Lake Baikal is a freshwater lake, more than 2,000 kilometers away from the ocean, but there are marine life in it, why?

When it comes to the oldest lake in the history of the world, which one will be the first impression in everyone's mind? What many people don't know is that, among all the lakes on the planet today, Lake Baikal, which was formed about 25 million years ago, is not the largest lake on the planet, but it is definitely the oldest.

And it is clearly a freshwater lake, and now it is more than 2,000 kilometers away from the ocean, but there are still marine creatures in Lake Baikal, which is even more incomprehensible. In this regard, people can't help but ask, why are there marine life in Lake Baikal? What are these sea creatures? How did they get to Lake Baikal? How long can Lake Baikal survive?

Baikal

Before understanding the above issues, we can first understand the relevant information of Lake Baikal. According to the data, a strong earthquake occurred after the collision of the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate about 25 million years ago. Because of changes in geological movements, Lake Baikal finally appeared in southern Eastern Siberia.

Since then, the lake has become the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world. In our ancient China, the ancients always called Lake Baikal the North Sea. Although there is still a certain gap with the real ocean, for the people of that era, the vastness of Lake Baikal was shocking enough, and it was actually not much different from the ocean.

Of course, it is precisely because of the existence of Lake Baikal that the northern minorities have a relatively stable area of ​​activity. During the Qing Dynasty, although the Qing government also controlled the Lake Baikal area for a short time, this area was finally ceded to Tsarist Russia because of the signing of the Treaty of Nerchinsk.

In modern society, it has become the most important fishing ground in southeastern Russia, and it also has a great impact on the climate of the entire southeastern region.

In fact, although Lake Baikal is not the largest lake on earth, it is the deepest lake in the world. Except for the deepest depth of 1637 meters, the average water depth has reached 730 meters. Compared with other lakes, it is definitely a very scary data.

Not only that, in terms of freshwater reserves, only Lake Baikal has eight times the freshwater reserves of my country, accounting for one-fifth of the world.

This shows how abundant the water resources here are. Perhaps it is precisely because of such abundant water resources that many incredible things will eventually happen to Lake Baikal. Taking marine life as an example, if it were replaced by other lakes, it is very likely that it would disappear into the long river of history early.

guesswork and substance

So why are there marine life in Lake Baikal? You must know that according to rumors, Lake Baikal is not only inhabited by common marine creatures such as seals and sponges, but even many sharks.

In this regard, scientists initially judged that when Lake Baikal was just formed, its actual area was larger than it is now, and it was not a lake, but a real ocean. Especially in the eastern part of Lake Baikal, there is even an even more vast Baikal Sea.

It’s just that with the passage of time, the earth’s crust continued to change, and the Outer Baikal Sea gradually lost contact with the Inner Baikal Sea and disappeared, while the inner Baikal Lake, after a long period of rain erosion and dilution of the river water, finally became fresh water. lake. Like the marine creatures living in Lake Baikal today, it is precisely after the transformation of Lake Baikal from "ocean" to freshwater lake that they gradually adapted to the living environment of the freshwater lake and have been living here all the time.

Scientists in the past have always agreed with this statement. However, with the continuous development of human geology, geologists have found that there are no sedimentary rocks of the old era in Lake Baikal at all, only sedimentary rock layers of the Cenozoic era. And this also means that Lake Baikal has already appeared after the crustal fracture activity, and has never experienced the marine period, and naturally there will be no so-called biological evolution and adaptation process. But in this case, what happened to the marine life in Lake Baikal?

In fact, the reason why there are marine life in Lake Baikal, we have to start with different marine life. Like the sponges in Lake Baikal, they are completely freshwater species and have nothing to do with the sponges in the ocean. The so-called existence of sharks also refers to a large-headed fish in Lake Baikal called Dufu. This fish has a large and flat head and looks slightly similar to sharks, but it also has nothing to do with sharks.

However, it is worth mentioning that the Baikal seals and Omur fish that exist in Lake Baikal are indeed related to marine life. So how did these two marine creatures arrive at Lake Baikal?

travel back

In fact, after the original theory of natural evolution of organisms (that is, seals adapting to the change from saltwater lakes to freshwater lakes) was expelled, biologists have been thinking about how these marine creatures should reach Lake Baikal, after all, it is a foot away from the ocean. More than 2000 kilometers.

Even we humans, with the help of modern means of transportation, take a certain amount of time to get there. After analyzing the rivers around Lake Baikal, it was found that as many as 336 water resources in Lake Baikal flow into the rivers, and the Yenisei River connects the Arctic Ocean and Lake Baikal.

You must know that this river is not only the largest river in Russia, but also the eighth longest river in the world, with a total length of 53.39 million kilometers, connecting many rivers and lakes in Russia. It is under such circumstances that when the seals entered Russia from the entrance of the Yenisei River, which is connected to the Arctic Ocean in northern Russia, after a long upstream journey, they finally successfully arrived from the Angara River, a tributary of the Yenisei River. into Lake Baikal.

It is clearly a marine creature, why did these seals not choose to return to the Arctic Ocean in the end? After arriving at Lake Baikal, how did these "uninvited guests" from the Arctic Ocean adapt to life in Lake Baikal? In fact, the answer is very simple, that is: "It was good when you came, and you can't go back." When the seals took advantage of the ice age and the flow of the river to reach Lake Baikal, the ice age ended and the channel of the Yenisei River narrowed. It is simply unrealistic to return to the Arctic Ocean after going through all kinds of difficulties. Because of this, they finally had to choose to stay in Lake Baikal to live, and as time passed, they gradually adapted to freshwater life and became the famous Baikal seals in Lake Baikal.

How long can Lake Baikal survive?

It is worth mentioning that among the many wonders of Lake Baikal, marine life is only one of them. As the largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Baikal can even feed 5 billion people alone for half a century. In this regard, people can not help but worry, since Lake Baikal is so important, is it possible that it will disappear in the future? Judging from the current development status of Lake Baikal, how long can this lake exist? You must know that taking our country as an example, many natural lakes quietly disappear every year.

In particular, according to the data released at the first national inland lake and Poyang lake sustainable development seminar held in Jiangxi in 2005, during the past 50 years of development, my country has reduced about 1,000 inland lakes.

The main reason for such a situation is that human beings are destroying lakes more and more seriously for production activities. So, will Lake Baikal face the same experience?

In fact, people don't have to worry about this at all. The first is the water storage capacity of Lake Baikal, which is by no means comparable to that of ordinary lakes. According to scientists' calculations, even if Lake Baikal suddenly does not have any tributaries flowing into the water resources, Lake Baikal can last at least 400 years, which is long enough for human beings to carry out many rescue operations.

Secondly, as long as human beings do not have the mentality of destruction, even if various production activities are carried out in the Lake Baikal region, the strong carrying capacity of Lake Baikal is completely acceptable.

It’s just that people like Baikal seals, which are unique to Lake Baikal, should be protected by humans. After all, the carrying capacity of lakes will not provide any bonuses for these creatures.