Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is the world's deepest lake and the largest by volume of fresh water, holding approximately one-fifth of the planet's unfrozen surface fresh water in a rift valley in southern Siberia. In winter the surface freezes to a depth of up to two metres, and the resulting clear, stress-fractured ice produces abstract blue and turquoise patterns that are widely photographed. The endemic Baikal seal, or nerpa, is one of the world's only freshwater seal species and can be observed on the lake's ice floes.