The deepest places on planet earth. The deepest places on planet earth The deepest ocean

Lakes are natural bodies of water formed in depressions on land that store 67.4% of all fresh water on Earth. The sizes and depths of lakes can be very different, and some of them are significantly superior to many seas in these indicators.

This review presents ten most deep lakes in the world.

10th place: – a lake of tectonic origin, located in the south of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Its depth is 590 meters. Matano is the most deep lake Indonesia. Lake Matano is an important source of fresh water in Indonesia, famous for its crystal clear waters, which are home to many rare species of plants, fish and crustaceans. On its banks there are deposits of nickel ore. The Patea River has its source in Matano, which, flowing through a waterfall, flows into Lake Mahalona.


9th place: – crater lake, which has a depth of 594 meters. Crater - deepest lake in the USA and the second deepest in North America. This lake is the main attraction of the same name national park, located in Oregon. Crater Lake was formed in a deep volcanic basin (caldera) more than 7 thousand years ago due to the destruction of the Mount Mazama volcano. Thanks to the melting snow, the water in the lake is especially clean and blue. Crater Lake has an unusual attraction - a huge log called the "Old Man of the Lake", which has been floating in a vertical position in the reservoir for more than a century. In 2005, Crater Lake was featured on the Oregon commemorative coin.

8th place: Great Slave Lake – the deepest lake in Canada and throughout North America . Its maximum depth reaches 614 meters. Eight months of the year the surface of the lake is covered with ice, which winter period so thick it can support a heavy truck. In the 1930s, gold was discovered here, which led to the founding of the city of Yellowknife on the shores of the lake.

7th place: Issyk-Kul is a salty closed lake in the northern part of the Tien Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan. Maximum depth of this deepest lake Central Asia– 702 meters. From the Kyrgyz language “ysyk kel” is translated as “hot lake”. It received this name due to the fact that its brackish water does not freeze even in severe winters. There are several connections with Lake Issyk-Kul interesting legends and stories. According to one of them, an ancient Armenian monastery with the relics of Saint Matthew. Another legend says that it was in this place that Tamerlane’s warriors laid down their famous pyramids from stones. In 2006, traces were found at the bottom of the lake ancient civilization, which existed 2.5 thousand years ago.

6th place: Malawi(other name - Nyasa) is the southernmost lake of the East African Rift Valley, located between Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. This is the second deepest lake in Africa - its maximum depth is 706 meters. IN tropical waters Malawi has the greatest diversity of fish species of any lake on Earth. Scientists have concluded that over the past 100 thousand years the depth of the lake has decreased by more than 100 meters. The causes of water loss are surface evaporation (up to 80%) and the Shire River, flowing from the southern part of the lake.

5th place: San Martin(other name - O'Higgins) is a fjord-shaped lake in Patagonia, located on the border of Argentina and Chile at an altitude of 250 meters above sea level. The area of ​​the lake is 1058 km² and its depth is 836 meters. This deepest lake South America . In Argentina the lake is called San Martin, in Chile - O'Higgins. The lake is named after national heroes José de San Martin of Argentina and Bernardo O'Higgins of Chile, who fought together for the freedom of South America. The lake is fed by the waters of the Mayer River and small glacial streams, and flows into the Pascua River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean. A unique feature of the lake is the milky blue hue of the water, which occurs due to particles of rock sediments that fall into the lake along with the meltwater of glaciers and settle on its bottom.

4th place: Caspian Sea – the largest endorheic lake on the planet with salt water, called the sea due to the fact that its base is made up of the earth's crust of the oceanic type. Located between Europe and Asia, the lake washes the shores of five countries - Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. The maximum depth of the Caspian Sea reaches 1025 meters, and its area is 371 thousand km². More than 130 rivers flow into the lake, the largest of which is the Volga. The Caspian Sea has a rich fauna - it is home to the Caspian seal, many sturgeon, and some species of fish are found only here. This huge body of water is a rich source of energy resources. Today, the total cost of oil and gas in the sea is 12 trillion. dollars.

3rd place: East – the deepest and largest of all subglacial lakes on Earth, covered with a thickness of ice of 4 kilometers. The unique reservoir is located in Antarctica, next to the Russian Antarctic station "Vostok", in honor of which it received its name. The estimated maximum depth of the lake is more than 1200 meters. The lake was opened in 1996. In February 2012, Russian scientists reached the surface of Lake Vostok, drilling into the ice shell of which lasted 20 years. Lake research can reveal a lot useful information world, because the conditions there are similar to those that existed many millions of years ago, and there is also an assumption that similar lakes exist on the satellites of Jupiter.

