MOSCOW, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - Researchers studying Siberia's Lake Baikal say they have found evidence that most of the world's deepest lake is much younger than the widely accepted age of 25 million years.
Although the process of forming the lake began around 25 million years ago, its present-day shoreline is a mere 6000-8000 years old, a research team member said on Wednesday.
"Baikal as we can see it now, its shoreline, is about 6000-8000 years old, while the lake's deep-water area is about 150,000 years old," the researcher told RIA Novosti.
The Mir-1 and Mir-2 submersibles resumed work in June, following on from last summer's 52 dives.
"The structure of the lake bed at the dive locations is very unusual. Older strata lie on top, not below, as usually happens. This gives the impression that basalt, which is the oldest rock, is moving up over the younger strata," the researcher said.
This year researchers have started to monitor the lake in its southern parts, near Cape Tolsty. The expedition will then proceed to the north, with plans to conduct research in the lake's central part in July and in northern Baikal in August.
Lake Baikal has a shoreline of over 2,000 km and a maximum depth of 1,637 meters. The UNESCO world heritage site contains 83% of Russia's and 20% of the world's unfrozen freshwater.
