Exploring the Mysteries of Lake Baikal

Dive into the Mysteries of Lake Baikal! 🌊🗻

Discover the wonders of Lake Baikal, the oldest and deepest freshwater lake on Earth that holds more water than all the Great Lakes combined! Learn how this tectonic marvel, stretching over 400 miles, was born from dramatic cataclysmic activity. Marvel at unique species like the nerpa seal and golomyanka fish, and uncover the deep spiritual significance of Lake Baikal to the indigenous Buryat people. Explore the threats of pollution and climate change, and join us in highlighting the efforts to preserve this biodiversity hotspot.

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CHAPTER:
00:00 #1 The Pearl of Siberia
00:24 #2 A Lake Like No Other
01:04 #3 Born of Fire and Ice
01:39 #4 A Rift in Time
02:21 #5 The Depths Unseen
03:08 #6 Whispers of Ancient Spirits
04:00 #7 Shamanism and Sacred Waters
04:41 #8 A Lake of Legend and Lore
05:18 #9 An Underwater Oasis
06:00 #10 Living Jewels of Baikal
06:45 #11 Science in a Sacred Place
07:30 #12 Shadows in the Deep
08:10 #13 The Paper Mill's Legacy
09:01 #14 A Lake Under Pressure
10:47 #15 Guardians of the Sacred Sea
12:59 #16 A Legacy for the Future

[Dragrath]

So some more on the geology of lake Baikal it is notably still in the process of forming slowly on timescales of millions of years. Notably Lake Baikal is as was briefly mentioned an active rift lake formed by the Amur plate rifting away from Eurasia with the plate boundary between Eurasia and Amur being divided between the Baikal rift zone where crustal extension occurs and the transverse plate boundary which like the San Andreas sees lateral strike slip Earthquakes including the most deadly quake in China's history. There is also a coastal zone of rifting where the Korean peninsula has been pulled off Eurasia via what is known as a result a pull away basin separating it away from the Eurasian mainland China as the Amur plate moves east.

The volcanoes of the Baikal rift zone and Korea are not dead merely in a periodic lull like seen by other continental rift zones which can go many thousands of years between eruptions so those living in the Baikal rift zone will need to be careful.

Should this rifting continue eventually on geological timescales Baikal will grow into a new ocean basin dividing Eurasia from the Amur plate. The magma compositions associated with this rifting notably have a chemistry which indicates a compositionally derived component from the stagnant flat subducting Pacific slab and look compositionally identical to the types of melts seen with rifting supercontinent flood basalts albeit they are no where near that extent in volume but it suggests what is ongoing here may be a scaled down version of the Wilson cycle of plate tectonics being fueled by the subduction of the Pacific plate underneath both the Amur plate and the adjacent Okhotsk plate to its immediate east along the coast which is Northern Japan. Today the mountains of northern Japan are still being formed as the Amur plate continues to crash into the Okhotsk plate by continental continental collision. If this activity continues it may be the case one day that the northern extent of the Sea of Japan(a mature back arc basin) will eventually close in exchange for a new seaway through what is now lake Baikal with Amur and the Okhotsk plates merging to form a new minor continent. This is of course on geologic timescales of many tens of millions of years showing how our planet is ever shifting under plate tectonics.

[roger]

Lake Baikal is 5387 FEET deep at its deepest can that swallow Mt Everest with a mile to spare (especially when it is not even a mile deep at its