2nd place: Tanganyika- This deepest lake in Africa and the second deepest (1470 meters) in the world. It is also the first longest lake in the world (673 km), belonging to four countries - Tanzania, Congo, Burundi and Zambia. The lake is located in the deepest tectonic depression in Africa. It was discovered by chance in 1858 by British explorers John Speke and Richard Burton, who discovered it while searching for the source of the Nile. The lake is fed by several channels, and only one river flows out of it - Lukuga. Tanganyika is home to crocodiles, hippos, many waterfowl, and many unique fish species. After National Geographic magazine published a story about a 9-meter killer crocodile that caused the death of several dozen people, Lake Tanganyika has long been an object of special interest.

1st place: Baikal- This the deepest lake in Russia, Eurasia and the whole world, reaching a depth of 1642 meters. Located in the south Eastern Siberia The reservoir is the largest natural reservoir of fresh water - it stores 20% of the total supply of surface fresh water on the planet. The volume of water in Baikal is greater than in all US lakes combined. Baikal is also known as the most ancient lake on Earth, formed 25-35 million years ago, although lakes usually do not exist for more than 15 thousand years. Baikal is a unique ecosystem; about 1,700 species of flora and fauna live here, many of which are found nowhere else. The lake is included in the list of objects World Heritage UNESCO.

Thus, last year's results of German specialists were confirmed. As the director of the Hydrobiological Institute in the city of Ohrid, Susana Patcheva, emphasized, the age of the lake exceeds 1.2 million years, but this is not the final date, reports Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

It is believed that Lake Ohrid was formed a long time ago, even before the onset of the Ice Age. Surrounded by ridges mountain range Galicia, it is a kind of monument of relict, prehistoric nature.

The waters of Lake Prespa, going underground at the monastery of St. Nauma, through invisible underground channels, descend into the plain and spread over an area of ​​350 square kilometers, forming Lake Ohrid. In turn, the Black Drin River flowing from Lake Ohrid carries its waters into the Adriatic Sea.

Lake Ohrid is a witness to the geological past and a genuine museum of unique creations of nature. It can tell many secrets and tell about animals that lived on earth 30 million years ago.

The reservoir is located at an altitude of 695 meters above the sea, at its deepest point it reaches 288 meters.

In summer, Lake Ohrid resembles a spread velvet cover; the water warms up to +21 °C. A miraculous phenomenon here is that in winter the water here does not freeze and in bad weather the lake can even show its cruel temper and raise waves up to 5 meters from the ground.

The exceptionally transparent emerald water column, through which you can see to a depth of up to 20 meters, reveals to the eye not only the wonderful mosaic of the bottom, but also the life of many fish.

In the water you can see sponges clinging to the rocks; Crayfish hide in the thick coastal sedge, and huge schools of small bleak swim near the shore, from whose scales the so-called Ohrid pearls are made.

Eels living in Lake Ohrid, as well as eels in general, are a long-standing mystery of science. They swim here from the depths of the Sargasso Sea as tiny fry, sink to the bottom and live there until they reach sexual maturity, which occurs after 25 years. And then, driven by instinct, they gather late autumn into huge flocks and return to their ancestral home. There they lay eggs and die, and their offspring make the same mysterious journey several thousand kilometers long. Recently, hydroelectric dams built on the Drina have stood in this way. But eels have not disappeared from the lake - they are now transported to the sea in tanks.

On the last sunny days of autumn, countless flocks of birds cover the surface of the lake - wild ducks, geese, pelicans, swans, seagulls...

Since 1980, Lake Ohrid has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

You can find entire volumes of information about Baikal, both on the Internet and in various magazines and book publications. The lake is not deprived of attention from tourists, researchers and politicians. From year to year, stunning scientific discoveries are associated with Baikal; expeditions are constantly being equipped for thorough research. I decided to devote this topic to the most interesting facts and events related to Lake Baikal. I'll try to save you from boring geographical terms, only the most interesting things will be here. Most of the photos in the topic are clickable (open by clicking)

– one of the oldest lakes on the planet and the deepest lake in the world. Baikal is one of the ten largest lakes in the world. Its average depth is about 730 meters, the maximum is 1637 meters. In 1996, Baikal was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List




Scientists disagree about the origin of Lake Baikal, as well as about its age. Scientists traditionally estimate the age of the lake at 25-35 million years. This fact also makes Baikal unique natural object, since most lakes, especially those of glacial origin, live on average 10-15 thousand years, and then fill with silty sediments and become swampy


There is also a version about the relative youth of Baikal, put forward by Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Alexander Tatarinov in 2009, which received indirect confirmation during the second stage of the “Worlds” expedition on Baikal. In particular, the activity of mud volcanoes at the bottom of Lake Baikal allows scientists to assume that modern coastline the lakes are only 8 thousand years old, and the deep-sea part is 150 thousand years old



 Baikal contains about 19% of the world's fresh water. There is more water in Baikal than in all five Great Lakes combined and 25 times more than, for example, in Lake Ladoga




The water in the lake is so clear that individual stones and various objects can be seen at a depth of 40 m. The purest and most transparent water of Lake Baikal contains so few mineral salts (100 mg/l) that it can be used instead of distilled water.





