The Deepest Lake In The World

There is a lake in the middle of Asia that contains one-fifth of the world's liquid freshwater—more than all five Great Lakes combined. Even if all the rivers on Earth suddenly changed course and set out to empty this lake, it would take them a full year to do so. The lake is called Lake Baikal, and if you decide to travel all the way down to its lowest point, be prepared to descend nearly 5,400 feet. The rift floor of the lake is far deeper than the Challenger, perhaps five or seven miles below the surface, so the descent takes many hours. The water in Deep, the lowest location on Earth known to science, is sufficient to provide drinking water for every person on the planet for up to 50 years. This mighty mammoth of a lake refills itself entirely every 383 years.

Baikal is well-served by more than 300 rivers and streams that feed directly into it. The sole river that emerges from Bal is the Angara, which runs directly into the Arctic Ocean. Baikal is home to the world's oldest and deepest freshwater lake. The lake and the surrounding mountains were formed at least 25 million years ago when the Earth's crust chose to play Tetris. Originally, Baikal must have been just a small riverbed, but after earthquakes and fractures caused the earth to tremble and the distance between the shores to increase, several lakes formed and eventually merged into one.

Baikal is one of about 20 lakes in the world that are older than a million years, and because it wasn't affected by glacial periods, it makes an ideal research site for scientists. The deep drilled core sediments of the lake, which is still growing in size and deepening, can reveal a great deal about the climate of our planet at different times.

Africa and South America are getting farther apart, so they could eventually merge to form an ocean. Another similarity between Baikal and the oceans is that even at its lowest depths, its water is rich in oxygen. This is one of the reasons why the lake's fauna is so incredibly rich; it is home to over 2,500 different species of animals and 1,000 different plant varieties, about half of which are unique to this region, such as the endemic algae, Baikal fish, and Baikal oil fish. Bears, elk, and links also live on the lake's shores, but they must recognize that the temperatures there are always higher than the remainder of Siberia because of its vast water mass, while most Baikal dwellers prefer to stay near the lake's bottom, there is one brave guy you will meet if you decide to go there, the world's only true freshwater seal, also known as Nerpa. Nerpa's eyes are so adorable that they almost made her a part of Puss in Boots in Shrek. These enormous eyes help them follow their favorite pelagic fish underwater. Some seal species can handle freshwater or use it for breathing, but these adorable seals spend their entire lives in it. But wait—how did seals, which are supposed to be oceanic creatures, end up there in the first place?

The ringed seal, which is still alive in the Arctic, is thought to be the closest ancestor of the Baikal seal. Today, Baikal seals are restricted to their freshwater home due to changes in waterways. Despite being miles away from the sea, these adventurous creatures travelled up rivers and drainage systems that connected Lake Baikal to the Arctic Ocean approximately 400,000 years ago during the pine era. The seals mostly hang out in the north and central areas of the lake but move south in the winter when the lake gets covered in ice, which they use as a chill. Similar to their Oceanic cousins, Zone uses rocks or the beach. Since at least 1969, Lake Baikal has seen some mysterious ice rings appear randomly here and there. At one point, the rings grew to such a size that astronauts even saw them from space. Scientists couldn't figure out how these rings form for a while; the most popular theory involved methane gas bubbles rising from the Lake's depths. The waters of the lake are so clear that you can see some extremely deep parts down to over 130 feet. This is because the surrounding mountains sendoff melting ice right into the lake, which helps. Baikal drilled holes in the ice and dropped sensors into the water in 2016, when they started the research, they heard that two Vans had gotten stuck in the mysterious ice rings. Once they analyzed the data from the sensors, it turned out that the secret behind the Rings was warm Eddies flowing clockwise under its ice cover. The currents were less intense in the center of the eddies, so the ice above them was thicker at the edges. This crystal-clear water gathers up water here, which naturally freezes into the most bizarre designs, cleaning the floating detritus and creating an unusually thick and see-through layer of ice. The wind likes to play sculpture on Baikal, creating unique works of art. You can even see rocks that appear to be floating; the bottom of the rock freezes to the surface of the ice, and then strong winds wear away the surrounding area, leaving a perfect pedestal for the rock. If you think the floating rocks look real, that's because the location and geography of the lakes, as well as the cycles of melting and refreezing, create the ideal conditions for this ice workshop. Unsettling about Baikal's interpretation of the Loch Ness Monster? The native Baikal people also known as Buryat people, tell stories of the water dragon master who resides in the lake. According to Asian mythology, dragons are the most powerful creatures on Earth, and each of the four seas has a dragon that is responsible for one of the cardinal directions, in this case, the North Sea. The dragon's image is purportedly etched in ancient petroglyphs on the Cliffs of Baikal. There's also a large stone slab that appears to be a monument that dates back to between the third and the ninth century BCE and shows a mysterious water monster. What tales, echoing The Whispers, could this Stone tell?

Local legend describes the dragon as a giant sturgeon with an almost Gator-like snout and armored body. In reality, the mythical monster must be one of the many huge fish living in the lake. They can afford to grow to several feet in length thanks to the high levels of oxygen. The legend leaves us to unravel the mystery of the Baikal Cliffs. It says that a local warrior was chasing the dragon. He finally reached the largest Baikal island of Alon. He was ready to face and defeat the beast, but the beast turned into a beautiful girl and they got married. That's one unusual twist to a classic defeat the dragon and take the girl story. Beluga sturgeon in the water can reach weights of several thousand pounds and live up to fifty or sixty years, growing continuously.