Lake Baikal Bashny.Net

Flow into Baikal 336 permanent rivers and streams, with half the volume of water entering the lake, brings the Selenga. Flows from the lake only river — Angara.


, Baikal is the deepest lake in the world. Not everyone knows that the world's second contender for the title, the African lake Tanganika, behind leader at целых200 meters. At lake Baikal 30 Islands, the largest island of Olkhon.


Usually in the literature the age of the lake 20-25 million years. Actually, the question about the age of Baikal should be considered open, since the use of different methods of age determination gives values from 20-30 millions to several tens of thousands of years. Apparently, the first estimate is closer to the truth — Baikal is in fact a very ancient lake. Assuming the age of lake Baikal is really tens of millions of years, it is the oldest lake on Earth.It is believed that Baykal was the result of the action of tectonic forces. Tectonic processes are present, which is manifested in high seismic activity of the Baikal region.


The exclusivity of many physico-geographical features of the lake was the reason for the extraordinary diversity of its flora and fauna. And in this respect he has no equal among freshwater reservoirs in the world. In Baikal there are more than 2600 species and varieties of animals and over 1000 species of plant organisms. From time to time introduce new species. There is reason to believe that at the present time known to science only 70-80% of species of living organisms inhabiting the water of lake Baikal.


The lake has 58 species of fish. The most famous — omul, whitefish, grayling, trout, sturgeon, golomyanka, lenok. On the coast of lake Baikal grows about 2000 species of plants. Breeds on the shores of the 200 species of birds. In the Baikal meets the unique, typically sea mammal — Baikal seal. It is assumed that she came into Baikal from the Arctic ocean in the glacial period on the Yenisei and Angara.




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