Baikal is home to 2,630 species and varieties of plants and animals, 2/3 of which are endemic, that is, they live only in this body of water. This abundance of living organisms is explained by the high oxygen content in the entire thickness of Baikal water


Photo of Baikal from space

The most interesting fish in Baikal is the viviparous golomyanka fish, whose body contains up to 30% fat. She surprises biologists with her daily feeding migrations from the depths to shallow waters

The second, after the golomyanka, is the miracle of Baikal, to which it owes its exceptional purity, the crustacean epishura (there are about 300 species). Baikal epishura is a copepod, 1 mm long, a representative of plankton, found throughout the entire depth (it is not found in bays where the water warms up). Baikal would not be Baikal without this copepod, barely noticeable to the eye, amazingly efficient and numerous, managing to filter all the Baikal water ten times or even more in a year

A typical marine mammal lives here - the seal, or Baikal seal.



Baikal's water reserves would be enough for 40 years for the inhabitants of the entire Earth, and at the same time 46 x 1015 people could quench their thirst



Baikal ice presents scientists with many mysteries. Thus, in the 1930s, specialists from the Baikal Limnological Station discovered unusual forms of ice cover, characteristic only of Lake Baikal. For example, “hills” are cone-shaped ice hills up to 6 meters high, hollow inside. In appearance, they resemble ice tents, “open” in the direction opposite to the shore. The hills can be located separately, and sometimes form miniature " mountain ranges»


Satellite images clearly show dark rings with a diameter of 5-7 km on the ice of Lake Baikal. The origin of the rings is unknown. Scientists believe that rings on the ice of the lake may have appeared many times already, but it was impossible to examine them due to their enormous size. Now using latest technologies this has become possible, and scientists will begin to study this phenomenon. Such rings were first discovered in 1999, then in 2003, 2005. As you can see, rings do not form every year. The rings are also not located in the same place. Scientists were especially interested in the reason for the shift of the rings to the southwest in 2008, compared to 1999, 2003 and 2005. In April 2009, such rings were discovered again, and again in a different place than last year. Scientists suggest that the rings are formed due to the release of natural gas from the bottom of Lake Baikal. However, the exact causes and mechanisms of formation dark rings on the ice of Baikal have not yet been studied and no one knows their exact nature

The Baikal region (the so-called Baikal Rift Zone) is an area with high seismicity: earthquakes regularly occur here, most of which are one or two points on the MSK-64 intensity scale. However, strong ones also happen, so in 1862, during the ten-magnitude Kudarin earthquake in the northern part of the Selenga delta, a section of land with an area of ​​200 km went under water? with 6 uluses, in which 1,300 people lived, and Proval Bay was formed


A unique deep-sea neutrino telescope NT-200, built in 1993-1998, was created and operates on the lake, with the help of which high-energy neutrinos are detected. On its basis, the NT-200+ neutrino telescope with an increased effective volume is being created, the construction of which is expected to be completed no earlier than 2017


The first dives of manned vehicles on Baikal were made in 1977, when the bottom of the lake was explored on the Canadian-made Paisis deep-sea vehicle. In Larch Bay, a depth of 1,410 meters was reached. In 1991, "Pysis" on the eastern side of Olkhon sank to a depth of 1,637 meters.


In the summer of 2008, the Foundation for Assistance to the Conservation of Lake Baikal conducted a research expedition “Worlds” on Baikal. 52 dives of the deep-sea manned vehicles “Mir” were carried out to the bottom of Lake Baikal. Scientists delivered water samples to the Scientific Research Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after P. P. Shirshov. soil and microorganisms raised from the bottom of Lake Baikal




In 1966, production began at the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill (BPPM), as a result of which the adjacent bottom areas of the lake began to degrade. Dust and gas emissions negatively affect the taiga around the BPPM, and the forest becomes dry and dry. In September 2008, the plant introduced a closed water circulation system designed to reduce the discharge of wash water. According to the source, the system turned out to be inoperative and less than a month after its launch, the plant had to be stopped

There are many legends associated with. The most fascinating of them is connected with the Angara River:
In the old days, mighty Baikal was cheerful and kind. He deeply loved his only daughter Angara. There was no more beautiful woman on earth. During the day it is light - brighter than the sky, at night it is dark - darker than a cloud. And no matter who drove past the Angara, everyone admired it, everyone praised it. Even migratory birds: geese, swans, cranes descended low, but the Angaras rarely landed on the water. They said: “Is it possible to blacken something light?”

