A large number of "marine life" appeared in Lake Baikal
When you talk about Lake Baikal, what is your first impression? Is it an endless blue wave? Is it the world's most abundant lake with freshwater resources? Or was it the shock of Suvu driving the flock to see Lake Baikal for the first time? Or is it a deep sense of powerlessness about that history? Time has passed, and these questions have long been answered.
However, recently, scientists have found that a large number of marine life has appeared in Lake Baikal, but is Lake Baikal not a freshwater lake? And Lake Baikal is more than 2,000 kilometers away from the sea, what is the reason for the emergence of marine life in Lake Baikal? Is there an undercurrent at the bottom of the lake that leads to the ocean? And why do marine life survive in freshwater lakes? Pay attention to the earth jun, and learn about a popular science knowledge every day.
How much fresh water does Lake Baikal have?
Before talking about these issues, let's first understand the basic information of Lake Baikal, which is located in the south of Siberia, Russia, with an area of about 31,500 square kilometers, a lake width of 48 kilometers, a length of 636 kilometers, an average altitude of about 450 meters, as the deepest lake in the world, The deepest part of Lake Baikal is 1637 meters, which can accommodate 23.6 trillion cubic meters of fresh water. The mainland covers an area of 9.6 million square kilometers, and there are countless freshwater rivers such as the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, but they are not worth mentioning compared with the freshwater resources of Lake Baikal.
From the volume analysis, Baikal's freshwater resources are eight times the total freshwater of the continent, one-fifth of the world's fresh water is in Lake Baikal, enough for the world's people to drink for 33 years, even if all the freshwater rivers in the world flow into Lake Baikal, it takes a whole year to fill it, and what makes people red-eyed is that Lake Baikal is located in a high latitude region, the temperature is low, even in summer the evaporation of the lake water is basically negligible, and Lake Baikal is translated as "rich lake" in Mongolian. It symbolizes its supreme position in the hearts of the Mongols. There may be an official who wants to ask, what resources are there in such a large lake?
Lake Baikal is rich in resources
In fact, in addition to freshwater resources, Lake Baikal also has a wealth of species resources, according to incomplete statistics, Lake Baikal has a total of 1200 species of animals and more than 600 kinds of plants, of which 1083 species are also unique varieties of Lake Baikal, but why is there so many unique varieties in a freshwater lake?
The reason is very simple, because Lake Baikal has a long history, and the salt content of the lake is very low, over time the lake has bred species that belong to Lake Baikal, and even many creatures that exist in the ocean, such as freshwater seals, Baikal lobsters, Baikal dufur, etc., but the problem is that Baikal is a completely inland freshwater lake, why are there so many marine life? Is there an undercurrent at the bottom of the lake that leads to the sea?
The "marine animals" of Lake Baikal are indigenous peoples
The expert's explanation for this is that in the early days of the formation of Lake Baikal, due to the squeeze of the Eurasian plate and the Indian Ocean plate, the Eurasian plate was torn open by a large wound, and the seawater was inverted to form the prototype of Lake Baikal, that is to say, Lake Baikal was originally a saltwater lake, and in the subsequent events of millions of years, the rivers and glaciers around this wound gradually converged, and the incoming fresh water diluted the saltwater, and the salt precipitation slowly left the category of the saltwater lake.
Geologically, Lake Baikal happens to be in the seismic belt, experienced tens of thousands of earthquakes during its formation, and eventually countless earthquakes carved Lake Baikal into what it is today, so rather than saying that Lake Baikal is a freshwater lake, it is better to say that it is an ancient ocean, since being isolated by plates, Lake Baikal has completely lost contact with the sea, but this does not mean that the organisms in the lake will completely disappear, these strong creatures not only adapt to the environment of Lake Baikal, but also have evolved, This also shows that the marine life that appears in Lake Baikal today is not a dark passage at the bottom of the lake, but the "indigenous people" of Lake Baikal tens of millions of years ago.
Amazing species evolution
It is worth mentioning that from the perspective of the degree of biological evolution in Lake Baikal, it can be concluded that the evolution process between aquatic species is similar, millions of years ago, trapped in Lake Baikal may be marine animals, but with the passage of time, these remaining marine animals and evolved into today's Unique Species of Lake Baikal, which has to sigh a sentence of life is so magical, whether the environment created life, or life changed the environment, perhaps this is the problem that human beings have thought about for millions of years and still do not know.
In the end, what do you think of the appearance of marine animals in Lake Baikal? If future conditions permit, is it possible for the creatures of Lake Baikal to return to life in the sea? Feel free to leave a message in the comments section.