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Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, is located in:
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Answer: Option B — Russia
Detailed Solution
Lake Baikal is located in southern Siberia, in Russia, near the border with Mongolia. It is a remarkable lake with several world records:
It is the deepest lake in the world, with a maximum depth of about 1,642 metres.
It is the oldest lake in the world, estimated to be about 25-30 million years old.
It is the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, holding about 23,600 cubic kilometres of water, roughly one-fifth (about 20-23%) of the world's unfrozen surface fresh water. This is more than all five of North America's Great Lakes combined.
Lake Baikal is a rift lake, formed in a rift valley where the Earth's crust is slowly pulling apart. It is crescent-shaped, about 636 kilometres long and up to about 80 kilometres wide. More than 300 rivers and streams flow into it, but only one river flows out of it: the Angara river, a tributary of the Yenisei.
Its water is exceptionally clear, and it freezes over in winter for about four to five months. Because of its age and isolation, it has a unique and rich biodiversity, with thousands of species, many of them endemic (found nowhere else). These include the Baikal seal (nerpa), one of the only freshwater seals in the world, and a fish called the golomyanka. Lake Baikal was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 and is called the "Galapagos of Russia" or the "Pearl of Siberia".
Other notable lakes of the world:
- Caspian Sea: the largest lake (inland water body) in the world by area; it is saline.
- Lake Superior (North America): the largest freshwater lake by surface area.
- Lake Victoria (Africa): the largest lake in Africa and the largest tropical lake; it is a source of the White Nile.
- Lake Tanganyika (Africa): the second-deepest and the longest freshwater lake.
- Lake Titicaca (Peru-Bolivia): the highest navigable lake in the world.
- Dead Sea (Israel-Jordan): the lowest point on land and one of the saltiest lakes.
- Wular Lake: the largest freshwater lake in India.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Kazakhstan has Lake Balkhash.
- ✗Mongolia has Lake Khövsgöl, which drains into Baikal.
- ✗Canada has Great Bear Lake and part of the Great Lakes.
Quick tip
Remember: Lake Baikal (Russia) = deepest (1,642 m), oldest and largest by freshwater volume (one-fifth of surface fresh water), only outflow Angara; Caspian = largest by area; Superior = largest freshwater by area.
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World Geography — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of World Geography, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers the physical and political geography of the world: continents, major countries, mountain ranges, plateaus, rivers, deserts, grasslands, and the world's important cities, ports and resources. Exams test the longest rivers (the Nile and the Amazon), the highest peaks and the ranges they belong to, the largest deserts, and the local names of grasslands, such as the Prairies, Pampas, Steppes and Veld. Questions on cities located on rivers, such as Baghdad on the Tigris or London on the Thames, are also common. Practise the world geography questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.