This is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Its depth is 1637 meters.
Situated the most deep lake in the world almost in the center of the vast continent of Eurasia. Baikal is 636 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide.
Lake Baikal water makes up 20% of all reserves fresh water in the world, and 90% in Russia. Baikal is also the cleanest lake in the world. Due to the activity of living microorganisms living in it, the water is slightly mineralized (practically distilled), which explains its crystal transparency. In spring, the transparency of the water reaches 40 meters.
Feeds on the deepest lake in the world three hundred thirty-six permanent rivers and streams. The most big river, flowing into Lake Baikal, the Selenga River. Only one river flows out of the lake - the Angara. Thus, Baikal is the richest lake and the largest fresh water storage in the world.
The animal is very diverse and vegetable world the deepest lake in the world. Whitefish, lenok, taimen are found here - representatives of the salmon family. Sturgeon, grayling, pike, carp, catfish, cod, perch and many other families of fish. Seals are also found here, which are the only representatives of mammals in the lake. In autumn, on the rocky shores, you can see many of these Baikal seals.
The seal is not the only inhabitant of the coast, many gulls, mergansers, gogols, scooters, ogars, white-tailed eagles, osprey and other birds nest on the coast and on the islands.
Lake Baikal attracts numerous tourists from all over the world with its beauty and amazingness. Infrastructure, recreation centers, hotels are widely developing on the shores of Lake Baikal.
Lake Baikal is a natural heritage not only of Russia, but of the whole world, therefore we must protect it, preserve its pristine origin. Baikal opens up to us many beautiful landscapes, looking at which will take your breath away ...
In the most big country the world's deepest lake, its name is Baikal. More than one volume of books is devoted to this lake; legends are made about this lake. Every year tourists come to admire the beauty of Lake Baikal, researchers do not ignore the lake, do not forget about the national heritage of politics. Expeditions are regularly assembled in these places, ending with the most interesting discoveries.
Dimensions of Baikal
To walk along the bottom of the deepest lake in the world, you have to descend to a depth of 1642 meters - this is the lowest point of Lake Baikal. The average value is 744 meters. You can't go around Baikal on foot, the narrowest part of the lake is 24 km, and the widest is 79 km, and the total length of the coast is 2 thousand 100 meters.
If you add two countries, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, you can get an area equal to the area of Lake Baikal.
The reservoir seems to be buried in the arms of mountain ranges. Moreover, if in the western part the coast is literally lined with a fence of rocks, then the relief of the eastern one is significantly softened.
Water volume
No other lake contains so much fresh water. Just think about these figures - 23 thousand 615 km3 - this is a fifth of all world reserves.
Baikal is second only to the Caspian Sea in terms of the volume of water reserves. If we take water from the five Great Lakes - Upper, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario and pour it into one giant vat, we still won't get Baikal. It is so roomy!
The lake is amazing pure water- 40 cm water surface allows you to see the contents of the bottom.
The origin of the lake
The deepest lake in the world keeps the secret of its origin - scientists still do not know how old it is or where it was formed from. An approximate estimate of the age of Lake Baikal is about thirty million years. And even in this it is unique! Usually, the lifespan of glacial lakes is no more than 15 thousand years, then they die under silty sediments.
But not everyone agrees with the multimillion-dollar age of Lake Baikal, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Alexander Tatarinov is ready to argue with his colleagues. According to his calculations, the lake is no more than 150 thousand years old.
Flora and fauna
Surprisingly, new species of living organisms are still being discovered that inhabit the deepest lake in the world. On this moment known about two thousand six hundred species of animals, and just over two thousand - plants. Presumably, this is no more than 80% of the entire world of flora and fauna of Lake Baikal.
Baikal is fully populated - both on the surface and in the depths. Moreover, almost half of all creatures inhabiting the reservoir can not be found anywhere else. Most of the animals, and slightly less than half of the plants, are endemic. The lake has become home to two hundred species of birds, 58 species of fish.
A unique animal lives here - the Baikal seal. This typical inhabitant of the seas, most likely during the Ice Age, sailed to these places from the Arctic Ocean and since then has settled here. At the moment, there are several tens of thousands of seals in the lake.
