The Earth's hydrosphere occupies a volume of 1458.38 million cubic kilometers. To put it simply, let's say two-thirds of the planet. Of this number, the oceans "own" about 94% of the water, which contains various salts and gases. The rest of the water is frozen in glaciers (1.65%), hidden underground (0.01%), flows in rivers and rises into the atmosphere as steam. Against this background, it seems that there is very little water left for the lakes. Only 0.02%.

Basically, it is fresh water, vital for the inhabitants of the land. There are lakes where the water is salty. How many lakes are on Earth? The "final" answer was given by scientists from the Swedish University of Uppsala in 2014 - they named the figure - one hundred and seventeen million (the smallest that were taken into account - 0.2 ha.). Find out where the deepest lake in the world is located.

From a huge number, we will choose 10 + 1 of the deepest lakes in the world. Let's start in order with "shallow deep-sea lakes". There are two with the same indicator - 590 meters. They share tenth place among the leaders. Both are freshwater.

Not only the deepest in South America. It is also the second largest lake, delimiting Chile and Argentina. Today its area is 1850 km2. Argentina accounts for 870 kilometers, where it is called General Carrera. The rest belongs to Chile.

Carlos Maria Moyano "found" this lake while exploring the Patagonian Andes at the end of the nineteenth century.
Thanks to the shifts of glaciers, a pit was formed, gradually filled with water. Its initial level above the sea was more than four hundred meters, and the lake flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. When the glacier began to actively melt (from Chile), the flow changed towards the Pacific Ocean, and the level dropped to 208 meters.

The lake is alpine, so the climate is quite cold, strong winds blow. But tourists come to him to admire the amazing "Marble Cathedral" - an island consisting of minerals of white and turquoise hues.

Lake Matano - tenth place

In Indonesia, on the south side of Sulawesi, the waters of Lake Motano splash. Depth, like Buenos Aires, but the origin is different - the water filled the geological fault of the earth's crust. Motano area is almost three times smaller.

It is part of the unique closed ecosystem of Malili, consisting of five lakes, which are surrounded by mountains and tropical forests. The lakes are inhabited by endemic animals. Many unusual aquarium inhabitants come from this area.

The water of the lake is distributed in two layers: saturated with oxygen in the upper layer and free of oxygen and sulfates in the lower one. Deeper waters are supersaturated with iron. Along the shores of the lake, geologists have discovered deposits of nickel ores. In Indonesia, Matano is the largest body of fresh water.

Crater is the ninth deepest lake

In the USA - the first in depth. In the entire territory of North America - the second place. Owned by the State of Oregon. The eruption of the Mazama volcano, which occurred more than seven and a half thousand years ago, formed a crater, which eventually filled with water. Thus, Crater Lake was "born". The deepest place reaches almost six hundred meters (594 m). The walls of the caldera rise above the surface of the waters. Over time, they became overgrown with forests.

For the native Indians, "Blue Lake" was sacred. Looking into the depths, they tried to "find the truth" there. For European discoverers, it was interesting only from the point of view of searching for gold.

Since 1902, the area surrounding Crater (this is the third version of the name) has become a National Park. The shape of the Crater resembles an oval. The area is more than sixty kilometers. Scientists are sure that the lake is not yet fully formed - the bottom is constantly subject to hydrothermal activity. This means that the Mazama volcano only "fell asleep".

Great Slave Lake - 8th

It is not the largest - it is smaller than the Big Bear and occupies only the tenth place in terms of area. But for North America, it is the deepest - 614 meters. Located in Canadian territory.

In the post-glacial period, on the site of three lakes - Great Slave, Athabasca, Great Bear, there was one large glacial lake. Now they are connected by rivers. Mackenzie - the largest of them - flows into the Beaufort Sea. Thus, the lakes are part of the Arctic Ocean.

Indians have lived on their banks since ancient times. Europeans learned about this area thanks to the Briton Samuel Chiron in 1771. His expedition crossed the Great Slave on ice so hard that he could support the weight of a modern heavy truck. Only two months the lake is free from the ice shell.

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It is known that the name Big Slave received by mistake - "difficulties in translation" (slave - slave, slave). Slave natives have never been slaves.

In the thirties of the twentieth century, the city of Yellowknife was founded, thanks to the gold mines. Diamond mines also operate in the same places (upper reaches of the Coppermine River). In winter, cargo transportation is carried out on ice.

These three lakes are not included in the Great American Lakes system, but the nature surrounding them is no less picturesque. Like the bulk of the high-altitude lakes, Bolshoe Slave is a huge body of water with fresh water.

Lake Issyk-Kul is the seventh deepest

The recorded depth is seven hundred and two meters. In the Kyrgyz language, it means - Warm (or hot) lake. Included in the top ten deepest, and in thirtieth place in terms of area. The purity of the waters is slightly inferior to the waters of Lake Baikal.

This body of water is 1600 meters above the sea, in a depression between two Tien Shan ranges. It is filled with small mountain tributaries, but there are many of them (80). The lake has no outlet. The level of lake water changes cyclically over several decades. Its uniqueness is salt water, despite its location in the mountains. But the water is not sea. Salinity is given by dissolved minerals. This combination has created a rare ecological system around the never-freezing Issyk-Kul.

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The flora is distributed "stepwise":
close to the shores - shrubs (sea buckthorn);
above - spruce forests (Shenk spruce);
at an altitude of two and a half kilometers - mountain meadows, as in the Alps.

Of more than twenty species of fish, fourteen live only in Issyk-Kul.
There are many traditions and legends about the lake and the places surrounding it among the people.

Lake Nyasa - the sixth in the ranking

The lake "belongs" to three African states - Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi, located in the southeast of the continent. One of the reservoirs of the Great Rift Valley, the deepest - 706 meters. Although a hundred years ago it was deeper.

The reservoir is located at an altitude of 472 m. The figures show that its bottom is 234 m below the sea border. The flow of the lake is very weak. The water is updated slowly. Studies show a period of more than a hundred years. During the rainy season, the basin can be overcrowded, which leads to floods. In dry times, the level drops, causing the Shire River, the only outlet, to dry up.

One of the few places where the natural self-cleaning system is practically absent. Ecology is very sensitive to environmental conditions, pollution. The water in Nyasa, as in Issyk-Kul, is salty, but their composition is different. Also, the water column doesn't look like a three-layered cocktail. The upper layer is full of life, the lower layer contains almost no oxygen. Only fish from 230 to 500 species (according to some sources - 1000) live in this lake - the richest "lake collection" in the world, most of the "exhibits" in which are endemic.

The coast is also quite busy - in addition to birds, there are dangerous animals - crocodiles, hippos ...
The rest of the world became aware of the existence of a "great inland sea" at the center of the African continent in 1616. The Dutch traveler Bukaru became the first European to see Malawi (another “name” for the lake). Although for some time David Livingston was considered the official discoverer of Lake Nyasa.

Lake San Martin - fifth place

San Martin - the greatest recorded depth (near the O'Higgins Glacier) is 836 meters. Location - 250 meters above sea level in the Andes of Patagonia. San Martin is the separator between Argentina and Chile. The inhabitants of these countries call the same body of water differently - San Martin and O'Higgins.
Interestingly, in both cases, the lake got its “name” in honor of the heroes honored by these peoples - José de San Martin and O'Higgins Bernardo.

The southern intermontane depression of the Patagonian Andes of South America is filled with water. The shape of this lake is unusual - eight separate "sleeves". The flow occurs through the Pasuka River, reaching the Pacific Baker Fjord.
Lake water is milky blue. The lake pit is filled with glaciers flowing into it (Chico and O'Higgins), the Mayer River, and small streams. At the same time, rock particles in the form of a suspension enter the water. This is what makes the lake so unusual.

The surrounding landscape is reminiscent of the Scandinavian fjords. But not only the beauty of nature attracts tourists, but also fishing. The main catch is trout.

The Caspian Sea is the fourth place. Is it the sea or is it a lake?

The only closed sea on the planet that does not have a drain. Due to the huge size (371,000 sq. Km) and "non-standard" origin, disputes arise among researchers. According to the method of occurrence, it is a lake, and the dimensions "speak" - the sea.

The deepest point is 1025 meters. 44% of the world's lake water is in the Caspian Sea. Thirteen million years ago, the transformation of the earth's crust began, which served as the appearance of the "bed" of the Caspian Sea. Subsequently, at the junction of the continents - Europe and Asia - an immense lake arose.

Archaeologists, when they explored the Khuto cave (the region of the southern coast of the Caspian Sea), proved that people inhabited these places seventy-five thousand years ago. The first known references to this sea and the peoples living there date back to the fifth century BC. Herodotus spoke about him.
The composition of water contains salts, but their percentage, composition is very different in different places of the sea, not to mention the ocean.

Its level is very dependent on changes in climatic conditions, the magnitude of the flow of rivers flowing into it. Evaporation and precipitation are of great importance. Just like any other drainless lake, the Caspian Sea is subject to pollution. The ecology of such places needs additional support.

Vostok - a lake hidden under ice, in third place

Not only the deepest, but also the largest of the Antarctic relict lakes. The informal name is "Time Capsule".

The East is hidden under a four kilometer ice sheet. Its exact dimensions are not known. The estimated area is fifteen and a half thousand square kilometers, and the maximum depth is more than 1200 meters.

For several million years, this lake has existed completely isolated. Oxygen in it, according to unverified data, is fifty times higher than the amount that can be in standard fresh water. This indicator gives scientists the right to expect that there may be living organisms in the lake.

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By the way, the only thing that can be said about this lake (theoretically) for sure is that the water in it is fresh.
Lake Vostok has been little explored due to its inaccessibility. Therefore, there are very few proven facts - basically everything that is said about him is speculation. Even more open than it was made on the basis of the theoretical calculations of Andrei Kapitsa in the late fifties of the twentieth century. And "physically" this theory was confirmed in 1996 by Russian polar explorers who conducted research at Vostok station.

Tanganyika - on the other side of the planet, a lake that ranks second

Depth, a little less than one and a half thousand kilometers. But this lake - the world record holder due to its length - stretches for 676 km. Four African states: Congo (DRC), Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia are located on the banks of Tanganyika.

At an altitude of 773 meters, in the deepest rift basin of the African continent, there is a lake. Its depth reaches a record 1470 meters. In antiquity, it is almost the same as Lake Baikal. The surrounding landscape is majestic rocks. Only in the east the shores gradually become gentle.

The lake is filled with several tributaries, the largest flowing in the north is the Ruzizi River. From the east, the lake fills the Malagarasi, a river that predated Tanganyika itself. This river in ancient times flowed directly into the Congo. Now Tanganyika enters the basin of one of the largest rivers on Earth. The lake water runoff is the only Lukuga river. It connects with the Congo. Together they flow into the Atlantic Ocean.

In Tanganyika, as in the Black Sea, the upper layers of water do not mix with the lower ones due to natural causes. In terms of the amount of anoxic waters, it is in second place, right behind the Black Sea.

The fauna and flora of the lake and its surrounding area is very rich, thanks to the tropical climate. The presence of 600 endemic species is explained by its ancient origin, by the fact that it never dried up, it was isolated (drainageless) for a long time. The pioneers of such a huge body of water in the year 58 of the nineteenth century were the Englishmen Richard F. Burton and John H. Speke.

Baikal is the deepest lake in the world. First place ranking.

So where is the deepest lake on the planet? The answer is unequivocal - in the same place where the largest country in the world. Lake Baikal is located in Russia. Baikal is not only the “most-most”… lake in terms of depth.

The oldest rift in Eastern Siberia, shaped like a crescent, is located in the south of the region. It was in this fault that Baikal was formed. It is recognized as the largest natural reservoir of clean fresh water, with an area of ​​31,722 sq. kilometers. The deepest lake in Russia contains 19 percent of the world's fresh water.
The length of the lake is only forty kilometers inferior to the African Tanganyika. But the depth of Baikal is 1642 meters (almost two hundred meters difference). Although these are only official figures. Many researchers say that the depth of the lake is much greater.

This is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. Its depth is 1637 meters.

Located the deepest lake in the world almost in the center of the vast continent of Eurasia. Baikal is 636 kilometers long and 80 kilometers wide.

The water of Lake Baikal accounts for 20% of all fresh water reserves in the world, and 90% in Russia. Baikal is also the cleanest lake in the world. Due to the activity of living microorganisms living in it, the water is slightly mineralized (almost distilled), which explains its crystal transparency. In spring, water transparency reaches 40 meters.

Eats the deepest lake in the world three hundred and thirty six permanent rivers and streams. The largest river flowing into Baikal is the Selenga River. Only one river flows out of the lake - the Angara. Thus, Baikal is the most full-flowing lake and the largest storage of fresh water in the world.

The flora and fauna of the deepest lake in the world is very diverse. Whitefish, lenok, taimen are found here - representatives of the salmon family. Sturgeon, grayling, pike, carp, catfish, cod, perch and many other families of fish. Also, seals are found here, which are the only representatives of mammals in the lake. In autumn, on the rocky shores, you can see a lot of these Baikal seals.

Nerpa is not the only inhabitant of the coasts, a lot of gulls, mergansers, goldeneyes, turpans, shelducks, white-tailed eagles, ospreys and other birds nest along the coasts and on the islands.

Lake Baikal attracts numerous tourists from all over the world with its beauty and amazingness. On the shores of Lake Baikal, infrastructure, recreation centers, and hotels are widely developed.

Lake Baikal is a natural heritage not only of Russia, but of the whole world, so we must protect it, preserve its originality. Baikal opens up to us many beautiful landscapes, looking at which is breathtaking...

