Lake Baikal for SSC

Lake Baikal is the deepest and one of the biggest and most ancient lakes of the world. It is situated almost in the centre of Asia. Lake Baikal is a gigantic bowl set 445 meters above sea level. This grand, enormous, unusual and charming miracle of nature is located in the south of Eastern Siberia, in the Buryat Autonomous Republic and region of Irkutsk, Russia. The lake covers 31,500 sq.km. It is 636 km long and an average of 48 km wide. The widest point of the lake is 79.4 km. The water basin occupies 557000 sq. km. and contains 23000 cu. km. (cubic kilometer) of water, which is about one fifth of the world’s reserves fresh surface water.

The average water level in the lake is never higher than 456m. The average depth of Lake Baikal is 730 m. and its maximum depth in the middle is 1620 m. It would take about one year for all the rivers of the world to fill Baikal’s basin and would take four hundred years for all the rivers, streams and brooks now flowing into Siberian lake-sea to do the same.

1. Choose the best answer from the alternatives:   1×7=7

a) Lake Baikal is situated in ________.

i) Africa ii) Asia   iii) America   iv) France

b) The length of the Lake Baikal is_____.

i) 650 km ii) 630 km      iii) 636 km     iv) 720 km

c) The widest point of the lake is ______.

i) 97.4 km ii) 79.4 km  iii) 73.2 km   iv) 37.4 km

d) Baikal is a ______ lake

i) stormy ii) rainy iii) calm   iv) worse

e) The water of the lake looks green and _____.

i) black ii) white iii) dark blue  iv) red

f) The maximum depth of the lake is _____.

i) 1600 m ii) 1620 m    iii) 1630 m    iv) 1560 m

g) The average depth of it is _____.

i) 730 m    ii) 370 m     iii) 700 m    iv) 740 m

 2. Answer the following questions.        2×5=10

a) Where is the Lake Baikal situated?

b) How does it look like?

c) What is the average and maximum depth of the lake?

d) Why is it called a story lake?

e) When does the water of the lake turn black?