although this is the deepest lake of tectonic origin on the planet, it is often called the sea for its unusual size. However, it is wrong, because Lake Baikal has fresh water, being the largest natural freshwater reservoir.

Description of Lake Baikal

As already noted, Lake Baikal - the deepest lake on the planet. Its lowest elevation is 1 km 642 m, which was discovered in the course of scientific research in 1983. These figures were confirmed in 2002 during the implementation of the Russian-Spanish-Belgian project to study Baikal. Taking into account that the surface of Lake Baikal is located 455.5 meters above sea level, its lowest level goes 1186.5 meters below the ocean boundary! This makes it possible to classify Baikal as one of the deepest continental depressions.

The average depth of Lake Baikal also breaks records, as it exceeds the extremely low depths of most of the deepest lakes - it is 744.4 meters. In general, Baikal leads the top three lakes that go down more than 1 kilometer - together with Tanganyika ( maximum depth- 1 km 470 meters) and the Caspian Sea (1 km 25 meters). It absorbs the waters of a total of 336 large streams and rivers (only permanent sources are taken into account), while only one single water source flows out of it - the Angara River.

The fresh water reserve of Lake Baikal is about 19 percent of the global freshwater lake reserves - 23,615.39 cubic meters. It has more water than the 5 great lakes of the world, which include Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior. Baikal also has several islands (27) of various sizes. The largest of them is Olkhon towering above the smooth surface (71 km x 12 km), located almost in the very central part. The largest peninsula of Lake Baikal is Svyatoy Nos.

Where is Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is located in the central zone of the Asian continent. It is located in Russia, on the border of Buryatia and the Irkutsk region. The shape resembles a giant crescent crescent, stretching for 620 kilometers from the southwest to the northeast. It varies in width from 24 km to 79 km. The surface area of ​​Lake Baikal is (excluding the islands) 31722 sq. km. This figure is comparable to the total area of ​​several countries in Europe - such as Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium combined. In general, Lake Baikal is located in a natural basin of natural origin, which is surrounded by hills and mountain ranges. From the west, its coast has a steep rocky relief, from the east it is gently sloping, with mountains indented from the coastal zone tens of kilometers deep into the continent.

Animals and fish of Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal, like its coastal zones, are distinguished by the presence of unique representatives of the animal and flora, since most of them are endemic, that is, they are distributed precisely on this segment of the planet and are not represented anywhere else on the globe. Based scientific information, in Lake Baikal there are about 2,630 species of animals and plants (endemic - two thirds of them). There are 27 species of fish that are not found anywhere else, which is explained by the presence of a considerable amount of oxygen in the water of Lake Baikal.

Small animals of Lake Baikal

The most famous endemic is epishura, a crustacean that forms about 80 percent of the biological mass of the local lake plankton, being the basic link in the food chain of all other inhabitants of Lake Baikal. In addition, it plays the role of a filtering "means", passing masses of water through itself and thereby making it much cleaner.

Oligochetes are oligochaetes, the next most important are endemic (84.5 percent of them). They form up to 70, and according to some data, up to 90 percent of the nutrient biomass for predatory invertebrates and Baikal fish. Oligochetes are also significant for self-purification of Lake Baikal - they are the most important component in the mineralization of organic matter and saturation of soils with oxygen (aeration).

Fish of Lake Baikal

The most unique representative of fish in Baikal is the golomyanka, a viviparous fish. Her body is 30 percent fat, and she is characterized by frequent food migration from the depths to shallow water (almost daily). In addition, Baltic sturgeon, pike, taimen, burbot, whitefish, grayling, and Baltic omul are found in abundance in the lake.

Birds of Lake Baikal

In general, about 236 species of birds are present on Lake Baikal, of which 29 species are waterfowl (they are mainly represented by ducks). Less often, but still there are whooper swans and geese living along the coastline. But most of all there are seagulls on Baikal. Their colonies occupy considerable territories in the mouths of the tributaries of the lake and on rocky solitary islands.

Often come across and black-throated loons, gray herons. And at the beginning of autumn and at the end of summer, over 30 varieties of waders walk along the Baikal shores, which stop at Lake Baikal during the migration period. In particular, there are many birds in shallow bays and in deltas of rivers flowing into a reservoir. However, the cult representative of Lake Baikal is an eagle. About 7 species of this powerful and unique bird can be found in the Baikal region: sea eagle (long-tailed and white-tailed), pygmy eagle, greater spotted eagle, steppe eagle, imperial eagle and golden eagle.

Animals of Lake Baikal

Among these representatives of the animal world, sables, which live in the Baikal forests, and seals, which have become endemic during evolution, are especially distinguished. Nerpa is a Baikal seal. It is believed that its ancestors were arctic seals, which in ancient times came here along the Yenisei and Lena rivers. Today it is the top of the trophic pyramid of the Baikal ecosystem.

