Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake, curves for nearly 400 miles through south-eastern...

Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake, curves for nearly 400 miles through south-eastern Siberia, north of the Mongolian border. It lies in a cleft where Asia is literally splitting apart, the beginnings of a future ocean.

Geologists say Baikal today shows what the seaboards of North America, Africa and Europe looked like as they began to separate millions of years ago. It is estimated that Lake Baikal formed somewhere 20-25 million years ago, during the Mesozoic.

The lake freezes over for half the year, creating clear, turquoise shards of ice.

Reference:
http://lakebaikal.org/
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/754

Photos via Wikipedia Commons & Google search

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