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Lake Baikal from space, the largest, oldest, and deepest lake

Detailed Description

Lake Baikal is the largest, oldest, and deepest freshwater lake in the world

Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake, curves for nearly 400 miles through south-eastern Siberia, north of the Mongolian border. At its deepest point it is over 5,000 feet (1,637 meters) deep.

It is the world's largest freshwater lake in terms of volume. It contains about 5,521 cubic miles of water (23,013 cubic kilometers), or approximately 20% of Earth's fresh surface water. This is a volume of water approximately equivalent to all five of the North American Great Lakes combined.

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Public Domain.