{"id":365935,"date":"2026-06-24T15:35:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=365935"},"modified":"2026-06-24T15:35:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:05:46","slug":"lake-baikal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/lake-baikal\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Baikal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"content-box-green\">\n<p><strong>News:<\/strong>\u00a0Researchers found the oldest-known strains of the plague bacterium in ancient DNA from burial sites near Lake Baikal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"red-h2-box\">About Lake Baikal<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_365942\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-365942\" style=\"width: 258px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-365942\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Source-Britannica-3.jpg?resize=258%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Lake Baikal\" width=\"258\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Source-Britannica-3.jpg?resize=258%2C300&amp;ssl=1 258w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Source-Britannica-3.jpg?w=758&amp;ssl=1 758w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 258px) 100vw, 258px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-365942\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; Britannica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Location:<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Lake Baikal<\/strong> is located in <strong>southern Siberia, Russia<\/strong>, between <strong>Irkutsk Oblast and the Republic of Buryatia,<\/strong> near the <strong>border with Mongolia<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Origin<\/strong>: It is a <strong>tectonic rift lake formed<\/strong> within the <strong>active Baikal Rift Zone,<\/strong> where the <strong>Earth&#8217;s crust is pulling apart.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>So, it is a <strong>rift lake.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It is the <strong>world&#8217;s deepest and largest freshwater lake by volume.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Age and Clarity<\/strong>: It is the <strong>world&#8217;s oldest lake<\/strong>, with an age of about 25\u201330 million years, and it is<strong> among the clearest lakes <\/strong>in the world.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Surface Area:<\/strong> It is the <strong>seventh-largest lake in the world<\/strong> by surface area.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Drainage System:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Inflowing Rivers:<\/strong> More than 330 rivers and streams, including <strong>the Selenga, Barguzin, Upper Angara, and Sarma<\/strong>, drain <strong>into Lake Baikal.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Outflowing River:<\/strong> The <strong>Angara River is the lake&#8217;s only outlet<\/strong> and a <strong>major tributary of the Yenisey River.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Islands<\/strong>: The lake contains 27\u201345 islands and islets, and <strong>Olkhon is the largest island.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Ecology and Biodiversity:<\/strong> More than 3,000 plant and animal species live here, including the <strong>Baikal Seal<\/strong>, with a high degree of endemism.\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<strong>Galapagos of Russia&#8221;:<\/strong>\u00a0Lake Baikal is known as the &#8220;<strong>Galapagos of Russia&#8221; because its great age and long isolation<\/strong> have created one of the world&#8217;s richest and most unusual freshwater faunas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Importance:<\/strong> It was declared a <strong>UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996<\/strong> and hosts the <strong>Baikal-GVD underwater neutrino telescope.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News:\u00a0Researchers found the oldest-known strains of the plague bacterium in ancient DNA from burial sites near Lake Baikal. About Lake Baikal Location:\u00a0Lake 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&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/lake-baikal\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Lake Baikal<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10401,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,11209,12039,11211],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-365935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-geography-in-news","category-knolls","category-places-in-news","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10401"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365935\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}