Baikal ice
Every year, in winter, Lake Baikal is covered with an ice cover up to one and a half meters thick. The uniqueness of the Baikal ice is that, firstly, it is surprisingly transparent, and secondly, sokui - hills of ice - appear on the surface. These hollow cones can be up to six meters in height.
Another mystery that scientists are wrestling with is that circles form on the ice of the deepest lake - they can be clearly seen on satellite images. Every year they appear in a new place, with what this is connected, scientists have yet to find out.
Legends and myths
Local residents respect the lake: they believe that Baikal is a living creature, which must be handled extremely carefully, not to please anyone who will anger a powerful healer.
According to one of the legends, 336 sons-rivers flowed into the waters of Father Baikal, and Angara - his only daughter. Thus, they replenished his water. And it was so until a bright feeling settled in the daughter's heart. And the course of the river turned back, Angara began to give the waters of her father to her beloved Yenisei. The angry father with curses threw a piece of rock into the Angara. Since then, the Shaman-stone has been at the source of the Angara.
And people still believe that if the priest of Lake Baikal is angry, he will rip the Shaman stone from its place, water will rush and flood everything around. Currently, a dam has been built on the Angara, so only the top of the Shaman Stone is visible.
Each of us has seen the lake at least once in our life. Most likely, it was small, warm, with silted banks and a modest selection of fish. But these natural reservoirs may be different.
Quite different. So large that the opposite shore is lost in the distance. So huge that they can belong to several states. So deep that the devil himself does not know what is going on at his bottom. We don't know about you, but we would be interested to know more about them, and most importantly, to understand where the deepest lake in the world is.
Baikal
And first of all, we want to please all patriots of Russia. After all, the deepest and cleanest lake in the world is our Baikal. We know about it, but we know it somehow abstractly. And in order to better understand the scale of this unique natural site, we will give a few numbers:
- The maximum depth of Baikal is 1642 meters. Not every sea can boast of this.
- The average depth is 744 meters. Likewise.
- The mirror area is 31,700 square meters. This is approximately equal to the territory of the Netherlands or Belgium.
- The volume is about 23.6 million cubic meters. This represents about 19% of all freshwater reserves.
- Above, in and near Lake Baikal, there are about 2600 species, more than half of which are not found anywhere else.
- One liter of Baikal water contains about 96 milligrams of impurities and a lot of oxygen. It is so pure that it can be used as a distillate.
This list can be continued for a few more pages, because there is no such lake on the planet, and, apparently, there will never be any more. But there are others.
it african lake takes an honorable second place in our rating, slightly inferior to Baikal in depth - 1470 meters maximum and 570 meters average. But on the other hand, it is considered the longest lake, stretching in a crescent for 676 kilometers. As a result, its shores were divided among themselves by 4 states: Tanzania, Burundi, Zambia and Congo. Fortunately, there is enough water, fish and other useful things for everyone. True, in exchange it is not that ungrateful residents pour waste, sewage and sewage into it.
It's good that the drains are not visible
Therefore, if you want to swim in the waters of Tanganyika, then you should do it as soon as possible. And it's better to hurry, because freshwater lake boasts very clean and warm water, beautiful landscapes and an abundance of animals ranging from all kinds of fish to hippos and alligators.
East
We thought for a long time where to put this extraordinary lake. Its maximum depth is 1200 meters (presumably). But it is separated from the surface by more than 4 kilometers of ice! The fact is that it is located in Antarctica and is the largest and deepest underwater lake on the ground.
Its study has been going on for several years, but until now scientists have not been able to overcome the ice sheet and get to the water. It is not difficult to explain such interest, because the lake was separated from our world for millions of years, and its ecosystem (if any) developed in isolation from the whole world.
Most of all scientists are interested in whether there is life in this deepest lake. First, it is interesting what kind of species it could take over millions of years of independent evolution. And secondly, the very fact of its discovery will significantly increase our chances of finding another habitable planet. The fact is that similar sub-ice water reservoirs have several satellites of Jupiter. And if life has been able to adapt to Lake Vostok, it will be able to catch on there too.
