What is the origin of the lake. Origin of Lake Baikal. Age of the Baikal basin. wind and waves

Baikal is a landmark not only of Russia, but of the whole world. This lake attracts many people of the planet not only for its unique beauty but, above all, the unique purity of its waters. Baikal has unique features. It has no equal in the world in terms of age, depth, reserves and properties fresh water diversity and endemism of organic life.

origin of name

In the distant past, the peoples inhabiting the shores of Lake Baikal each called the lake in their own way. The Chinese in ancient chronicles called it "Beihai" - "northern sea", the Evenks called it Lamu - "sea", the Buryat-Mongols - "Baigaal-dalai" - "big reservoir". The origin of the name "Baikal" is not precisely established. The most common version is that "Baikal" is a Turkic-speaking word, comes from "bay" - rich, "kul" - lake, which means "rich lake". The first Russian explorers of Siberia used the Evenki name "Lamu". After Kurbat Ivanov's detachment came to the shore of the lake, the Russians switched to the Buryat name "Baigaal". At the same time, they linguistically adapted it to their language - Baikal, replacing the "g" characteristic of the Buryats with the more familiar "k" for the Russian language.

Age

Baikal is one of the oldest lakes on the planet; scientists determine its age at 25 million years. Most lakes, especially those of glacial and oxbow origin, live for 10-15 thousand years, and then they are filled with sediments and disappear from the face of the Earth. There are no signs of aging on Baikal, like many lakes in the world. On the contrary, research recent years allowed geophysicists to hypothesize that Baikal is a nascent ocean. This is confirmed by the fact that its shores diverge at a speed of up to 2 cm per year, just as the continents of Africa and South America diverge.

Depth

Among the lakes the globe Lake Baikal ranks 1st in depth. On Earth, only 6 lakes have a depth of more than 500 meters. The greatest depth mark in the southern basin of Lake Baikal is 1423 m, in the middle one - 1637 m, in the northern one - 890 m. For comparison, I will give a table:

Baikal depression

The Baikal depression is slightly wider modern lake but much deeper than that. The depth of the depression is determined by the height of the mountains above it, the depth of the lake and the thickness of the bottom lining it. bottom sediments. The most deep point Baikal's root basin lies about 5-6 thousand meters below the level of the world's oceans. The "roots" of the basin cut through the entire earth's crust and go into the upper mantle to a depth of 50-60 km. This is the deepest basin of the earth's land.

Lake Baikal is the deepest on the planet Earth, as well as the richest fresh water(slightly less than 20% of world reserves are concentrated in this reservoir). Let's get acquainted with the origin of the basin of Lake Baikal and learn some interesting facts about it.

Description of the reservoir

Is it located amazing lake V Eastern Siberia, on the border of the Buryat Republic and Irkutsk region. The features of the reservoir are:

Area - more than 31 thousand square meters. km.
Volume - more than 23,615 cubic meters. km.
Length coastline- 2.1 thousand km.
The length of Lake Baikal is over 630 km.
The deepest section is 1.6 km.
Average depth- 740 m.
More than 330 rivers flow into it, the largest of which are the Barguzin, Selenga, Turka, Upper Angara.

The reservoir has the shape of a crescent, the width of which is from 25 to almost 80 km. Interestingly, the giant lake is equal in size to the areas of such states as Denmark or Belgium. Located on the territory of the Asian part of the Russian Federation, Baikal is surrounded on all sides by mountains and hills, in the west its coast is steep, towards the east it becomes gentle.

Briefly about depth

This unusual reservoir is a true leader, because greatest depth Lake Baikal - 1637 meters. This value was identified during a hydrographic survey in 1983. The data were later confirmed in 2002, during a joint study by several countries:

Russia;
Belgium;
Spain.

It is interesting that the surface of the lake is located at an altitude of just over 450 m above the level of the World Ocean, while the lowest point is located at a depth of more than 1180 m below sea level. Therefore the bowl deepest lake planet becomes the deepest among the continental depressions.

The average depth indicator is also amazing, more than 744 meters. It is known that there are only two lakes on the planet with places more than a kilometer deep:

Tanganyika.
The Caspian Sea (despite the name, this is also a lake).

