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What is the largest freshwater lake on Earth? Many would immediately answer: Lake Baikal. But just how vast is it?
A single drop of water that enters Lake Baikal can take about 400 years to flow out into a river. For four centuries it would drift in that immense body of water, waiting to be swept away by the Angara River and carried to the sea.
Lake Baikal holds one-tenth of the world’s freshwater contained in all of the planet’s lakes combined. That’s quite an impressive figure.
All the rivers on Earth would need 230 days to drain Baikal. And if the Angara River tried to empty this colossal lake, it would have to run nonstop from now until 2361, without a moment’s rest.
