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Baikal:
the world's deepest lake
General
Information about Baikal
•
Lake Baikal is located in the south of Eastern Siberia, in the
Buryat Autonomous Republic and the Region of Irkutsk, Russia.
• It covers 31,500 sq. km and is 636 km. long, an average
of 48 km wide, and 79.4 km at its widest point.
• Its water basin occupies about 557,000 sq. km. and contains
about 23,000 cu. km. of water, that is, about one fifth of the
world's reserves of fresh surface-water and over 80 per cent
of the fresh water in the former Soviet Union.
• The average water level in the lake is never |
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higher than 456 m.
• The Baikal is the deepest lake in the world.
• Its average depth is 730 m. and its maximum depth in
the middle - 1,620 m. |
Interesting
facts
Lake Baikal's beauty is exceptional, and so is the beauty of the
area surrounding it.
Scientists
are still debating the lake's origin. Some are trying to prove
that it emerged as a result of tectonic processes of orogenesis,
while others consider it as having been formed as a result
of the earth's crust gradually subsiding. So far nobody has
been proved right.
It
would take all the rivers of the world - Volga, Don, Dneper
and Yenisei, Ural and Ob, Ganges and Orinoko, Amazon and |
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| Thames,
Seine and Oder - nearly one year to fill lake Baikal's basin.
It would take four hundred years for all the rivers, streams
and brooks now flowing into the Siberian lake-sea to perform
the task. |
The
Baikal area is a veritable treasure trove of mineral resources.
Sables thrive in the region's taiga; valuable fur animals live in
the surrounding mountains and valleys; and birds and fish abound
in the forests and rivers of the area. The nearby Dauro-Mongolian
steppes are very fertile. There are hot springs in the vicinity
of Lake Baikal, the water of which is of excellent quality. The
lake acts as a powerful generator and biofilter producing this water.
Compared
to the surrounding area, winter is milder and summer cooler
on Lake Baikal. The average air temperature is about -19 C
in January and February and about +11 C in August. The surface-water
temperature on the open part of the lake in August is +9 to
12 C, and near the shore it is sometimes as high as +20 C.
Lake
Baikal usually freezes in January and the ice breaks in May.
The ice is 70-115 cm. thick. The average annual |
Water
temperature in Lake Baikal. |
| precipitation
in the middle and the north of Baikal is 200-350 mm.; it is
500-900 mm. in the south. |
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Buryat
Idols
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Wild
Russia / Neizvedanny Mir Company
Saint Petersburg, Fontanka embankment, 59
+7
812 703-3215
+7
812 703-3216
+7
812 703-3249
Email:
info@wildrussia.spb.ru
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