Lake Baikal is rightfully considered one of the natural wonders of the world, because it simply has no analogues in the world. The surrounding places are unrealistically beautiful, which is why it is so popular with tourists. In recent years, in addition, an environmental struggle has been launched to stop the pollution of its waters, and we hope that it will lead to success.
Interesting facts about Lake Baikal
- Its area is larger than the area of the whole of Belgium (interesting facts about Belgium).
- Most of the living creatures that live in the waters of Lake Baikal are found nowhere else on Earth – the lake is home to more than 1750 endemic species.
- This is the deepest lake in the world. Its maximum depth reaches 1642 meters.
- The surface of Lake Baikal lies at an altitude of almost half a kilometer above sea level.
- It is the largest reservoir of fresh water in the world. It contains about 19% of all fresh water in the world’s oceans.
- Despite pollution by products of technogenic civilization, Baikal still remains one of the cleanest lakes on the planet.
- In total, its waters about 2600 species of living creatures live.
- Once upon a time, such extinct animals as woolly rhinos and mammoths roamed the shores of Lake Baikal.
- Baikal Cape Ryty is considered by the local population to be a cursed place, which only shamans are allowed to visit.
- The water temperature in Baikal is always quite low, and even in hot summer almost no one bathes in it.
- The famous director James Cameron, who gave the world the films Titanic, Avatar and the first two parts of the Terminator, once celebrated his birthday on the shore of this lake.
- In winter, Baikal freezes, and the ice often cracks, sometimes reaching 25-30 kilometers in length.
- The size of Lake Baikal exceeds the size of some seas.
- It contains about 100 times more water than in the Sea of Azov (interesting facts about the Sea of Azov).
- Mirages sometimes occur over the surface of Lake Baikal.
- 336 rivers and streams flow into this lake, but only one river flows out – the Angara (interesting facts about rivers).
- Fifty different species of fish live in Baikal waters.
- Baikal water can be drunk without preliminary purification. Billions of microscopic crustaceans live in the lake, which clean it in the course of their life.
- Sometimes storms break out in these parts, and then walk on the surface of the great lake waves reaching 4-5 meters in height.
- No one has ever crossed Baikal by swimming due to the too low water temperature in it. In summer, near the surface, the water here warms up only to 8-10 degrees, and in some bays and creeks – up to 20 degrees.
- Baikal waters are very saturated with oxygen, but there are almost no minerals in them (interesting facts about minerals).
- The territories where Lake Baikal is located are often shaken by earthquakes. Sometimes, by the way, quite powerful.
- There are 27 islands in it, including several rather large ones, and one of them is even inhabited.
- Scientists believe that in total Baikal is inhabited by fish of about 150 million tons.
- One of the discovered asteroids was named after Lake Baikal.
- There are seals here. How they got here is a mystery, but it is believed that they sailed here from the Arctic Ocean along the Angara River.
- The length of the Baikal coastline exceeds 2100 kilometers. This is almost twice as long as the total length of the coastlines of the island country of Fiji (interesting facts about Fiji).
- At the bottom of the lake are some of the highest peaks on Earth, more than 7 kilometers high.
- There are more sunny days in the Baikal region than even in the Black Sea region. The sun shines here for 310-320 days annually.
- The highest air temperature ever recorded in these parts was +34 degrees.
- The age of Lake Baikal, according to various estimates, is from 25 to 35 million years, which makes it a record holder – usually lakes exist for 10-15 thousand years, then inevitably drying up or turning into swamps.
- The ancestors of modern people lived on the shores of Lake Baikal more than 4 thousand years ago.
- More than half of all river waters are brought into the lake by the Selenga River, which annually replenishes this huge natural reservoir with 30 cubic kilometers of water.
- After the connection of Baikal with the Irkutsk reservoir, the water level in the lake rose by a whole meter.
- This lake is entirely recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- More than half of all fish caught in Baikal is caught by poachers.
- Locals usually call Baikal not a lake, but by sea.
- The estimated value of all the water of this lake exceeds 230 trillion dollars.