bunjywunjy:

actually my favorite thing about Baikal is the lake itself!

viewed from above, it looks like nothing particularly special. sure, it’s a big lake, but it doesn’t have the surface area of the Great Lakes or the Caspian Sea, right?

WRONG!

BOOM.

see, Lake Baikal really isn’t a lake at all, it’s a deep rent in the earth’s crust called a Rift Valley that just happened to get water in it. and the Baikal rift is one of the deepest and narrowest on earth, making this deceptively placid lake slightly over a MILE deep! that’s bonkers nutso.

like, you think the OCEAN is bad, just imagine being in a little fishing boat on this thing without realizing just how far away the bottom is….

 

bigwordsandsharpedges:

Holy fucking shit

 

hematite2:

That bitch has a quarter of the fresh water in the entire world?!

 

whitmerule:

I notice you never answered the crucial first question, OP. What lives in it? What lives down in that lake?

 

bunjywunjy:

congrats, you lucked out this time! because it’s

THEY

that dwell in the depths

 

whitmerule:

THEY!

I love they!

(this other branch is also good)

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Tags:

#the more you know #geography #seals #adorable #(I don’t think that seal is *quite* my style but I see the appeal)