But the deepest section of Baikal is almost 200 meters higher than the similar place of Tanganyika.

Origin theories

Consider the origin of Lake Baikal, which is this moment has not yet been fully explored and is controversial in scientific world. First we present scientific facts which are recognized by all researchers:

The reservoir is located in the rift basin.
Its structure is in many ways reminiscent of the Dead Sea.

But what caused the formation of this fault? Further opinions of scientists differ:

According to the first theory, Lake Baikal, whose area is more than 31 thousand km 2, is located in the area of a transform fault. That is why it has become so profound.
There is an opinion that there is a mantle plume under the reservoir.
Another version - the collision of the Eurasian plate and Hindustan (which in those eras was an independent continent) led to changes in the surface of the Earth, it was then that the highest Mountain peaks Himalayas and the Baikal depression. However, later this hypothesis was criticized, since scientists were able to prove that by the time the Himalayas were formed, the platforms of the earth's crust, on the border of which the depression is located, had already been formed and colossal changes did not affect them.
The outpouring of basalt on the surface led to the appearance of vacuum centers and subsidence of the depression.

How do researchers explain the origin of the Baikal basin? It is believed that she is central part Baikal rift zone. Under the depression, processes of heating of the bowels take place, the substance of which, spreading, creates horizontal stretching. In turn, they contribute to the formation of new faults and the opening of ancient ones, the lowering of entire blocks and the formation of depressions.

Detailed description of the process

Let us describe in detail the origin of Lake Baikal, which is essentially rift. At the same time, the word "rift" refers to a break in the earth's crust, shaped like a crack or ditch. The Baikal rift is very long, its length is more than 2.5 thousand km, it extends in the central part of Asia from Yakutia to Mongolia. And the lake is located in the central part of the fault, in its deepest area.

The maximum rift depth was calculated: the most deep place lakes (1637 m) + debris rocks, dead animals and plant organisms (about 8 km) = 9637 meters.

How did the fracture itself form?

Under the influence of high temperatures, the earth's crust became thinner and covered with cracks.
This process was accompanied by earthquakes and the appearance of faults.
The completion of the process was the appearance of the rift zone.

It is possible that the collision of Hindustan and Eurasia somehow affected the process, corrected it, but could not be the root cause.

The lake continues to form

From almost all sides, the lake basin is surrounded by tectonic depressions:

Upper Angarsk - in the north;
Barguzinskaya - in the northeast;
Onotskaya and Malomorsko-Buguldeiskaya - in the west;
Khubsugulskaya and Tunkinskaya - in the southwest.

Interestingly, the formation of the reservoir cannot be considered a fully completed process; regular earthquakes continue to modify the relief of Baikal. Minor earthquakes here are a constant phenomenon, but sometimes real disasters occur here:

In 1862, as a result of a shaking of the earth's crust with a force of about 10 points, an entire piece of land went under water, forming Proval Bay (its depth is about 6 meters).
In 1959, a 9.5 magnitude earthquake caused the bottom of the lake to sink 20 meters.

The researchers found that the shores of the lake are moving away from one another by about 2 cm annually. This is also due to seismic activity. This fact allowed some scientists to make a bold assumption that Baikal is not a lake, but an ocean at the stage of its inception. In 100 million years, according to this version, Asia will split, a new ocean will appear in place of the reservoir.

Now on the lake active volcanoes no, but traces of their activity in past eras continue to be studied by scientists.

Ice influence

Despite tectonic origin Lake Baikal, the features of its relief were seriously influenced by the Ice Age. Evidence that the lake has collided with glaciers can be found by analyzing rock fragments located at its bottom. IN scientific literature they are called bottom moraines. Also traces ice age are bottom sediments, sediments. They allow us to conclude that the thickness of the glaciers moving along the lake was at least 80 meters, but not more than 120 meters.

Scientists have found that the permanent ice cover, most likely, did not fetter the Baikal waters, otherwise life in the lake would be impossible. Meanwhile, researchers managed to discover life forms that formed long before the glaciers:

Sponges.
Flatworms.
amphipods.

They indicate that there was no permanent ice cover on the lake.

Age

The age of Lake Baikal also causes an equal amount of controversy. There are several positions:

It is traditionally considered that the reservoir is unique: from 25 to 35 million years are attributed to it, which is uncharacteristic for glacial reservoirs, as a rule, they exist for no more than 15 thousand years, after which they become covered with sediments, silt or swamp.
In 2009, Doctor of Sciences Tatarinov expressed the idea that the deepest parts of the reservoir are no more than 150 thousand years old, and the coastline is much younger - about 8 thousand years old. This hypothesis even has a number of indirect evidence that were obtained during the study, namely the analysis of the activity of bottom mud volcanoes.

There is also a hypothesis that the outlines of the great lake were laid at the end of the Mesozoic period, that is, when the planet acquired modern look and continents were formed. This process took place 60 million years ago. However, a fact was previously indicated that refutes this version.

Water properties

Having considered the origin of Lake Baikal, we learn the properties of its water:

She is transparent. Objects can be seen even at a distance of 40 meters.
The color depends on the season: in spring it is blue, in summer and autumn it is densely covered with vegetation, acquiring a blue-green hue.
Rich in oxygen.
It contains a very meager amount of dissolved minerals and salts, so it can be used as distilled.
Very cold, average temperature on the surface in summer time rarely exceeds +9 °C, only in some bays it reaches +15 °C. In the depths the temperature is up to +3...+4 °C.

Ice on the lake appears in the second week of January and stays until the beginning of May, covering the entire reservoir, except for a small area at the source of the Angara (no more than 20 km in length). Interestingly, the ice is also very transparent, it passes the sun's rays through its thickness, which is why plankton actively develops in the bowels of the lake.

Bottom Features

We examined the origin of Lake Baikal, now let's see what the specifics of its bottom are. First of all, this is a pronounced relief:

Shelves and underwater slopes are scattered along the coast.
There are three basins (Southern, Middle, Northern).
It is possible to note the presence of underwater ridges (Academic, Selenginsky).
There are also underwater banks.

These are the features of the bottom of Lake Baikal. Thanks to modern research managed to establish that in this amazing reservoir flooded highest mountains planets whose height is more than 7 km. The thickness of bottom sediments is more than 6 km.

Let's get acquainted with a selection of interesting cognitive facts about the amazing reservoir - the pearl of Siberia:

In Lake Baikal, whose area is 31,722 km, it is forbidden to catch sturgeon. And the total number of fish species that live here is more than 2 thousand.
Despite the fact that the reservoir is a lake, not a sea, waves up to 5 m high and even storms are periodically observed here.
Larch trees grow on the coast of the amazing lake, the age of which is more than 700 years.
The length of Lake Baikal is 636 km.
In the waters of Lake Baikal there are 60-year-old long-lived sturgeons.
The most non-standard inhabitant of the lake is a transparent fish, almost completely consisting of fatty tissues, the golomyanka is viviparous.

We examined the origin of Lake Baikal and learned that, despite numerous studies, this unusual body of water has not yet revealed all its secrets to mankind.

Experts still cannot determine the exact age of the reservoir - presumably 25-35 million years. And this main riddle of the many: after all, the lakes exist for about 10-15 thousand years, after which they turn into a swamp or finally dry up. Baikal not only does not age - on the contrary, the researchers note that the formation continues to this day. Every year, its shores diverge by 2 cm. Therefore, many experts believe that the amazing lake is not a lake at all, but a nascent ocean.

Although in Lately, at the suggestion of the doctor of geological and mineralogical sciences Alexander Tatarinov, the version about the relative youth of Baikal is increasingly being discussed. And there is evidence, albeit indirect, for this. It is enough to look deeper into the history of Baikal. Investigating the material composition of bottom sediments and the physical and chemical processes occurring in them, scientists came to the conclusion that the shoreline of the lake is about 8 thousand years old, and the deep-water parts are about 150 thousand years old.

There are many assumptions about how the miracle lake appeared.

Some experts believe that the depression was formed in the Precambrian period by the confluence of three basins: in the Lower Cambrian era, they made up three bays of the Lower Cambrian Sea. Then the sea receded, and these three basins remained closed. Subsequently, over many years and epochs, erosion destroyed the barriers between them and connected the basins to each other.

The Baikal basin appeared due to a long process of subsidence, which continues to this day, others believe.

Some scientists suggest that the formation of the lake is associated with its location within the boundaries of a transform fault, others believe that the formation of Baikal is associated with the presence of a hot mantle flow under it. There is also an opinion that the lake appeared as a result of shifts of a huge fault that crosses Eurasia from the southwest to the northeast. The Baikal depression, according to this theory, was formed due to a fault that ran at an angle to the main fault. Such a mechanism is called "pull-apart" in the literature. This explains the rhombic shape of the Baikal depression, as well as tectonic movements during earthquakes.

The latest results obtained using the seismic tomography method in the Laboratory of Geodynamics and Paleomagnetism of the Institute of Geology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences allowed us to take a fresh look at this problem and propose a scheme for the formation and evolution of the Baikal region.

Thus, geologists do not yet have exact data on the time of the origin of Baikal. At the same time, there are currently no grounds to deny its existence back in the Cenozoic era. It is obvious that the history of the emergence of Baikal will worry scientists around the world for a long time to come.

Lake Baikal

The crescent of the lake is located in the very center of the Baikal rift zone - a break in the earth's crust in the continental part of Eurasia. There is constantly high seismic activity. In the very basin of the lake there is a continuous anomalous heating of the earth's interior. Scientists believe that heated substances could lift the earth's crust, deforming and cracking it. As a result of this movement, a chain of ridges surrounding the lake was probably formed.

What is certain is that the lake is located in a rift basin and is similar in structure, for example, to the Dead Sea basin. Some researchers explain the formation of Baikal by its location in the zone of a transform fault, others suggest the presence of a mantle plume under the lake, and others explain the formation of the basin by passive rifting as a result of the collision of the Eurasian plate and Hindustan.

Be that as it may, the transformation of Baikal continues to this day - earthquakes constantly occur in the vicinity of the lake, which means that the history of Baikal will continue. There are suggestions that the subsidence of the basin is associated with the formation of vacuum chambers due to the outpouring of basalts on the surface (Quaternary period).

In 1996 the lake was listed world heritage UNESCO.

Baikal is located almost in the center of Asia. Its length is 636 km, maximum width 81 km, the length of the coastline is about 2 thousand km. The area is 31.5 thousand square kilometers, and here it is second only to the Caspian, Victoria, Tanganyika, Huron, Michigan and Upper and ranks seventh among the world's lakes. Baikal is the deepest lake in the world: 1637 m, its average depth is 730 m. But on the other hand, in terms of water volume among fresh lakes he is unrivaled in the world. 23 thousand cubic km Baikal waters- neither more nor less - 20% of the world and 80% of Russia's water reserves. Moreover, there is more water in Baikal than in all the Great American Lakes taken together.

"Baikal" - the history of the name

The most common version is that “Baikal” is a Turkic-speaking word, comes from “bay” - rich, “kul” - lake, which means “rich lake”. However, there is evidence that in the past different peoples called the lake differently.

Chinese in ancient chronicles 110 BC the Mongols called it "Beihai" - the northern sea, the Mongols - "Tengis", "Tengis-dalai", the Buryat-Mongols - "Baigaal-dalai" - a large body of water, the ancient peoples of Siberia - "Lamu", which means the sea. Under the name "Lamu" the lake is often mentioned in Evenk legends, and it was under this name that Russian explorers first became known.

After the first Russian detachment came to the shore of the lake in 1643 under the leadership of Kurbat Ivanov, the Russians switched to the Buryat-Mongolian name "Baigaal" or "Baigaal-dalai". At the same time, they linguistically adapted it to their language, replacing the “g” characteristic of the Buryats with the more familiar “k” for the Russian language - Baikal.

The history of the discovery of Baikal

One of the most important stages in the exploration of Siberia can rightfully be considered the discovery of Lake Baikal. The Russians first came here in 1643, when the Cossack Kurbat Ivanov with his detachment got from Verkhnelensky prison to west coast lake, going to it directly opposite the island of Olkhon. Ivanov compiled a "Drawing of Baikal and falling rivers and lands to Baikal" - the first schematic map of the places visited by the Cossacks. This is how the history of Baikal began.

Two years later, ataman Vasily Kolesnikov prepared a detachment of hundreds of Cossacks and went to Baikal in search of silver ore, which, according to rumors, was in abundance in these parts. Having sailed to the northern end of the lake, he founded the Verkhneangarsky prison, which became a staging post for moving further, in Transbaikalia and on Far East.

One of the main events of these years was the foundation by Yakov Pokhabov in 1661 of the Irkutsk prison on the right bank of the Angara opposite the mouth of the Irkut. And for three and a half centuries, Baikal has been inextricably linked with Irkutsk, the city that has become its “gateway”. Anyone who comes to the Baikal region will certainly stop at.

It is impossible not to mention Archpriest Avvakum, a prominent church leader of the 17th century, who was exiled to Siberia for his Old Believer views. In his Life of Archpriest Avvakum, he vividly described what he saw on his way to exile in the 1650s: The water is fresh, seals and hares are great in it: in the ocean-sea, living on the Mezen, I have not seen such. For the first time, Baikal and its environs were described in such detail.

The mystery of the origin of Baikal has long haunted people. Where did this sea come from the purest water, surrounded by picturesque mountains and pristine nature? The first explanation can be found in the Buryat legend, the essence of which was that at first there was a continuous fire, then the earth collapsed and became the sea. The well-known hypothesis of the creation of all these miracles in seven days, which easily explains everything and even more, however, has significant chronological difficulties and does not correspond well to archaeological data.

And so there were people to whom both theories seemed insufficiently convincing, and they began to invent their own. Back in the 18th century, German scientists Peter Simon Pallas and Johann Gottlieb Georgi, members of the Siberian expedition of the St.

Yes, yes, there were times when "brains" "flowed" here, to us, and not to reverse direction, and foreign scientists considered it an honor to work at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. A serious study of Baikal began with the studies of German scientists invited by Catherine II.

Pallas believed that the Baikal basin arose as a result of a land failure caused by a natural disaster. A similar point of view was shared by another member of the Siberian expedition - Georgi, but he detailed the picture. According to Georgi, the reason for the failure of the land was an earthquake, and before it, on the site of present-day Baikal, the Upper Angara flowed, which flowed into the Yenisei, taking in all the tributaries of the still unborn Baikal.

A century later, a former soldier of a fortress battalion, a political exile, a Pole Jan Chersky, a man whose determination could only compete with his iron will, on his own, in the barracks, having mastered the wisdom of science, put forward new theory formations of Baikal. Based on his own observations during travels, or, as he called them, excursions around the Baikal region, Chersky suggested that Baikal and its mountainous surroundings were formed as a result of very slow horizontal compression of the earth's crust.

Many scientists had their own opinion about how Baikal arose. It makes no sense to list all the numerous, often differing only in details, views. Close to the modern understanding of the way of education Baikal basin approached Vladimir Afanasyevich Obruchev (1863-1956), who suggested that the emergence of Baikal is closely related to the formation mountain system Siberia as a whole. Baikal, according to Obruchev, arose as a result of subsidence of a part of the land along two vertical fracture surfaces. “The Baikal depression was created by the same young movements, the evidence of which is distributed over a large stretch from the middle of the Khangai upland in the Mongolian People's Republic to the river Uchura on the Aldan plateau, i.e. over 2400 versts. During this period, the earth's crust began to swell during the Tertiary period, of course, very slowly and gradually in the form of a long and wide swell, called the Baikal domed uplift. This uplift, which engulfed the foundation, consisting of the most ancient Precambrian rocks, was broken by longitudinal and transverse cracks into separate wedges, which, in their upward movement, lagged behind one another, and some even sank down. Raised wedges formed mountain ranges- Khamar-daban, Tunkinsky and Kitoi Alps, Onotsky and Primorsky ridges, Olkhon Island, Chivyrkuysky, South and North Muysky ridges, Delyun-Uran, Kodar and Udokan, and the descending ones formed deep valleys, the deepest of which filled with water and formed lakes - Kosogol, the Small Sea and Baikal”, - this is how V.A. Obruchev. The system of faults along which the blocks of the earth's crust settled, forming the Baikal basin, is now called the Obruchev fault.

Scientific achievements of the second half of the 20th century made it possible to make significant progress in studying the problem of Baikal formation. Importance had the discovery of a global fault system - the world rift system. It turned out that the emergence of Baikal is a consequence of a process on a planetary scale; there were many depressions in the earth's crust that have a similar origin. For example, lakes Khubsugul, Tanganyika, Nyasa, Red Sea. At the end of the last century, geologists and geophysicists from the USSR, the USA, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Mongolia, and China were engaged in studying the Baikal basin and its surroundings.

The Baikal basin is the central link of the so-called Baikal rift, which stretches for 2.5 thousand kilometers and is located on the border of two continental lithospheric plates - the Eurasian and Indo-Australian. At first, it was believed that the Baikal rift owes its existence to the collision of these plates, but after receiving a number of new scientific data, a point of view appeared that the emergence and development of the Baikal rift cannot be explained only by the interaction of lithospheric plates. In particular, some researchers believe that the Baikal rift arose much earlier than the beginning of the interaction of the mentioned lithospheric plates. To explain the observed picture, these scientists assign an important role to the anomalous heating of the mantle under the Baikal Rift.

Paleogeographic reconstruction of the evolution of the Baikal basin (based on the work of V.D. Mats and I.M. Efimova “Paleogeographic scenario of the Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic of the central part of the Baikal region”, 2011)

The Baikal basin consists of three independent depressions - the South Baikal, the Middle Baikal, separated by an uplift in the area of the Posolskaya Bank, and the North Baikal, separated from the Middle Baikal by the underwater Academic Ridge, crossing Baikal along the line Olkhon Island - the Ushkany Islands archipelago.

Without going into details about which scientific environment there is still no consensus, a very simplified process of the formation of the Baikal basin can be represented as follows. The earth's crust, lifted by the heated mantle matter floating up and spreading to the sides, formed the surrounding lake. mountain ranges. At the same time, the horizontal spreading of the mantle substance caused the formation of faults and the subsidence of blocks of the earth's crust, which ultimately led to the formation of the Baikal depression. It is hard to imagine molten granite or rock masses behaving like plasticine, but science assures us that this is not only possible, but actually occurs. This process has been going on for tens of millions of years, and continues to this day.

With the development of geophysical methods and the accumulation of knowledge, certain details of the chronological sequence of the formation of Lake Baikal began to appear. Three stages can be distinguished in the geological history of the Baikal Rift: Archaeo-Baikal, Proto-Baikal, and Paleo-Baikal.

Archeobaikalian stage covers the time interval 70-30 million years ago. Initially, large mountain ranges are absent. The climate is tropical mean annual temperature+ 20 ° -23 °, while the temperature in winter is not lower than + 15 ° - + 20 ° (this is in Siberia!) Several large lakes. It was at this time that the formation of the Baikal rift began. Rifting is associated with stretching of the lithosphere, the probable cause of which is the heating of the upper mantle.

Proto-Baikal stage, 30.0-3.5 million years ago. It got colder to a subtropical climate with an average annual temperature of +15° - +20°. At this time, vertical movements and the formation of the rift as a whole, provoked by the collision of the Eurasian and Indo-Australian lithospheric plates, intensified. Education has begun mountain ranges and deepening of lake basins. In the South and Middle Baikal depressions, a single lake was formed, the depth of which could reach 500 m. Into this lake, in the area of the modern Upper Head of the Holy Nose, forming a giant delta, the Upper Praangara flowed along the eastern border of the North Baikal depression he almost guessed it!). In the second half of the Proto-Baikal stage, about 10 million years ago, water from the lake that occupied the South and Middle Baikal depressions began to flow through the formed passage in the Akademichesky ridge into the North Baikal depression. By the end of the proto-Baikal stage, the lake reached a depth of 1000 meters.

Paleobaikalian stage, from 3.5 million years ago to the present. With the beginning of the stage, large vertical movements became more active - the mountains became higher, the depressions deeper, the river network began to be rebuilt. In the first half of the stage, the depth of Paleobaikal was about 1000 meters. Modern deep-water zones were formed at the end of the Paleo-Baikal stage - 150-120 thousand years ago. 2.82-2.48 million years ago the climate became noticeably cooler, the average annual temperature dropped to +5°. After another million years, it got colder again, this time it came to glaciation in the Baikal mountains. Glaciers have had a significant impact on the mountain landscape. As time went on, glaciations were replaced by interglacials. During glaciations, the level of the lake decreased, sometimes to such an extent that Paleobaikal became drainless for some time. The flow stopped for no more than 10 thousand years. The runoff from Paleobaikal occurred along the Pramanzurka River, which flows into the Lena. The source of Pramanzurka was located slightly north of the modern delta of the Goloustnaya River. Approximately 1 million years ago, due to the rise of the Primorsky Range, the runoff channel along the Pramanzurka River was broken. As a result of this event, the waters of the lake rose to the level of a new runoff along the Paleoirkut, which flowed from Baikal in the area of the Kultuk Bay and carried its waters to the Yenisei River basin. Finally, about 60 thousand years ago, due to the lowering of the Larch block, the source of Baikal formed through the Angara. By this time, Baikal acquired its modern shape.

The described picture of the emergence of the basin and the mountainous environment of Baikal is based on the paleogeographic reconstruction carried out in the study by V.D. Mats and I.M. Efimova in 2011. This is just one look at the problem of the formation of Baikal. Other researchers are ready to dispute almost everything, from the age of the Baikal Rift to the existence of a runoff in the Irkut in the past. One thing is certain: Baikal is an incredibly generous gift of Nature, and we need to work hard to prove that we are worthy of such a gift.

The origin of Lake Baikal is tectonic. It is in Siberia; is the deepest in the world. The lake and all adjacent territories are inhabited by quite diverse and unique species of animals and plants. An interesting fact is that in Russian Federation Baikal is called the sea.

At the moment, there are disputes about how old the reservoir actually is. As a rule, everyone adheres to the framework: 25-35 million years. However, it is precisely about the exact calculations that discussions are underway. Such a "lifespan" for the lake is very uncharacteristic, as a rule, all lakes become swampy after 10-15 thousand years of existence.

General geographic information

Lake Baikal is located in the center of Asia, it stretches from the southwest to the northeast. Its length is 620 km, the minimum width is 24 km, and the maximum width is 79 km. The coastline stretches for 2 thousand km. The hollow of the lake is surrounded by hills and mountain ranges. In the west, the coast is steep, rocky. In the east, the coastline is gentle.

This body of water is the deepest in the world. total area Lake Baikal is 31 thousand km 2. The average depth of the reservoir is 744 meters. Due to the fact that the basin lies 1 thousand meters below the level of the World Ocean, the basin of this lake is one of the deepest.

Fresh water supply - 23 thousand km 3. Among the lakes, Baikal ranks second in this figure. It yields, however, the difference is that the latter has salty waters. An interesting fact is that the reservoir has big amount water than the whole system

In the 19th century, it was found that 336 water streams flow into Baikal. At the moment, there is no exact figure, and scientists constantly give different data: from 544 to 1120.

Climate and waters of Baikal

The description of Lake Baikal makes it possible to understand that the water of the reservoir contains a lot of oxygen, few minerals (suspended and dissolved) and organic impurities.

Due to the climate, the waters here are quite cold. In summer, the temperature of the layers does not exceed 9 degrees, less often - 15 degrees. The highest temperature was +23 degrees in some bays.

When the water is blue (as a rule, it becomes blue in the spring), the bottom of the lake is visible if its depth in this place does not exceed 40 meters. In summer and autumn, the pigment that colors the water disappears, the transparency becomes minimal (no more than 10 m). There are also few salts, so you can use water as distilled.

Freeze up

Freezing lasts from the beginning of January to the first decade of March. The entire surface of the reservoir is covered with ice, except for the one located in the Angara. From June to September Baikal is open for navigation.

The thickness of the ice, as a rule, does not exceed 2 meters. When they appear very coldy, cracks break the ice into several large pieces. As a rule, gaps occur in the same areas. At the same time, they are accompanied by a very loud sound that resembles shots or thunder. The problems of Lake Baikal are not entirely obvious, but this one is the main one. Thanks to the cracks, the fish do not die, as the water is enriched with oxygen. Due to the fact that the ice transmits the sun's rays, algae grow well in the water.

Origin of Lake Baikal

Questions about the origin of Baikal still do not have an exact answer, and scientists are discussing this issue. Now there is evidence that the current coastline is no more than 8 thousand years old, while the reservoir itself has existed much longer.

Some researchers admit the idea that the origin of Lake Baikal is associated with the presence of a mantle plume, others - with a transform fault zone, and still others - with a collision of the Eurasian plate. At the same time, the reservoir is still changing due to constant earthquakes.

What is known for certain is that the depression in which Baikal is located is a rift one. Its structure is similar to that of the Dead Sea basin.

The origin of the basin of Lake Baikal fell on the Mesozoic period. However, some are of the opinion that this happened 25 million years ago. Since the reservoir has several basins, they all differ both in the time of formation and in structure. Currently, the emergence of new ones continues. Due to a strong earthquake, a section of the island went under water and a small bay was formed. In 1959, due to the same natural disaster, the bottom of the reservoir sank several meters down.

Underground, the subsoil is constantly heating up, this greatly affects the origin of the Baikal basin. It is these areas of the earth that are capable of lifting the earth's crust, breaking it, deforming it. Most likely, it was this process that became decisive in the formation of the ridges that surround the entire reservoir. For now tectonic depressions surround Baikal from almost all sides.

Many people know the fact that every year the shores of the lake move away from each other by 2-3 cm. The origin of Lake Baikal influenced the seismic activity in this area. Now there is not a single volcano in the reservoir zone, but volcanic activity is still present.

The relief of the lake developed under the influence of the Ice Age. In some moraines, their influence is observed. Blocks up to 120 meters in size fell into the reservoir. It is also possible that the origin of Lake Baikal was associated with the melting of ice floes. But what is known for sure is that the reservoir is not covered with ice for a long time, thanks to which life is preserved in it.

Flora and fauna

Baikal is rich in fish and plants. 2 thousand species of marine animals live here. Most of of them are endemic, that is, they can live only in this reservoir. Such a large number of inhabitants of the lake is due to the fact that the water has sufficient oxygen content. Often found They play an important role in the life of the entire Baikal, as they perform a filtering function.

Stages of studying and settling the lake

According to the documents that were found as a result of the inspection of Lake Baikal, until the 12th century, the adjacent territories were inhabited by the Buryats. They first mastered west coast, and later reached Transbaikalia. Russian settlements appeared only in the 18th century.

Ecological situation

Baikal has a unique ecology. In 1999, official regulations were adopted that protect the reservoir. A regime has been established that controls all human activity. The problems of Lake Baikal are associated with cutting down trees, which has a strong effect on environment. People doing such things are prosecuted by law.

origin of name

This question is still unclear, and the data provided by scientists vary greatly. To date, there are more than ten explanations and conjectures. Some are based on the version, which lies in the origin of the name from the Turkic language (Bai-Kul), others - Mongolian (Bagal, also Baigal Dalai). Those people who lived on the shore of the lake itself called it completely differently: Lamu, Beihai, Beigal-Nuur.

Baikal can be reached from any direction. As a rule, tourists visit it in Severobaikalsk, Irkutsk or Ulan-Ude.

A few kilometers from Irkutsk is Listvyanka - a village near the reservoir itself. It is he who leads in the number of tourists. Here you can spend your vacation quite actively and enjoy the beauty of the lake.

Khakusy resort is located on the northern shore of Lake Baikal. In addition, you can meet