Baikal - Lake of Superlatives


            Happy New Year and welcome to 2014!

            Did you have a nice New Year’s Eve? How did you spend it? Warm and cozy at home with family? Enjoying a lovely (and safe!) gathering with friends?

            Perhaps you spent it enjoying a circus on the bottom of a frozen solid lake?

            Well, believe it or not, somebody did!

            Picture towering mountains cradling a rugged valley. Picture steep, smooth slopes tumbling down to the massive, sparkling body of water below. And imagine that the water is so clear that, standing on the shore out you can see up to forty feet into its depths.

            That place you’re seeing in your mind is Siberia’s Lake Baikal.

            This sprawling body of water was one of Mother Nature’s  earliest creations. It fact it’s known as the oldest lake in the world at the hearty age of 25 to 30 million years. It was formed when tons of rock collapsed from the bottom of an expanding fault line, creating a huge stone bowl.

            It wasn’t long in geological terms before that stone bowl began to fill up with assistance of rainfall and the three hundred or so rivers that empty into it. It’s a startling contrast that there’s only one river carrying water out of it.

            Today, Lake Baikal holds more water than all five of North America’s great lakes combined. In fact, it contains more that 20% of the worlds total non-frozen fresh water supply. That’s a whole bunch of water! It’s probably no wonder that Baikal is also the deepest lake in the world. It would have to be to accommodate that kind of volume. It has a maximum depth of  more than a mile (That’s 5314 feet!)

            And sheer size! The surface alone is roughly the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut put together.

            If you thought that was enough amazingness for one lake, think some more!

            Lake Baikal also just so happens to be a very highly endemic environment. That means that 80% of the plants and animals that live there, live ONLY there, and are found nowhere else on earth. This includes a couple of species of golomyanka fish, translucent deep water dwellers who can’t tolerate sunlight and begin decaying as soon as it touches their skin.

            Then there’s the BaikalSeal. This cute, fuzzy little guy is one of only two species of freshwater seal  known to exist, and you will only find him at Lake Baikal. His closest cousin lives some 2000 miles away in the Arctic. Do you think this big-eyed, gray, velvet-faced little guy knows he’s living on one of the most amazing places on earth?

            So, then, what is this Underwater Circus all about? Apparently it’s a tradition that on New Year’s Eve, a hole is cut in Baikal’s floor with a “New Year’s Tree”. They set the tree down there, then dance all around it. Happy New Year!

            Lake Baikal made the news, recently. As one of the region’s best natural resources, it’s a huge attraction to local industry. Sadly, Baikal’s banks are lined with civilization.

            Late in 2013, the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill closed it’s doors for good, bringing an end to the tons of waste dumped into the water every day. This monumental move was made in response to tremendous pressure to put the environment first.

            And it is absolutely awesome that this one-of-a-kind place is being protected. This is wonderful news!

            At the same time, however, it makes me cringe that this decision had to cost over a thousand people their jobs.

            I wish it didn’t always have to be a choice between whether to take care of Mother Nature or to look after each other. I will jump up and down with glee and kick my heels together the day we figure out a way to do both.

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