Q 01/05

Lake Baikal is in which country?

A) Russia

B) Mongolia

C) Kazakhstan

D) China

Answer · why

A) Russia

It lies in southern Siberia between Irkutsk Oblast and the Republic of Buryatia.

Q 02/05

What is Lake Baikal's maximum depth?

A) 642 metres

B) 1,642 metres

C) 1,342 metres

D) 1,142 metres

Answer · why

B) 1,642 metres

That makes it the deepest lake in the world; the surface sits 455 metres above sea level, so the bottom is nearly 1,200 metres below it.

Q 03/05

Roughly what share of the world's unfrozen fresh water does Lake Baikal hold?

A) About 2%

B) About 12%

C) About 8%

D) About 19%

Answer · why

D) About 19%

By volume it contains more water than all the North American Great Lakes combined.

Q 04/05

How old is Lake Baikal estimated to be?

A) 25–30 million years

B) 100,000 years

C) 250 million years

D) 2–3 million years

Answer · why

A) 25–30 million years

That makes it the most ancient lake in geological history, and its sediments were never scoured by ice sheets.

Q 05/05

Lake Baikal's surface area is slightly larger than which European country?

A) Netherlands

B) Belgium

C) Denmark

D) Switzerland

Answer · why

B) Belgium

At 31,722 square kilometres it is the seventh-largest lake in the world by area.