Lake Baikal

About Lake Baikal

• Location: Lake Baikal is located in southern Siberia, Russia, between Irkutsk Oblast and the Republic of Buryatia, near the border with Mongolia.
• Origin: It is a tectonic rift lake formed within the active Baikal Rift Zone, where the Earth’s crust is pulling apart.
  • So, it is a rift lake.
• It is the world’s deepest and largest freshwater lake by volume.
• Age and Clarity: It is the world’s oldest lake, with an age of about 25–30 million years, and it is among the clearest lakes in the world.
• Surface Area: It is the seventh-largest lake in the world by surface area.
• Drainage System:
  • Inflowing Rivers: More than 330 rivers and streams, including the Selenga, Barguzin, Upper Angara, and Sarma, drain into Lake Baikal.
  • Outflowing River: The Angara River is the lake’s only outlet and a major tributary of the Yenisey River.
• Islands: The lake contains 27–45 islands and islets, and Olkhon is the largest island.
• Ecology and Biodiversity: More than 3,000 plant and animal species live here, including the Baikal Seal, with a high degree of endemism.
  • “Galapagos of Russia”: Lake Baikal is known as the “Galapagos of Russia” because its great age and long isolation have created one of the world’s richest and most unusual freshwater faunas.
• Importance: It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 and hosts the Baikal-GVD underwater neutrino telescope.