Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia: Deepest Lake on Earth | International Space Station

Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia: Deepest Lake on Earth | International Space Station

Expedition 74 commander and Russian cosmonaut Sergey-Kud Sverchkov: "Every cosmonaut, before launching into orbit, has a list of places on Earth they'd like to see from an altitude of 400 km. These can be very different places: first and foremost, places connected with personal experiences, places of origin, or places they've visited before. And, of course, they also want to see the most extraordinary creations of nature from space, and, of course, the most outstanding human-made creations."

"I think Lake Baikal is on every cosmonaut's or astronaut's list, because there are reasons to consider it special."

"This is the deepest lake in the world (1,642 m deep), and it contains more than 23,000 cubic kilometers of purest fresh water. This is more than all the Great Lakes of North America combined. It represents 20% of all the surface fresh water on our planet."

"This is the oldest lake on Earth, 25-30 million years old. Around the same time, the Caucasus began to form, and the Sahara Desert did not yet exist."

· "Lake Baikal's water transparency can reach 40 meters. Due to this, as well as its depth and enormous volume, sunlight does not warm the surface layers, but penetrates deeper and is dispersed by the enormous volume of water. Therefore, Baikal remains cool even in hot summers, and a dense haze does not form over its surface, making its shores a convenient location for astronomical observations. Baikal is also used for underwater space exploration: a unique project, the Baikal-GVD (Gigaton Volume Detector), operates at the bottom of the lake. This is one of the world's largest neutrino telescopes, along with Antarctica's IceCube."

· "About 330 rivers and streams flow into Lake Baikal, but only one river, the Angara, flows out."

· "Baikal is home to 2,600 animal species, most of which are endemic. For example, the Baikal seal is the world's only freshwater seal."

"In short, Lake Baikal is a whole story, the story of our planet."

Follow Expedition 74:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 74 Crew
Station Commander: Sergey-Kud Sverchkov (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Andrey Fedyaev, Sergei Mikaev

European Space Agency Flight Engineer: Sophie Adenot

NASA Flight Engineers: Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Chris Williams

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Image Credit: Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov
Date: April 14, 2026

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