Known as the Earth s super reservoir, how big is Lake Baikal?

Although Baikal is not a lake in China today, the Chinese are very familiar with it because it has many historical relations with China. In addition, Lake Baikal is the lake with the largest freshwater resources on the planet. How big is it?

Its water storage capacity is as high as one trillion cubic meters, accounting for 1 5 of the world's total floating freshwater resources, equivalent to more than 8 times the total amount of China's freshwater resources (trillion cubic meters). Why is there so much water in Lake Baikal? It is the deepest lake in the world, with an average depth of 730 meters and a maximum depth of 1,637 meters.

It is the deepest lake in the world. Just like a bottle and a plate or saucer, a bottle of the same diameter has much more water than a plate and saucer, which can be calculated in multiples of height.

<> Baikal Lake is not only deep, but also large, square kilometers, China's largest natural lake - Qinghai Lake area is 7 times the area, and the average depth of Qinghai Lake is 21 meters, if you compare water, Baikal Lake is equivalent to the water of nearly 240 Qinghai lakes, that is, the water of 240 Qinghai lakes can fill Baikal; And it's all fresh water, mostly drinkable fresh water! This is Lake Baikal.

Compared to China's Taihu Lake, the gap is even greater, because the average depth of Taihu Lake is only one meter, and although it has an area of 2,400 square kilometers, it has a small water storage capacity of only 4.4 billion cubic meters, which is equivalent to nearly 5,400 Taihu lakes. Even compared to China's Bohai Sea, Baikal's water storage capacity is not as good as China's Bohai Sea. Although the area of the Bohai Sea is 76,000 square kilometers, its average water depth is only about 18 meters.

Lake Baikal has 17 times more water storage capacity than the entire Bohai Sea. Even if the Yellow Sea is compared to Lake Baikal, the entire Yellow Sea has less than twice the water storage capacity of Lake Baikal, which means that the water storage capacity of Lake Baikal is more than half that of China's Yellow Sea (the Yellow Sea covers an area of 490,000 square kilometers and has an average depth of about 90 meters).

It is particularly large and can store 10,000 cubic meters of water, and its maximum depth has reached 1,637 meters, which is the deepest lake, covering an area of 10,000 square kilometers.

The total volume of Lake Baikal has reached trillions of cubic meters, and the area of this lake has reached 10,000 square kilometers, which is really a large lake.

It has trillions of cubic meters of water stored and accounts for 1.5 of the world's total floating freshwater resources, which is more than eight times the total amount of China's freshwater resources.

is quite large, the water storage reaches 100 million cubic meters, and freshwater resources occupy 1 5, so Lake Baikal is quite large.

The reasons for the large water storage of Lake Baikal are as follows:

1. The depth of Lake Baikal.

Lake Baikal is the deepest freshwater lake in the world, the elevation of the bottom of the lake is located in meters below sea level, the average depth of the whole lake reaches an exaggerated 730 meters, and the deepest water in the middle of the lake reaches 1,620 meters. The deepest lake in China, the Changbai Mountain Heavenly Pond, is only 373 meters, so the depth of Lake Baikal is quite amazing.

2. There are many rivers and abundant water sources.

In the Baikal Basin, there are 336 rivers that provide water sources, of which the Selenga, Verkhniy Angara and Bargugin are important tributaries. The first tributary, the Selenga River, spans Russia and Mongolia, covering an area of 10,000 square kilometers and contributing about 50 to 60 percent of the water. In addition, natural precipitation and meltwater from alpine snow and ice are also important freshwater in the lake area**.

3. The artificial construction of dams has further improved the water storage capacity.

There are many rivers that supply Lake Baiga, but there is only one river that comes out of the lake, and that is the Angara River. In 1958, the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station was built 60 km from the source of the Angara River, and the outlet river was blocked, raising the water level of Lake Baikal even further. At this time, Lake Baikal actually became a giant reservoir, the water level was raised by about 1 meter compared to before, and the storage capacity could be artificially adjusted.

