Bananas for Scale
Lake Baikal

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Lake Baikal

The oldest and deepest lake on Earth/Water

Lake Baikal in Siberia is roughly 25 million years old, making it the most ancient lake on the planet. It holds about 20% of the world's unfrozen surface freshwater -- more than all the North American Great Lakes combined. Its extreme depth and isolation have produced over 2,500 species found nowhere else, including the nerpa, the only exclusively freshwater seal.

Measurements

Water volume23.6 trillion m³
472 quintillionEyedrops
563Grand Canyons
787 trillionLarge watermelons

About 23,600 cubic km -- 20% of world's unfrozen surface freshwater

Maximum depth1,642 m
21,893Hat brim widths
16,420Hand breadths

Deepest lake in the world

Length636,000 m
118 quintillionCarbon nuclei
669 quadrillionthsGlobular cluster widths
909 billionRed light wavelengths

About 636 km long

Approximate age788 trillion s
6.2 millionUS presidencies
788 sextillionCPU clock cycles
146 billionSoccer matches

About 25 million years old

Surface area31.5 billion m²
5.9 millionFootball fields
485 billionToilet seats
6.8 trillionCredit cards

About 31,500 square km

Maximum width79,000 m
263,333Celery stalks
34,348Porta-potty heights
10.5 trillionCell membranes
Average depth744 m
12.2Hockey rink lengths
407Vending machine heights
62T-Rex body lengths
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