IT IS the world鈥檚 biggest and oldest lake, dubbed the Galapagos of Russia thanks to the thousands of species found nowhere else on the planet. And right now, it is starting to freeze.
Lake Baikal is 25 million years old and sits in a rift valley bigger than Belgium. It freezes over for five months of the year. In March, when Siberian winds howl across the surface, temperature and pressure differences in the ice cause cracks to form, and great transparent slabs like these stick out above the surface. The ice slabs and hummocks are renowned for being among the world鈥檚 most beautiful. They are blue because air bubbles have been squeezed out by the high pressures the ice is formed under. Ice cubes in a gin and tonic are white because they contain lots of tiny bubbles.
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Proclaimed a UNESCO world heritage site in 1996, Baikal holds just over 23,000 cubic kilometres of fresh water 鈥� more than all five North American Great Lakes combined. It faces a variety of ecological threats, including industrialisation in nearby parts of Russia and Mongolia, pollution from tourism, algal blooms and, of course, climate change. As a result, ice cover is reducing and water temperatures are increasing.
Photographer
Philippe Bourseille, Getty Images Reportage
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淭he shard鈥�
