Lake Baikal Geological History

The physical challenges of this expedition will be considerable.

Lake baikal geological history. On the eastern side baikal is fringed by the barguzinsky and ulan burgasy ranges and in the south and south east by the khamar daban range with its summit named munku sardyk eternally snowy reaching 3 491 metres above sea level. байгал нуур baygal nuur etymologically meaning in turkic the rich lake is a rift lake in russia located in southern siberia between irkutsk oblast to the northwest and the buryat. You will be living and working on the frozen lake with temperatures dropping as low as 20 degrees and you will need to haul all the kit and equipment you need using pulks sleds which you will drag behind you. Geology of the lake baikal.

The banks of the lake diverge at a rate of 2 cm per year which is why many experts hypothesize that baikal is a nascent ocean. On all sides the baikal hollow is surrounded by mountains. And there is evidence albeit indirect that confirms it. Siberia s superlative laden lake baikal is one of the planet s great geological treasures.

Located 4 200 kilometers east of moscow and 2 100 kilometers west of vladivostok the lake known locally as the sacred sea is like no other. Tatarinov suggests that the lake could be relatively young. Formed in a rift valley lake baikal has a fascinating geological history and offers a remarkable range of study opportunities. On the western shore the lake is closely rimmed by the primorsky and baikalsky ranges with their maximum height of 2 678 metres.

Russian u s and japanese cooperative studies of deep drilling core sediments in the 1990s provide a detailed record of climatic variation over the past 6 7 million years. At over 1 600 meters 5250 feet it is the deepest lake in the world and at perhaps more than 25 million years old the oldest as well. It contains as much fresh water as the great lakes of north america combined. The water of lake baikal is so fresh that calcium carbonate does not survive in the fossil record.

But size and age aren t the only things that make this lake special. Siberia s lake baikal is not your average lake. At 49 miles 78 8 kilometers wide and 395 miles 635 kilometers long it s the world s largest freshwater lake. And with a history that dates back 25 million years it s also earth s oldest.