The data obtained to date do not allow us to confidently confirm or deny the existence of living organisms in the waters of the East. Drilling will continue this year. Perhaps then scientists will be able to obtain more accurate data.
Don't be surprised what the sea does in the competition for the title of "deepest lake". It is called the sea only because of its impressive size, because it has no connection with the oceans of the world. On the other hand, unlike most lakes, the Caspian has salt water, from 0.5 to 13 ‰.
Well, why not the sea?
The Caspian has honestly earned the fourth place on our list due to its maximum depth of 1,025 meters. The average, however, is less - about 200. Nevertheless, this lake is one of the few that have a depth of more than a kilometer at maximum points. All the rest, even the next in the ranking San Martin, boasts only 836 meters.
At this point, we believe that we have answered the question of what is the deepest lake and we can finish our article.
For some people, the word lake itself is associated with a shallow body of water that is suitable for floundering in the water and is safe even for children. But in fact, the lakes can be huge in size, and their depth can be completely fantastic.
Not all lakes are very deep - the most impressive in this respect are reservoirs of tectonic origin, that is, those located at the site of cracks, faults in the earth's crust, and as an example here we can cite the same Baikal. Lakes located in the lowlands are usually shallower, but with a larger area. Within the framework of this article, information will be provided about the deepest lakes on the planet, which are definitely worth paying attention to.
Fifth place - San Martin
This body of water is located in Patagonia, and its very location is already interesting. It is located between Chile and Argentina, right on the border of these countries, at an altitude of about 250 m. The mirror surface is 1058 square meters. km in area, the reservoir has a depth of 836 meters... For the entire continent of South America, it is considered the deepest, and it also has two names. San Martin is a name relevant to Argentina, while in Chile its name sounds like Oh Higgins. Cold streams from the mountains, which are formed during the melting of glaciers, flow into this reservoir, and only one more or less large river, the Mayer. The waters leave this lake through the Pasqua River, which flows straight into Pacific Ocean... Since the water gets small stone deposits, which are brought with the waters from the glaciers, the water here has a specific milky hue. As a result, minerals settle at the bottom of this reservoir.
Fourth place - the Caspian Sea
It would seem, where did the sea come from in the article about lakes? But this is no coincidence. It is worth knowing that The Caspian Sea is a lake, just salty, because it has no outlet to the ocean, neither direct nor across other seas. Although at the bottom of it is the oceanic crust. Perhaps, sometime in the past, the water level was higher, and the Caspian Sea, together with the Aral Sea, joined the Black Sea, forming a common basin. This could very well be.
But at the moment this lake, separated by a chain of the Caucasus Mountains, with an area of 371 thousand km., And with depth reaching 1025 meters... The Volga River and about 130 other rivers flow into this lake. There are a lot of fish and other animals, many inhabitants are found only here. There are also oil and gas deposits under this lake.
Third place - East
This lake is located in Antarctica, and it will be problematic to find it with the naked eye, because it is located under the ice layer. This is the most significant subglacial lake of all that exists in the world, and it owes its name to the nearby Vostok station, which belongs to Russia. According to research, this lake can reach depths of 1200 meters and more, it was discovered relatively recently - it was discovered only in 1996. It was explored through drilling. These studies are extremely important for science, since there is a hypothesis according to which the surface of Jupiter's moons also has similar lakes, in which life may well develop.
Second place - Tanganyika
This lake is the deepest in all of Africa, its depth is 1470 meters... This is a tectonic reservoir located in the depression of the rift zone, and it was found completely by accident. Scientists were looking for the source of the Nile, and found this lake. The Lukuga river flows out of it, and several small rivers flow into it at once. The flora and fauna here is very rich, hippos are found, there are also crocodiles - there were reports that a record-breaking 9-meter crocodile was found here that attacked people (Read our article: the largest species of crocodiles). A huge number of birds also live here.
