Lake Baikal is the deepest freshwater lake in the world, reaching 1,642 meters.
It lies in southern Siberia, Russia, and formed in an active continental rift zone. The lake is roughly 25 million years old, making it one of the world’s oldest existing lakes as well as its deepest. Its great age and isolation have allowed many unusual species to evolve.
Baikal contains about one-fifth of the planet’s unfrozen surface fresh water, a remarkable amount for a single lake. The endemic Baikal seal, or nerpa, is the only seal species that lives exclusively in fresh water.
Lake Tanganyika is the second-deepest lake, while Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake by surface area. Those distinctions are different from Baikal’s record for maximum depth and its enormous water volume.