Lake Baikal is Russia’s largest freshwater lake by volume and the habitat of the endemic Baikal seal.
Located in southern Siberia, Baikal formed in an active continental rift zone where the Earth’s crust is pulling apart. It reaches a maximum depth of 1,642 metres and contains roughly 22–23% of the world’s unfrozen surface freshwater—more than all five North American Great Lakes combined.
The Baikal seal, or nerpa, is the world’s only exclusively freshwater seal. Its evolutionary history remains unusual because the lake is far inland, and scientists continue to study how its ancestors reached Baikal. The seal feeds heavily on fish such as golomyankas.
Lake Baikal is not the world’s largest lake by surface area: that title belongs to the saltwater Caspian Sea. Lake Superior is larger by surface area than Baikal, while Lake Tanganyika is also exceptionally deep. Baikal’s distinction is freshwater volume.