Secrets of Lake Baikal

Due to its origin, deep water and the uniqueness of the animal world, Lake Baikal is considered one of the most mysterious on the planet. Riddles and mysteries are reflected mainly in the properties of water, the topography of the bottom and some other features associated with them. Yes, fresh water. large lake Baikal itself attracts the attention of scientists from all over the world, since it contains a lot of oxygen and very few organic impurities, suspended and dissolved mineral particles. Due to this, Baikal water is equated to distilled water. It is so transparent that boulders and various items freely visible at a depth of 40 meters.

The change in the color of the water in Lake Baikal is shrouded in mystery - from intense blue to deep green. Scientists attribute this mainly to seasonality and the development of microorganisms. With excellent visibility of the bottom, when Baikal is clear, it has a blue tint. Green appears simultaneously with the arrival of summer and the emergence of a mass of animal and plant organisms that begin active development.

Another secret of Lake Baikal is the highest speed of sound propagation in water on the planet, which is why a special, separate formula was derived for Lake Baikal, which is not applicable to the propagation of sound in any other body of water. In addition, Baikal is always cold: even in summer, the temperature in upper layers water does not exceed plus 9 degrees, and at a depth of plus 4 degrees. The only exceptions are its individual bays, temperature regime which in summer reaches plus 15 degrees.

In winter, Lake Baikal freezes completely (except separate zone at the source of the river Angara), ice keeps on it until the first ten days of May inclusive. However, he presents a lot of mysteries to the scientific world. Specialists have discovered an unusual ice cover, which is characteristic only of Lake Baikal. These are cone-shaped ice elevations 6 meters high. Inside - empty, very reminiscent of tents. Sometimes they are located singly, and sometimes they are heaped. There are also several other types of ice cover on Baikal - autumn, kolobovnik and sokuy, each of which has a unique appearance and its own special shape.

The dark rings recently discovered on the lake, appearing in its various parts, are also a mystery, which is clearly visible on satellite images. Researchers explain them by the rise of cold deep waters and an increase in the temperature of the upper layer, resulting in anticyclonic currents. The edges of the rings have a darker tone due to the extreme high speed swirling water exchange movements.

Conflict in the choir

Some time ago, our choir was reorganized and 3 victims were transferred to contralts. I disagreed with my translation, I persuaded them to leave in violas, but still, after talking with the priest (he…

You can find whole volumes of information about Baikal, both on the Internet and in various magazines and book editions. The lake is not deprived of attention from tourists, researchers and politicians. From year to year, stunning events are associated with Baikal scientific discoveries, expeditions are constantly equipped for a thorough study. I decided to devote this topic to the most interesting facts and events related to Lake Baikal. I will try to save you from boring geographical terms, only the most interesting will be here. Most of the photos in the topic are clickable (open on click)

- one of the oldest lakes on the planet and the deepest lake in the world. Baikal is one of the ten largest lakes in the world. Its average depth is about 730 meters, the maximum is 1637 meters. In 1996, Baikal was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Scientists disagree about the origin of Lake Baikal, as well as about its age. Scientists traditionally determine the age of the lake at 25-35 million years. This fact also makes Baikal a unique natural object, since most lakes, especially those of glacial origin, live on average 10-15 thousand years, and then they are filled with silt sediments and swamp

There is also a version about the relative youth of Lake Baikal, put forward by Alexander Tatarinov, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences in 2009, which received indirect confirmation during the second stage of the Worlds expedition to Baikal. In particular, the activity of mud volcanoes at the bottom of Lake Baikal allows scientists to assume that the modern coastline of the lake is only 8 thousand years old, and the deep-water part is 150 thousand years old.

Baikal contains about 19% of the world's fresh water reserves. There is more water in Baikal than in all five Great Lakes taken together and 25 times more than, for example, in Lake Ladoga

The water in the lake is so transparent that individual stones and various objects can be seen at a depth of 40 m. clearest water Baikal contains so few mineral salts (100 mg/l) that it can be used instead of distilled





2,630 species and varieties of plants and animals live in Baikal, 2/3 of which are endemic, that is, they live only in this reservoir. This abundance of living organisms is explained great content oxygen in the entire thickness of Baikal water


Photo of Baikal from space

The most interesting in Baikal is the viviparous golomyanka fish, whose body contains up to 30% fat. She surprises biologists with daily feeding migrations from the depths to shallow water.

The second, after the golomyanka, the miracle of Baikal, to which it owes its exceptional purity, is the epishura crustacean (numbers about 300 species). The Baikal epishura is a copepod, 1 mm long, a representative of plankton, found throughout the depth (it is not found in bays where the water warms up). Baikal would not be Baikal without this copepod, barely noticeable to the eye, surprisingly efficient and numerous, managing to filter all Baikal water ten times a year, or even more

A typical marine mammal lives here - a seal, or a Baikal seal.

