Lake Baikal

"Baykal" redirects here. For other uses, see Baykal (disambiguation).

Lake Baikal
  • Озеро Байкал (Russian)
  • Байгал далай (Buryat)
Satellite photo of Baikal, 2001
Lake Baikal is located in Republic of Buryatia
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is located in Irkutsk Oblast
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal is located in Russia
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal
LocationSiberia, Russia
Coordinates53°30′N 108°0′E / 53.500°N 108.000°E / 53.500; 108.000
Lake typeAncient lake, Continental rift lake
Primary inflowsSelenga, Barguzin, Upper Angara
Primary outflowsAngara
Catchment area560,000 km2 (216,000 sq mi)
Basin countriesMongolia and Russia
Max. length636 km (395 mi)
Max. width79 km (49 mi)
Surface area31,722 km2 (12,248 sq mi)[1]
Average depth744.4 m (2,442 ft; 407.0 fathoms)[1]
Max. depth1,642 m (5,387 ft; 898 fathoms)[1]
Water volume23,610 km3 (5,660 cu mi)[1]
Residence time330 years[2]
Shore length12,100 km (1,300 mi)
Surface elevation455.5 m (1,494 ft)
FrozenJanuary–May
Islands27 (Olkhon Island)
SettlementsSeverobaykalsk, Slyudyanka, Baykalsk, Ust-Barguzin
CriteriaNatural: vii, viii, ix, x
Reference754
Inscription1996 (20th Session)
Area8,800,000 ha
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Lake Baikal (/baɪˈkɑːl, -ˈkæl/ by-KAHL, -⁠KAL;[3] Russian: Озеро Байкал, romanized: Ozero Baykal [ˈozʲɪrə bɐjˈkaɫ]; Buryat: Байгал далай, romanized: Baigal dalai[4]) is the deepest rift lake in the world. It is situated in southern Siberia, Russia between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Republic of Buryatia to the southeast.

At 31,722 km2 (12,248 sq mi)—slightly larger than Belgium—Lake Baikal is the world's seventh-largest lake by surface area,[5] as well as the second largest lake in Eurasia after the Caspian Sea. However, because it is also the deepest lake,[6] with a maximum depth of 1,642 metres (5,387 feet; 898 fathoms),[1] Lake Baikal is the world's largest freshwater lake by volume, containing 23,615.39 km3 (5,670 cu mi) of water[1] or 22–23% of the world's fresh surface water,[7][8] more than all of the North American Great Lakes combined.[9] It is also the world's oldest lake[10] at 25–30 million years,[11][12] and among the clearest.[13]

Lake Baikal is home to thousands of species of plants and animals, many of them endemic to the region. It is also home to Buryat tribes, who raise goats, camels, cattle, sheep, and horses[14] on the eastern side of the lake,[15] where the mean temperature varies from a winter minimum of −19 °C (−2 °F) to a summer maximum of 14 °C (57 °F).[16] The region to the east of Lake Baikal is referred to as Transbaikalia or as the Transbaikal,[17] and the loosely defined region around the lake itself is sometimes known as Baikalia. UNESCO declared Baikal a World Heritage Site in 1996.[18]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "A new bathymetric map of Lake Baikal. Morphometric Data. INTAS Project 99-1669. Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Consolidated Research Group on Marine Geosciences (CRG-MG), University of Barcelona, Spain; Limnological Institute of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russian Federation; State Science Research Navigation-Hydrographic Institute of the Ministry of Defense, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation". Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
  2. ^ M.A. Grachev. "On the present state of the ecological system of lake Baikal". Limnological Institute, Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 20 August 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
  3. ^ "Baikal". Collins English Dictionary.
  4. ^ Dervla Murphy (2007) Silverland: A Winter Journey Beyond the Urals, London, John Murray, p. 173
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference oddities was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Deepest Lake in the World". geology.com. Retrieved 18 August 2007.
  7. ^ Schwarzenbach, Rene P.; Philip M. Gschwend; Dieter M. Imboden (2003). Environmental Organic Chemistry (2 ed.). Wiley Interscience. p. 1052. ISBN 978-0-471-35053-8.
  8. ^ Tyus, Harold M. (2012). Ecology and Conservation of Fishes. CRC Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-4398-9759-1.
  9. ^ Bright, Michael, ed. (2010). 1001 natural wonders: you must see before you die. preface by Koichiro Mastsuura (2009 ed.). London: Cassell Illustrated. p. 620. ISBN 978-1-84403-674-5.
  10. ^ "Lake Baikal – A Touchstone for Global Change and Rift Studies". United States Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 29 June 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  11. ^ "Lake Baikal – UNESCO World Heritage Centre". Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  12. ^ "Lake Baikal: Protection of a unique ecosystem". ScienceDaily. 26 July 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  13. ^ Jung, J.; Hojnowski, C.; Jenkins, H.; Ortiz, A.; Brinkley, C.; Cadish, L.; Evans, A.; Kissinger, P.; Ordal, L.; Osipova, S.; Smith, A.; Vredeveld, B.; Hodge, T.; Kohler, S.; Rodenhouse, N.; Moore, M. (2004). "Diel vertical migration of zooplankton in Lake Baikal and its relationship to body size" (PDF). In Smirnov, A.I.; Izmest'eva, L.R. (eds.). Ecosystems and Natural Resources of Mountain Regions. Proceedings of the first international symposium on Lake Baikal: The current state of the surface and underground hydrosphere in mountainous areas. "Nauka", Novosibirsk, Russia. pp. 131–140. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
  14. ^ S. Hudgins (2003). The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of Life in Siberia and the Russian Far East. Texas A&M University Press. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
  15. ^ M. Hammer; T. Karafet (1995). "DNA & the peopling of Siberia". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
  16. ^ Fefelov, I.; Tupitsyn, I. (August 2004). "Waders of the Selenga delta, Lake Baikal, eastern Siberia" (PDF). Wader Study Group Bulletin. 104: 66–78. Retrieved 9 August 2009.
  17. ^ Erbajeva, Margarita A.; Khenzykhenova, Fedora I.; Alexeeva, Nadezhda V. (23 January 2013). "Aridization of the Transbaikalia in the context of global events during the Pleistocene and its effect on the evolution of small mammals". Quaternary International. Quaternary interconnections in Eurasia: focus on Eastern Europe SEQS Conference, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, 21–26 June 2010. 284: 45–52. Bibcode:2013QuInt.284...45E. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.12.024. ISSN 1040-6182.
  18. ^ "Lake Baikal – World Heritage Site". World Heritage. Retrieved 13 January 2007.