Lake Baikal contains about one trillion cubic meters of fresh water, which accounts for about 20% of the total volume of all freshwater lakes.

23 trillion cubic meters. Because Lake Baikal contains about 20% of the total freshwater on the planet, about 23 trillion cubic meters of fresh water.

Lake Baikal has almost a trillion cubic meters of fresh water, and Baikal already accounts for 20% of the world's freshwater resources, so the amount of fresh water stored in Lake Baikal is very large.

With 23,600 cubic kilometers, this water can feed 5 billion people, so many people can drink for more than 50 years, and the fresh water in Lake Baikal accounts for more than half of the total fresh water on the planet.

With a total volume of 10,000 cubic meters, Lake Baikal is the largest reservoir on Earth and 33 times the total amount of all amber in our country combined.

The fresh water of Lake Baikal contains trillions of cubic meters, which could be used by a total of 5 billion people for 50 years if it were to be consumed by humans.

The natural reason for the large water storage of Lake Baikal is the steep canyons formed by ancient geological movements.

Geographically, Lake Baikal is actually a very old freshwater lake, and scientists have found no traces of antiquity in the rock formations at the bottom of the lake, so its formation was not caused by land and sea changes, but due to the internal fracture of the Eurasian plate, which formed an extremely deep rift valley.

According to geological studies, the bottom of Lake Baikal is as deep as 10,000 meters, which is equivalent to the Mariana Trench. Lake Baikal is less than 80 kilometers wide.

How terrifying is this depth? To put it simply, the existing depth of Baikal is more than 1,600 meters, but in fact it is only 16% of its actual depth. At the beginning of the formation of Lake Baikal, the water storage capacity could be as high as 100 billion cubic meters, which is beyond the reach of any natural lake.

Lake Baikal, which is nearly 10,000 meters deep, has been gradually filled in with the passage of time and the impact of the surrounding rivers. But the power of the river alone could not fill Lake Baikal to its current depth, and all this is mainly due to glacial movements and **.

After the formation of the Baikal fault zone, the earth has encountered countless ice ages, glacial movement carried a large amount of sediment, gravel, and even the surrounding hills, all poured into Lake Baikal, and finally the glacier melted, the debris accumulated at the bottom of the lake, coupled with the collapse of steep rock masses on both banks, and the depth of Lake Baikal gradually decreased.

Thus, the huge volume of Baikal is due to the steep canyons formed by ancient geological movements, which is an advantage that the Great Lakes do not have, and even before several glacial periods, the volume of Baikal was perhaps even larger than it is now. So don't be stunned by the existing capacity of Lake Baikal, because it was much stronger than we thought.

Lake Baikal is located in the southern part of Eastern Siberia, Russia, and is the deepest and largest freshwater lake in the world. With an average depth of 730 meters and a maximum depth of 1,637 meters, the lake has been able to drink 5 billion people for half a century.

Lake Baikal, whose name originates from the ancient Sushen language "Beihaier Lake" and the Han Dynasty called "Beihai", is located in the southern part of Eastern Siberia, Russia, and has long been China's inherent territory. It is the oldest lake in the world, the seventh largest lake in the world, the shape is crescent-shaped, it was the main activity area of the nomadic people in the north of China in ancient China, the land of Suwu shepherd sheep in the Han Dynasty, and the animal and plant resources in the lake are abundant. The water quality of the lake is good, the transparency is up to a meter, and it is known as the "bright eye of Siberia".

In 2015, Lake Baikal had a total volume of trillions of cubic meters and a maximum depth of 1,637 meters, containing about 20% of the earth's total freshwater volume, equivalent to the total water volume of the five Great Lakes in North America, exceeding the water volume of the entire Baltic Sea, and making it the world's largest freshwater lake. With more than 300 hot springs and sunny shores, the lake is the largest health resort in eastern Russia. In 1996, it was included in the World List of Human Culture and Nature Conservation.