Baikal Rift Zone

The Baikal Rift Zone is an active continental rift in southern Siberia, where extension thins and fractures the crust around Lake Baikal.

Continental rifting: The process by which continental lithosphere stretches, thins, and may break apart. The Baikal Rift Zone is a major active example of continental extension.
Lake Baikal: A deep freshwater lake in southern Siberia, occupying the principal basin of the Baikal Rift Zone. The rift’s largest and most visible basin contains the world’s deepest lake.
Eurasian Plate: A major tectonic plate that includes most of Europe and Asia. The Baikal Rift Zone lies within continental lithosphere associated with this plate.
Baikal seal: A freshwater seal species native to Lake Baikal. Its isolated habitat is one biological consequence of the lake’s long-lived basin.
Normal fault: A fault along which the hanging wall moves downward relative to the footwall under extension. Normal faults accommodate much of the crustal stretching around Lake Baikal.
Baikal–Amur Mainline: A railway crossing eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East, north of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Its route crosses the broader rift region and encounters rugged active terrain.
India–Eurasia collision: The ongoing convergence between the Indian and Eurasian plates that built the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau. Far-field stresses from this collision are one proposed influence on Baikal extension.
Baikal omul: A whitefish species native to Lake Baikal and important in its food web and fisheries. Its ecology and fisheries depend on the rift lake’s distinctive freshwater environment.
Rift basin: A sedimentary basin formed as extending crust subsides along faults. Fault-bounded subsidence created the deep basins occupied by Lake Baikal.
Sayan Mountains: A mountain system in southern Siberia and northern Mongolia, west of Lake Baikal. Their margins meet the western end of the rift system.

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