RUSSIAN WONDER

Lake Baikal

This year our country celebrates the 50th jubilee of the first flight to Space. The development of space plays a great scientific and practical role .Its exploration and researches help people in different spheres of life, for example,predict the weather forecast, have sputnik television, study ecological,geological, seismic points, take photos from satellite.Lake Baikal is also researched from the space(OrbView-2

satellite).

UNESCO World Heritage Site

In 2008 in Moscow was held a contest “Seven Wonders of Russia”. Lake Baikal was one of the winners in this nomination.

In1996 it was declared a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE.Do you know that Lake Baikal has its birthday?

It is celebrated on the last Sunday of August every year.

Lake Baikal was known as the North Sea in historical Chinese text. Europeans knew very little about the lake until the Russian

expansion into the area in the 17th century. The first Russian explorer to

reach Lake Baikal was Kurbat Ivanov in 1643.

There are some legends telling how lake Baikal was born.

“One of them said that a huge stone fell from the sky like they do now, sometimes. While it was falling it became red hot. When it hit the earth there was a

great rainfall. Earth, stone, and water came to a boil and in that turmoil Lake Baikal was born."

Lake Baikal is a rift valley, created by the Baikal Rift Zone,

where the crust of the earth is pulling apart. In geological

terms, the rift is young and active – it widens about two cm per year.

The fault zone is also seismically active: there are hot springs in the area and notable earthquakes every four years.

Its age is estimated at 25 – 30 million years,making it one of the most ancient lakes

in geological history. It is uniqueamong large, high – latitude lakes,in that its sediments have not been

scoured by overriding continental ice sheets.

The lake is fed by as many as three hundred and thirty inflowing rivers. The main ones draining directly into Baikal are the Selenga River, the Barguzin River, the Snezhnay River. It is drainded through a single outlet, the Angara River.

The lake is completely surrounded by mountains. The Baikal Mountains on the north shore and the taiga are technically protected as a national park. It contains 27 islands; the largest, Olkhon is 72 km long and is the third largest lake – bound island in the world.

Lake Baikal is the worlds oldest lake; it is the second most voluminous lake, after Caspian Sea. As the greatest freshwater lake in the world it contains roughly 20% of the world surface fresh water. It is the clearest of all lakes in the world.

Lake Baikal has

max. length – 636 km.

max. width -79 km.

max. depth – 1,642m.

.

If you want to know how much water therei s in Baikal have a look at these examples:

How many people can drink Baikal water at the same time?

It will be enough for the population 10 million times more than all the population on Earth now.

If there is only lake Baikal in the world people can live 40 years using its water.

And Americans could drink this water for 1000 years and Russians 2000 years.

There are four different natural landscapes prevalent on the territory of Pribaikalye: high-elevation, mid-elevation, low-

elevation and plain.

The high-elevation landscape is dominated by mountain tundra, Alpine and, rarely, low density trailing cedar forests located on the

elevation of 1600-2000 m.

Mid-elevation territories are covered mainly with dark-coniferous cedar or cedar/fir forests. Due to their

steep slopes and near inaccessibility the forest complexes have preserved their virginal and

aesthetic attraction.

The low-mountain landscape is on the elevation of 600-1200 m. It is dominated mostly by sloping dark-coniferous, cedar/larch, pine and mixed taiga. This landscape is rich in berries, herbs, mushrooms and

cedar nuts.

Along the plain are forest, steppe and marsh landscapes. The first two landscapes are the most frequently explored and are under a considerable

human influence. They are comfortable enough for various kinds of recreation, including tourism and

therapeutic treatment.

Singing sand

On some beaches around Baikal dry sand will make a singing, squeaking, whistling, or barking sound if a person scuffs or shuffles their feet with sufficient force. The phenomenon is not completely understood scientifically, but it has been found that quartz sand will do this if the grains are very well rounded and highly spherical. It is believed by some that the sand grains must be of similar size, so the sand must be well sorted by the actions of wind and waves, and that the grains should be close to spherical and have dust-, pollution-, and organic matter-free surfaces.

Others believe that the sound is produced by the friction of grain against grain that have been coated with dried salt. Water also influences the effect. Wet sands are usually silent because the

grains stick together instead of sliding past each other, but small amounts of water can actually raise the pitch of the sounds

produced. The most common part of the beach on which to hear singing sand is the dry upper beach above the normal high tide line, but singing has been reported on the lower beach near the low tide

line as well.