Baikal's water reserves would be enough for 40 years for the inhabitants of the whole Earth, and at the same time 46 x 1015 people could quench their thirst

Baikal ice presents scientists with many mysteries. Thus, in the 1930s, specialists from the Baikal Limnological Station discovered unusual shapes ice cover, characteristic only for Baikal. For example, “hills” are cone-shaped ice hills up to 6 meters high, hollow inside. Appearance they resemble ice tents, "open" in the opposite direction from the coast. Hills can be located separately, and sometimes form miniature "mountain ranges"

Satellite images clearly show dark rings 5-7 km in diameter on the ice of Lake Baikal. The origin of the rings is not known. Scientists believe that the rings on the ice of the lake may have already appeared many times, but it was impossible to see them because of huge size. Now using the latest technologies it became possible, and scientists will begin to study this phenomenon. For the first time, such rings were discovered in 1999, then in 2003, 2005. As you can see, rings do not form every year. The rings are also not located in the same place. Scientists were particularly interested in the reason for the displacement of the rings in 2008 to the southwest, compared with 1999, 2003 and 2005. In April 2009, such rings were found again, and again in a different place than last year. Scientists suggest that the rings are formed due to the release natural gas from the bottom of Baikal. However, the exact causes and mechanisms of the formation of dark rings on the Baikal ice have not yet been studied, and no one knows their exact nature.

The Baikal region (the so-called Baikal rift zone) belongs to areas with high seismicity: earthquakes regularly occur here, the strength of most of which is one or two points on the MSK-64 intensity scale. However, strong ones also happen, so in 1862, during a ten-point Kudarinsky earthquake in the northern part of the Selenga delta, a land area of ​​​​200 km2 went under water? with 6 uluses, in which 1,300 people lived, and the Proval Bay was formed

A unique deep-sea neutrino telescope NT-200, built in 1993-1998, was created and operates on the lake, with the help of which high-energy neutrinos are detected. On its basis, the NT-200+ neutrino telescope with an increased effective volume is being created, the construction of which is expected to be completed no earlier than 2017.

The first dives of manned submersibles on Baikal were made in 1977, when the bottom of the lake was explored on the deep-sea submersible "Pices" of Canadian production. In Listvenichny Bay, a depth of 1,410 meters was reached. In 1991, the Pisis sank to a depth of 1,637 meters from the eastern side of Olkhon.

In the summer of 2008, the Foundation for Assistance to the Preservation of Lake Baikal carried out a scientific research expedition “Mira” on Baikal. 52 deep-sea manned submersibles “Mir” were dived to the bottom of Lake Baikal. Scientists delivered water samples, soil and microorganisms raised from the bottom of Lake Baikal

In 1966, production began at the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM), as a result of which the adjacent bottom areas of the lake began to degrade. Dust and gas emissions have a negative impact on the taiga around the BPPM, dry tops and drying of the forest are noted. In September 2008, the plant introduced a closed water circulation system designed to reduce the discharge of wash water. According to the source, the system turned out to be inoperable and less than a month after its launch, the plant had to be stopped.

There are many legends associated with. The most fascinating of them is connected with the Angara River:
In the old days, the mighty Baikal was cheerful and kind. He deeply loved his only daughter Angara. She was not more beautiful on earth. During the day it is light - lighter than the sky, at night it is dark - darker than the clouds. And whoever rode past the Angara, everyone admired her, everyone praised her. Even migratory birds: geese, swans, cranes - descended low, but rarely landed on the water of the Angara. They said: “Is it possible to blacken light?”

Old man Baikal took care of his daughter more than his heart. Once, when Baikal fell asleep, Angara rushed to run to the young Yenisei. Father woke up, angrily splashed waves. A fierce storm arose, mountains sobbed, forests fell, the sky turned black from grief, animals fled in fear all over the earth, fish dived to the very bottom, birds flew away to the sun. Only the wind howled, and the heroic sea raged. Mighty Baikal hit the gray-haired mountain, broke off a rock from it and threw it after the fleeing daughter. The rock fell on the very throat of the beauty. The blue-eyed Angara pleaded, panting and sobbing, and began to ask:

“Father, I am dying of thirst, forgive me and give me at least one drop of water.”

Baikal shouted angrily:

“I can only give my tears!”

For thousands of years, the Angara has been flowing into the Yenisei with water-tear, and the gray-haired lonely Baikal has become gloomy and scary. The rock that Baikal threw after his daughter was called by people the Shaman stone. Rich sacrifices were made to Baikal there. People said: “Baikal will be angry, it will tear off the Shaman stone, the water will gush and flood the whole earth.” Currently, the river is blocked by a dam, so only the top of the shaman stone is visible from the water.

There is a legend among the people about the creation of Baikal "The Lord looked: the unkind land came out ... no matter how she began to be offended by him! And so that she would not hold a grudge, he took and waved her not some kind of foot mat, but the very measure of his generosity, which he measured how much to be from him. The measure fell and turned into Baikal.