Baikal Rift, Russia
From series “Dangerous Faults and Rifts of Earth Crust”
The bottom of the largest in the world Lake Baikal is also a big tectonic rift. Shores of the lake are regularly moving and becoming wider. The scientists say that such transformations are a good example of a birth of a new ocean. However, this transformation will take hundreds of millions of years. The volcano activity near Lake Baikal is very high. Every day there register no less than five earth shocks. Tsaganskay earthquake of 1862 is one of the most known earthquakes in the world.
During this earthquake a great part of Tsaganskay steppe has gone under the water and now is known as a Proval Bay. This earthquake was very strong, its earth tremors were even in Mongolia. The storm has destroyed several villages, about 2 000 locals lost their houses forever. Nevertheless that for the last hundred years there were made a lot of researching works of Baikal Rift, the main reason of its nature wasn’t still found.
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Baikal Rift - interactive map
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