Another natural phenomena on Lake Baikal is its climate. The weather here has a range of peculiarities that one can hardly call comfortable. The main feature of the Baikal weather is its changeability. The lake being located in the centre of Eastern Siberia with its continental climate characterized by sharp contrasts between summer and winter temperatures.Seasonal temperature variations of this climate are smoothed over. Thus, there is a comparatively mild winter and cool summer. The difference between the Baikal climate and the climate of Eastern Siberia becomes quite obvious when for instance, comparing the temperatures in Irkutsk and on the lake. Though the distance between them is only 70 km, in December, while it is - 25-30╟ C in Irkutsk, it is only -15-20╟ C in Listvenichnyi Bay. But in July, when it is +25 + 30╟C in Irkutsk, it is only +15 +20╟ C ashore Baikal.

For almost five months a year Lake Baikal is covered with ice. This period of ice plays a

very significant role in its life.

The lake's ice attire, its beauty and majestic symphony of "ice music" make it very attractive

for every onlooker.

Duration of ice covered period: 4 - 5 months

A circle of thin ice ( dark in colour, with a diameter of about 4,4km.);

This is the focal point for ice break up in the very southen end of the lake.

Mysterious circles on the shore of the lake.

The lake in the winter, as seen from the tourist resort of Listvyanka.

The ice is thick enough to support pedestrians and snowmobiles.

Underwater Relief & Bottom Configuration

The Baikal basin represents a rather complicated formation on the earth's surface. It has been formed during long geological period. The analysis of underwater relief shows that the process of formation is not completed.

The Baikal basin, enormous in extent and depth, from the morphological viewpoint, represents a junction of three original troughs, more deeper South and Middle troughs and relatively shallow North trough. The troughs are divided by a prominent elevations of the bottom, the intradepressional uplifts. The watershed of Lake Baikal has numerous flora species represented

Lake Baikal hosts 1,550 varieties of animals. Perhaps the most important local species is the omul. It is caught, smoked and then sold widely in markets around the lake.

Omul Fish at the Listvyanka market

Of particular note are the two species of golomyanka or Baikal oil fish .These long-

finned, translucent fish normally live in depths of 200–500 m.

Baikal is one of the few continental reservoirs inhabited by "nerpa" (the Baikal seal). It is still a great mystery how nerpa appeared in the centre of the Asian continent, if its relatives live in the northern arctic regions. Some scientists consider that it was pushed southward from the Arctic Ocean by advancing polar ice during the Ice Age when oceanic waters carved out the

Yenisey valley up to the mouth of the Tunguska River. Baikal seals are known to go up rivers and rise rather high up with their streams, and sometimes

they may even take an overland trip from one river to another.

The Baikal Seal or nerpa is found throughout Lake Baikal.It is one of only three entirely freshwater seal populations in the world.

Nerpa is a big animal, it grows about 120-150 cm long and can weigh as much as 100-120 kg; it has a long life span. Specimens that appear to at the age of 50 and even older have been found.

Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It is also home to tribes who reside on the eastern side of Lake Baikal rearing goats, camels, cattle and sheep where the regional temperature varies from a minimum of −19 °C (−2 °F) in winter to maximum of 14 °C (57 °F) in summer.

Wildlife and vegetation

Squirrel

BearRein deer

wolfRed fox

Ermine Muskratsable

Known as the "Pearl of Siberia," Lake Baikal is the oldest and deepest lake on earth. Home to more than one thousand endemic species of aquatic life, it is a focal point for environmental activism and Siberian national pride.

BAIKAL is a very popular resort centre. If people come here they want to go back again and tie a ribbon hoping to return.

Lake Baikal has been sung in several Russian folk songs. Two of these songs are well known in Russia and its neighboring countries, such as Japan.

The Glorious Sea - Sacred Baikal (in Russian: Славное Mope, Священный Байкал) "Barguzin River"

The Wanderer (in Russian: Бродяга)

Источники информации

http://office.microsoft.com/ru-ru/clipart/FX101321031049.aspx?pid=CL100570201049-http://nova.rambler.ru/pictures

www.pedsovet.su

www.wikipedia.org