Lake Baikal reaches a maximum depth of 1,642 metres.
Lake Baikal lies in southern Siberia, Russia, and is the deepest lake on Earth. It is also the world's oldest existing continental lake, with an estimated age of about 25 million years. Its great depth formed in an active rift zone where the Earth's crust is pulling apart.
Baikal contains roughly 20 percent of the world's unfrozen surface freshwater, a remarkable amount for a single lake. It is long and narrow, stretching for about 636 kilometres, and holds more water than all of North America's Great Lakes combined.
The lake is famous for endemic wildlife, including the Baikal seal, the world's only exclusively freshwater seal species. Its surface freezes in winter, while deep water remains liquid beneath the ice. Lake Tanganyika is the second-deepest lake, but it does not surpass Baikal's 1,642-metre maximum.