For some people, the very word lake is associated with a shallow body of water, which is suitable for floundering in the water and is safe even for children. But in reality, lakes can be huge in size, and their depth can be completely fantastic.

Not all lakes have a great depth - the most impressive in this regard are reservoirs of tectonic origin, that is, those that are located at the site of cracks, faults in the earth's crust, and the same Baikal can be cited as an example. Lakes located in the lowlands usually have a shallower depth, but at the same time a larger area. As part of this article, information will be provided on the deepest lakes on the planet, which are definitely worth paying attention to.

Fifth place - San Martin

This reservoir is located in Patagonia, and its very location is already interesting. It is located between Chile and Argentina, right on the border of these countries, at an altitude of about 250 m. The mirror surface is 1058 square meters. km by area, the reservoir has a depth of 836 meters. For the entire mainland of South America, it is considered the deepest, and it also has two names. San Martin - this name is relevant for Argentina, but in Chile its name sounds like O Higgins. Cold streams from the mountains flow into this reservoir, which are formed during the melting of glaciers, and only one more or less large Mayer river. The waters leave this lake through the Pasqua River, which flows directly into the Pacific Ocean. Since small stone deposits, which are brought with water from glaciers, get into the water, the water here has a specific milky hue. Minerals eventually settle at the bottom of this reservoir.

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Fourth place - Caspian Sea

It would seem, where did the sea appear in the article about lakes? But this is no coincidence. It's worth knowing that The Caspian Sea is a lake, just salty, because it has no access to the ocean, neither direct nor through other seas. Although at the bottom of it is the oceanic crust. Perhaps, sometime in the past, the water level was higher, and the Caspian Sea, together with the Aral Sea, connected with the Black Sea, forming a common basin. This could very well be.

But at the moment, this lake, separated by a chain of the Caucasus Mountains, with an area of ​​​​371 thousand km., And with depth reaching 1025 meters. The Volga River and about 130 other rivers flow into this lake. There are a lot of fish and other living creatures, many inhabitants are found only here. And under this lake there are deposits of oil and gas.

3rd place - East

This lake is located in Antarctica, and it will be problematic to find it with the naked eye, because it is under the ice sheet. This is the largest subglacial lake of all that exists in the world, and it owes its name to the nearby Vostok station, which belongs to Russia. According to studies, this lake can reach depths of 1200 meters and more, it was discovered relatively recently - it was discovered only in 1996. It was explored by drilling. These studies are extremely important for science, since there is a hypothesis according to which the surface of Jupiter's moons also has similar lakes in which life may well develop.

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Second place - Tanganyika

This lake is the deepest in all of Africa, its depth is 1470 meters.. This is a tectonic reservoir located in the depression of the rift zone, and it was found quite by accident. Scientists were looking for the source of the Nile, and found this lake. The Lukuga River flows out of it, and several small rivers flow into it at once. The flora and fauna here is very rich, there are hippos, there are also crocodiles - there were reports that they found a record-breaking 9-meter crocodile attacking people here (Read our article: the largest species of crocodiles). A huge number of birds also live here.

The deepest lake in the world

The deepest lake in the world is Baikal. The depth of the reservoir is 1642 meters, and perhaps this is not the limit, since tectonic activity in the region is aimed at expanding, deepening the lake due to the divergence of plates. Yes, this is another tectonic body of water. At the moment, Baikal contains 20 percent of fresh water located on the surface of the planet, and In terms of its volume, Baikal exceeds the entire network of the American Great Lakes taken together..

There are many lakes in the world, and most of them are located in the Northern Hemisphere. Baikal is the deepest lake in the world. In the form of a narrow blue crescent, Baikal is located almost in the center of the huge continent of Eurasia. Surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges, it stretches for 636 kilometers, up to 80 km wide, with a total area of ​​​​Belgium, with its 10 million population.

Historians are still arguing about how Baikal arose - either as a result of slow transformations, or because of a terrible catastrophe, as a result of which a sinkhole occurred in the earth's crust.

336 rivers and streams flow into the deepest lake in the world, while half of the volume of water that enters the lake comes from the Selenga River. The only river flowing from Baikal is the Angara.

The water surface area of ​​Lake Baikal is 31,470 square kilometers. The average depth of the lake is 730 m, and the maximum is 1637 m, which makes it the deepest lake in the world, ahead of the African Lake Tanganyika - the closest contender for this title - by 200 meters.

To describe the immensity of the water body of Baikal, it should be pointed out that the Angara River, which annually removes 60.9 km3 of water from the lake, will need approximately 378 years of uninterrupted operation to completely drain its basin. Of course, provided that during this time it does not evaporate from its surface and not a liter of water gets into it.

