In winter, white and silver methane bubbles appear densely in some areas of Lake Baikal.
Photographer looking for a tour guide Stanislav Tolstev captured a series of methane bubbles appearing in the newly formed ice in the Maloye More Strait, the Siberian Times reported on November 24. The Maloye More Strait separates Lake Baikal’s largest island, Olkhon, from its western shore.
“Ice in shallow bays and straits began to form in late November, while the rest of Lake Baikal froze around mid-January. The purest ice can only be found in some lakes in November. and December,” Tolstev said.
“The first time I noticed these methane bubbles was four years ago. Then I learned to distinguish methane bubbles from air bubbles. The methane bubbles freeze in layers, the bottom layer has a The bubbles can be as deep as 1.5 meters. According to local anglers, the other, messy and smaller bubbles are the “breath of Baikal seals.” They appear where seals come to the surface of the lake to breathe. breathe,” he added.
Baikal is the deepest freshwater lake in the world with a depth of up to 1,642m, formed in the fault zone of the Earth’s crust. The bottom of the lake is not solid, but a layer of sediment. Like swamps, this sediment contains a lot of gases, including methane.
In winter, large bubbles of methane can be dangerous for vehicles traveling on the ice. “In some lakes, the methane bubbles are so large that they can cause a car to collapse. The location can change from year to year. Usually, large bubbles exist from February to April,” Tolstev said.
The amount of methane escaping from the bottom of Lake Baikal is increasing.
The scientists tracked and found that the amount of methane escaping from the bottom of Lake Baikal was increasing. However, they cannot agree on whether the cause is global warming or not.
“There are leaks located at a depth of more than 380 m, and shallow leaks. We currently have information on 22-24 deep leaks and more than 100 shallow points,” said Dr. Nikolay Granin at the Institute of Research. Lake Irkutsk said. According to Granin, the temperature at the bottom of the lake has not increased and global warming has not affected the leak points. However, the decrease in lake water levels resulted in an increase in the number of methane leak points. The amount of methane hidden in the burning ice at Baikal is estimated at one trillion m 3 .