Again a post about the deepest lake in the world – Baikal Lake. And now not about its steel garbage, but about its beauty and its mysteriousness.
But before some school info to help to understand the lake’s uniqueness. Baikal is the lake of a tectonic origin in the southern part of the Eastern Siberia. The maximal depth is 1 642 meters (about 5 400 feet).
About half a year the lake is icebound. In average the period of freeze-up lasts from 15 January till 1 May. Baikal is navigable only from June till September. The locals as well as many other Russian traditionally call it the Baikal Sea. And it’s not a mistake – Baikal deposits of fresh water are more than in the Great Lakes combined.
There are 336 rivers and streams (speaking only of permanent tributaries) flowing into Baikal and only one river having its source here – the Angara River. Despite rather often severe winters the source of this river has never been frozen. Temperature of water flowing out from the Baikal Lake is about +2 Celsius degrees all the year round.
The photos seem to reproduce some warmness of these places, but indeed they were taken at about -30 degrees and a strong cold wind – weather which forces you to feel the greatness of this place.
By the end of winter Baikal ice is in average about 1 meter thick and its maximal thickness can be twice more in the bays where water is very calm. When it’s freezing extremely hard huge cracks tear ice making separate fields. Such cracks can reach 30 kilometers of length and 2-3 meters of width. They appear each year in approximately the same areas of the lake. While forming they make terrible noise similar to thunder or a cannon shot. The one standing on the ice at this moment can feel like if the ground yawned at his feet. Due to these cracks water is always aerated and fish don’t suffer from the lack of oxygen.
Despite its thickness Baikal ice is rather transparent which allows photosynthesis underwater continue all the year long.
Concerning the long period of freeze-up and the ice thickness Baikal is open in winter and spring for car traffic. But 2-meter cracks can be often covered with snow and car drowning occur rather often here. And still the locals report that earlier children skated over this treacherous ice to shorten their way to school.
Baikal Lake’s ice brings many surprises to the scientists. In the early 1930′s they have discovered unusual forms of ice cover which are found only here – they are a kind of frozen bubbles of a conic shape and 6 meters high, called “sopki” (meaning a hill).
FIRST!
2nd!
4th!!
3rd!
i am 1st and 3rd. I AM SO COOL. fap fap
4th !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Beautiful photos.
5th! I am the best!
I wonder if there are any reports of monsters in Lake Baikal like there is about Loch Ness.
6th. That is an interesting question. These are fantastic photographs btw, thank you for sharing them.
Loch ness monster is nickname of boris mom
Kirov’s not first, Stalin first, heh heh.
Not first but not last)))
Where are the photos of the factories dumping waste to Baikal? Did they really quit polluting the lake after the fall of “Evil Empire”?
Do not think so.
Admin could not post photos with factories dumping waste to Baikal, cuz no such factories exist there.
sure they do
lol go there and show me them, mr. “real kirov”
There’s one factory on Baikal’s banks – Baikalsk paper factory. It still works.
That looks like a nice lake to swim in.
Baikal’s water is too cold to do this even in summer
I was being sarcastic but there is a Russian polar bear club that can handle the water temp in summer and winter.I see them on the news every december swimming in -40′water.
Da, for sure there is. And I want to be in Russian Polar Bear Club.
Enjoy that ice cold water Musa,you Russians are tough people
Thank You, SSSR!
Water like this is so cold it will take your breath away.
We are all tough peoples.
Do you ever think of your ancestors and what they endured and survived that made it possible for us to be here now?
I always think of my grandparents when I visit EnglishRussia.
Sometimes I think about my ancestors.What I think about the most when I visit this site is the Russian people I have talked to and shared things with in my life.
That’s great SSSR.
Average temperature of Baikal’s water during summer is 13C. But in some shallow gulfs it is much warmer and it’s possible to swim there.
Now that is truly beautiful. Wonderful photos.
Nice lake !
So how long before Russia emptys this lake and kills all of the fish ?
I wonder about that myself.
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One of the wonders of the world
I’d like to have such a lake in my backyard. I would have a really huge backyard.
MOSCOW FROM THE HELICOPTER UNIQUE
http://uploading.com/files/a9b9m3f7/Moscow%2BFrom%2BThe%2BBird%2527s%2BSight.rar/
15th There is a wonderfull program I recently watched called wild russia, with one whole episode on this lake. It was very educational and beautiful to watch. I had never even heard of this place before.
I watched a program about the train ride to Baikal, very long days, people played music and got drunk on the train, very cool.
Thank you for the well articulated information and beautiful photos! This is among the best of EnglishRussia!
Russian traditionally call it the Baikal Sea
Great pitcures! So amazingly beautiful!
This lake’s water is NOT equal to the combunes water of the Great Lakes.
Very beautiful, and a great lake.
Is the area around the lake very populated at all? Thanks for the beautiful photos. I’ve always been fascinated by Lake Baikal.
Wow. Very beautiful photos of Baikal.
I have photos of Baikal on my blog about Russia too.