The deepest lake in the world has 30 islands, the largest of which is Olkhon.

Baikal water

Like Baikal itself, its water is unique and amazing. She is very clean and transparent. Our ancestors considered it curative and used it to cure diseases.

In spring, the transparency of the water of the deepest lake in the world reaches 40 meters. Such a deep transparency is explained by the fact that due to the activity of living organisms, Baikal water is rather weakly mineralized and approaches distilled water.



About 23 thousand cubic kilometers - this is the volume of the deepest lake in the world. It provides 90% of Russian and 20% of the world's fresh water reserves. In terms of the amount of water it can hold, Baikal will give odds to all five Great American Lakes combined (22,725 km3). Each year, the Baikal ecosystem produces on average 60 cubic kilometers of oxygenated clear water.

Inhabitants of Baikal

Due to the many physical and geographical features of the deepest lake in the world, plant and animal life is in full swing here.

The lake has 52 species of fish of several families among its permanent residents:

The pyramid of the lake ecosystem is headed by the only representative of mammals in the lake - the seal, or the Baikal seal. For almost the entire year, the seals live in the water, and in autumn they form mass “lyings” on the rocky shores of the lake.

The life of local animals is connected not only with the lake itself, but also with its coast. Gogol, gulls, scoter, mergansers, white-tailed eagles, ospreys, shelducks and other birds nest on the shores of the deepest lake in the world and on its islands.

Another integral contingent of the great lake is made up of brown bears, which arrange a mass exit to the shores. And in the mountain taiga of the Baikal region lives the smallest deer - the musk deer.

The diversity of the organic world of Baikal will turn the head of every nature lover. A large number of inhabitants of the deepest lake in the world, including animals and plants, cannot be found in other water bodies of the globe. Baikal has 848 species of endemic (typical only for this region) animals (about 60%) and 133 species of endemic plants (15%).

However, Baikal also has environmental problems, such as the pulp and paper plant, as well as the Dzhida tungsten-molybdenum plant, which dump their waste into the lake's ecosystem.

In an interview with the Russian edition of The Epoch Times in early 2010, Vladimir Kulish, board member of the Movement for the Protection of Baikal, spoke about the waste situation at the deepest lake in the world: “Hundreds of meters from Lake Baikal, next to a pulp and paper mill, in sludge collectors contain tens of millions of cubic meters of solid waste from the plant - lignin. It contains hazardous compounds of heavy metals and chlorine. The plant is located in a zone of increased seismic activity, and in case of damage to the sludge collectors, everything will flow directly into Baikal.”

December 18, 2010 in Irkutsk, the nearest city to Baikal, a collection of signatures was held for New Year's environmental cards to Father Frost with a request to solve the problem of pollution of the deepest lake in the world.

Perhaps Santa Claus heeded the requests of environmentally conscious citizens, since a few days later, representatives of the Russian authorities announced that the state would allocate one billion rubles in 2011 to implement a program for the next ten years to protect Lake Baikal and the socio-economic development of the Baikal natural territory.

Igor Maidanov, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology, said that work would be funded to eliminate the waste from both plants, which are like "poisonous pimples around Lake Baikal."

Baikal and tourists

Today, the deepest lake in the world attracts tourists from all over the world like a magnet. The opening of the tourist and recreational zone on Lake Baikal made it possible to significantly increase the number of tourist bases and improve the quality of service.

A huge amount of water, which contains the deepest lake in the world, has a bewitching effect on a person, and he involuntarily imbues Baikal with mystical feelings.

North Baikal with its wild and uninhabited shores is especially little traveled and beautiful, the nature here is untouched. This area is also known for a large number of thermal springs where you can swim.

Some tourists bring a kayak with them to sail along the shore of Lake Baikal, others rent a boat. For those who value comfort, the latter is preferable, but in any case, you can get a lot of positive emotions while admiring the magnificent mountain scenery. The height of the local mountains reaches 2.5 km, you can see glaciers and eternal snow.

However, tourists are not recommended to be tempted to kayak across Lake Baikal, as the local weather is very changeable, a storm can start at any moment. There are many winds on Baikal, and each has its own name. Main winds: kultuk, barguzin, sarma, miner, verkhovik. Some of them are extremely dangerous on the water and, having caught a light boat in the middle of the lake, they will easily turn it over!

According to the indigenous people, Baikal is sacred, and many Buryats consider it not just a lake, but a rational and wise being. There are many legends and beliefs about Baikal. A native Buryat unnecessarily will not allow himself to throw a coastal stone into the deepest lake in the world: “Baikal put it in a wave in this place, which means that it should lie here!”