Etc.
Here's a really deep subject: one-mile-down Lake Baikal
With Earth's freshwater supply a focus of increasing environmental attention, it's worth noting that Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake, is enlarging by nearly one inch a year. Known as the Blue Eye of Siberia, it contains about 20 percent of the globe's surface freshwater, according to the Way to Russia website, which suggests that passengers on the Trans-Siberian Railway take a side trip to see its azure waters and diversity of flora and fauna. The lake is on a tectonic plate, which explains its depth in a seismically active area. By comparison, Superior, the deepest of the US Great Lakes, is 1,332 feet, which pales next to Baikal, where hitting bottom means descending 5,369 feet, or more than a mile. The 10 deepest lakes (in feet), and the location of each:
- 1. Baikal (Russia) 5,369
- 2. Tanganyika (Tanzania, Zaire, and Zambia) 4,708
- 3. Caspian Sea (Iran, Russia) 3,104
- 4. Nyasa (Mozambique, Tanzania, and Malawi) 2,316
- 5. Issyk Kul (Kyrgyzstan)2,297
- 6. Great Slave Canada) 2,015
- 7. Crater Lake (Oregon) 1,943
- 8. Lake Tahoe (California, Nevada) 1,685
- 9. Lake Chelan (Washington State) 1,419
- 10. Great Bear (Northwest Territories, Canada) 1,356
– National Park Service
