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Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is a great nature monument, unrivaled in the world. This remote lake in the Asian part of Russia lies embedded among steep mountain ranges and dense taiga. What are peculiarities of Baikal that accounts for its unique position among millions of other lakes?

To answer this question, some figures should be referred to.

Baikal is one of the greatest lakes in the world and a very large freshwater basin. Its length is 636 km (395 miles), and water surface area, 31,500 sq. km (12,200 sq. miles). It is 1.7 times as great as Lake Ladoga, the largest in Europe, and ranks sixth among fresh water lakes of the world, but Baikal is the world's deepest one. Its maximum death is 1,637 m (5,371 feet) compared to 1,435 m (4,708 feet) for Tanganyika, 1,025 m (3,363 feet) for the Caspian Sea.

In terms of water resources, this is the greatest freshwater lake of the world. Its volume is 23,600 cu. km (5,700 cu. miles), or 20% of the lake fresh water on the earth. There is more water in Baikal than in the Great Lakes. About 336 rivers and rivulets flows into Baikal but only the Angara river drains out of it.

The Baikak water is very pure. In some cases it might be very well used instead of distilled water.

The purity of water determines its transparency. The striking transparency of the Baikal water has become a legend. The lake is not only the purest but also the most transparent one in the world. In spring, when Baikal is free from ice, the water reaches 40 m (131 feet) which is tens of times greater than in many other lakes.

The most surprising feature of Lake Baikal is its age. Considering the relict endemism of its fauna, the majority of the researches estimate its age at 20 to 30 million years.

The unique physico-geographic characteristics of Lake Baikal account for the unusual diversity of its animal and plant species. The water bulk is inhabited by approximately 1085 plant species and 1550 animal ones. Among the 52 fish species of the lake omul, grayling, lake white fish are of the basic marketable importance. At the top of the food pyramid of the lake ecosystem is Baikal seal (Phoca sibirica), a typical sea mammal.

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