The deepest lake in the world
The deepest lake in the world is Baikal. The depth of the reservoir is 1642 meters, and perhaps this is not the limit, since tectonic activity in the region is aimed at expanding, deepening the lake due to the divergence of plates. Yes, this is another tectonic body of water. At the moment, Baikal contains 20 percent of the fresh water located on the planet's surface, and Baikal exceeds in volume the entire network of the American Great Lakes combined.
Despite the fact that lakes usually do not heal for more than 15 thousand years, this reservoir has a much longer history, it was formed 25-35 million years ago... It is home to endemic species that are no longer around the world, and the water is particularly clean.
The depth of some lakes can be striking, but even the largest and deepest bodies of water need protection and maintenance of environmental standards. Only in this case they will not become shallow, not polluted, and their flora and fauna will not become impoverished. Unique natural objects must remain in the world, and every possible effort must be made for this.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Lakes are a beautiful invention of nature. They are salty and fresh, huge in area and depth, long, of different colors and transparency. Some lakes on the planet are larger than seas. Lakes store almost 2/3 of the world's fresh water. But this rating is dedicated to the deepest lakes in the world.
Baikal
The deepest lake in the world is located on the territory Russian Federation... Every resident of Russia heard about him. This is the famous Lake Baikal, which is under the protection of UNESCO. Of course, Baikal is considered at the same time the most big lake Russia and Eurasia. The depth of this Siberian miracle is 1 km 642 meters. Even average depth the lake is quite large, more than 700 m. The lake in the Irkutsk region takes the 7th place in the world in terms of area. Baikal - fresh lake tectonic origin. The approximate age of the lake is 30 million years. It is fed from more than 300 sources, but only the Angara River flows out of it. It contains more than 1/5 of all the planet's fresh water.
Tanganyika
The second place is occupied by the deepest lake in Africa - Tanganyika. This lake is also considered the longest in the world. It is located in Tanzania, Congo, Burundi and Zambia. The origin of the lake is tectonic; along the bottom, the lake is divided into 2 large hollows. The greatest depth is 1 km 470 meters. According to the research of scientists 12 thousand years ago the lake was shallower by 300 meters. At the moment, the lake is used for fishing, because there are more than 200 species of fish in it.
East
This place belongs to a frozen lake in Antarctica called Vostok. The lake was discovered by Russian scientists near Vostok station. To get to the surface of the lake, it was necessary to drill a well 4 km away for 20 years. Maximum depth ancient lake 1, 2 km. It is assumed that the lake contains the oldest microorganisms in the waters.
Caspian Sea
The fourth position is taken by the Russian salt Lake called the Caspian Sea. Its depth is just over 1 km. The bottom of the lake has an oceanic structure. The lake is home to unique species of fish and animals that are not found anywhere else on the planet. There are many sturgeon species and seals. The borders of the Caspian Sea pass through several other countries: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Azerbaijan. The lake is an important economic site, where oil and gas production is carried out. The lake is conventionally divided into 3 parts, and Northern part has a depth of no more than 25 meters.
San Martin
San Martin is the 5th deepest lake, considered the deepest in South America... Part of the lake is located in Chile, and part in Argentina. The depth of the lake is 836 meters. The lake has an uneven shape and is fed by glacial waters.
Nyasa
On the 6th place is Lake Nyasa on the territory of the African states of Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania. The depth is just over 700 meters. Scientists believe that 100,000 years ago the lake was at least 100 meters deeper.
Issyk Kul
This place is occupied by a lake Central Asia, 702 meters deep - Issyk Kul. It is located on the territory of Kyrgyzstan. This lake is a historically significant place. Here was the camp of Tamerlane and ancient civilization... The lake, despite the absence of salts, does not freeze even in winter. The water here is clean and clear.
Canadian lake
The eighth position is occupied by a Canadian lake, which is located on the border with North America- A large slave lake with a depth of 614 meters. Gold mining is carried out on the lake. Most the lake is under a thick layer of ice.
Crater
Crater Lake Crater with a depth of almost 600 meters is in 9th place. The lake is located in the United States, at the site of a destroyed volcano.
Mutano and Glacial Lake
In the last position of the TOP-10 there are 2 lakes at once. Their depth is 590 meters. This is Lake Mutano in Indonesia and glacial lake Buenos Aires.
