Facts about Baikal Lake!

Based on data provided by Irkutsk Limnological (Lake Studies) Museum (one of the three museums of the kind in the world and the only one in Russia) 

Name: Lake Baikal (however, some geologists make it a point that the Baikal formation process – lithosphere platforms moving away from each other – is typical of ocean geology. This is exactly the way Atlantic and Indian oceans formed) 


Status: In 1997 UNESCO declared the lake to be a part of World Nature Heritage 

 Geological age: 25-30 million years 

 Maximal depth: 1,637 meters (about 1 mile) – the deepest lake on the planet (however, this figure is subject to constant changes, as the basin formation is still underway – quite frequent earthquakes (sometimes as strong as 10 points Richter scale) in the area are suggestive of the process) 

Maximal length: 636 km (395 miles)

 Maximal width: 79.4 km (49 miles) 

 Altitude: 455 metres above sea level 

 Volume: 23,000 m3 of fresh drinking water (if all rivers in the world flowed into the Baikal basin, it would take them a year to fill it completely) 

Contributors: 330 rivers and rivulets when the climate is dry; about 500 of them when the year is rainy or in spring, when the snow in the mountains is melting (the Angara is the only river that flows out of the Baikal) 

Islands on Lake Baikal: 27 (the biggest - Olkhon) 

Flora and fauna: over 3,500 animal and plant species (about 84% of them are endemic, i.e. can only be found in Lake Baikal) 

Meet: 

• Fish of (Amblygobius) bullheads family – their closest relatives can be found in California! 

• Golomyanka (Comephorus dybowskii) – is the only Siberian fish that gives birth to its young (so they do not lay eggs, like all other fish species, but give birth to live little fish, like tropical fishes). Besides, it can live as deep as 1,600 metres. About 44% of body weight is fat, which is used in Tibet medicine to cure rheumatism, atherosklerosis, pestering wounds. Rumour has it, the fish is so transparent for its fat, so if you put golomianka on a book page, you can read through it 

• Baikal sturgeon – they used to catch 100 kilos heavy specimen! These days this fish species is listed in Russian Federation Red Book