Old man Baikal took care of his daughter more than his heart. One day, when Baikal fell asleep, Angara rushed to run to the young man Yenisei. The father woke up and splashed his waves angrily. A fierce storm arose, the mountains began to weep, forests fell, the sky turned black with grief, animals scattered in fear all over the earth, fish dived to the very bottom, birds flew away to the sun. Only the wind howled and the heroic sea raged. The mighty Baikal hit the gray mountain, broke off a rock from it and threw it after the fleeing daughter. The rock fell right on the beauty's throat. The blue-eyed Angara begged, gasping and sobbing, and began to ask:

Father, I am dying of thirst, forgive me and give me at least one drop of water.

Baikal shouted angrily:

I can only give you my tears!

For thousands of years, the Angara has been flowing into the Yenisei like tear-water, and gray, lonely Baikal has become gloomy and scary. The rock that Baikal threw after his daughter was called the Shaman Stone by people. Rich sacrifices were made there to Baikal. People said: “Baikal will be angry, it will tear off the Shaman’s stone, the water will gush and flood the whole earth.” Currently, the river is blocked by a dam, so only the top of the shaman stone is visible from the water



There is a legend among the people about the creation of Baikal: “The Lord looked: the earth came out unkindly... as if she would not take offense at him! And, so as not to hold a grudge, he took and waved for her not some kind of bedding for her feet, but the very measure of his bounties, with which measured how much to be from him. The measure fell and turned into Baikal."





Incredible facts

The earth is still full of secrets even though many of them have been revealed scientists and researchersfor many years.

About several unusual places, created by people, but mostly by nature, you can find out here.

Plunge into the depths of our planet and imagine how many undiscovered secrets our planet holds.


The world's deepest well (the deepest well in the USSR)

In the Murmansk region, in 1970, 10 kilometers west of the city Zapolyarny is located the Kola superdeep well SG-Z, the depth of which is 12,262 meters, making it the deepest well in the world. The cost of drilling work is equal to the cost of the project to fly to the Moon. In 1989, the Guinness Book of Records registered the well as the deepest on Earth. It was drilled to study the boundaries of the lithosphere of our planet.

The deepest metro

The Kyiv metro station "Arsenalnaya" ("Arsenalna") is the deepest in the world. It is located on the Svyatoshinsko-Brovarskaya line and was opened on November 6, 1960. The "English type" station has a short middle hall and its depth is 105.5 meters.

The deepest ocean

The Pacific Ocean is not only the largest ocean on our planet by area, but also the deepest.

The deepest trench (the deepest place in the ocean, the deepest depression)

The Mariana Trench (or Mariana Trench) is an oceanic deep-sea trench. His name comes from those nearby Mariana Islands. The deepest part of the depression is called “Challenger Deep” and it goes down to 11,035 meters.

The deepest lake in the world

Lake Baikal, which many Russians call the sea, is a lake of tectonic origin and is located in the southern part of Eastern Siberia. In addition to being the world's deepest lake at 1,642 meters, Baikal is also the largest natural reservoir of fresh water. There is a unique diversity of flora and fauna here - more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, 2/3 of which cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. In addition, the lake is considered the oldest on Earth - its age is about 25 million years.

The deepest sea

The Philippine Sea, located near the Philippine archipelago, has an average depth of 4,108 meters, and is considered the deepest thanks to the Philippine Trench, the deepest deep point which is 10,540 meters.

The deepest river

The length of the Congo River is 4344-4700 kilometers, the basin area is 3,680,000 square kilometers, and the maximum depth is more than 230 meters, making it the deepest in the world. It is also worth noting that this is the second most water-rich river on Earth after the Amazon and the only large river, which crosses the equator 2 times. As the lower Congo begins to break through the South Guinean Highlands in a deep gorge, it forms the Livingston Falls, and it is here that the river reaches its greatest depths.

Deepest mine

On this moment The deepest mine in the world can be called the Tau-Tona mine, which is located 70 kilometers from Johannesburg (South Africa). The name of the mine can be translated from one African language as “great lion”. Gold is mined here, and so far this deposit has a depth of about 4 km, but mining is carried out at a depth of 2.3 to 3.595 kilometers.

Deepest cave

The Krubera-Voronya cave, located in Abkhazia, can be called the deepest in the world (at least among the caves studied). The entrance to the cave is located at an altitude of approximately 2,256 meters in the Orto-Balagan tract. It is worth noting that the Krubera-Voronya cave was discovered by Georgian speleologists in 1960. At the moment it has been explored to a depth of 95 meters.

 

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