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News: Researchers found the oldest-known strains of the plague bacterium in ancient DNA from burial sites near 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.
