Feb 24, 2019: Baikal Dzen

[xoxoxoBruce]

We’ve looked at Lake Baikal in Siberia before, the oldest, and deepest lake in the world.
It holds the cleanest fresh water, something like 20% of the world’s unfrozen fresh water.
Area = 12.248 sq mi
Volume = 5,666 cubic miles
Max. depth = 1,642 m (5,387 ft)
The surface gets up to about 45 F(7 C) in the summer but freezes over with pretty thick ice.
Anyway, I found these pictures supposedly from Baikal.

Rocks on the lake Baikal get heated from the sunlight every now and then and melt the ice beneath. After the sun is gone, the ice turns solid again thus creating a small stand for the rock above. It is called the Baikal Dzen.

Apparently I don’t understand what he’s saying, because it doesn’t make sense to me..
The sun heats the rock which in turn melts the ice under it. OK, so why is the rock so high?
He says that melted ice refreezes and pushes the rock up. Nope, no way, not going to happen.
I know ice is strong like Babushka, splits rocks, and will lift tall buildings with a single uumph.
But I also know ice, like me and Mother nature, takes the path of least resistance... always.
Therefore no reason to push the rock up when the ice can spread out.



In your freezer ice and frost migrate to a colder surface if there’s moving air, that’s how the self defrost works.
So maybe as the sun shines on the ice the wind wears it away and the rock is actually shade protecting that pillar.
But that rock disrupts the wind causing it to swirl, cutting that hollow.
But I’m guessing.



Canada says, ho hum, not impressed, have an egg.
I'll be at Tim Hortons if you find something worth showing me.

link

[limey]

"Вот такие камни можно встретить на льду Байкала в районе Сарминского ущелья. Днем они нагреваются от солнца, растапливают лед под собой, ветреность этого места помогает создать тонкую ножку под камнем."
You can find stones like this on the ice of Baikal in the Sarmin Ravine. By day they are heated by the sun and begin to heat up the ice beneath them, and the strong winds of this place help to make little pedestals under the stone.
(from here)

[xoxoxoBruce]

Ah, thank you. So I was half right with my guess, not shade but heat like the quote said. I was right about the wind carving out the hollow under it, but still doesn't explain why the rock is perched so far above the apparently flat ice all around the rock. I still can't buy the ice pillar pushing the rock up.

In Soviet Siberia, Mother Nature obey Putin laws.

[Degrees]

Well, when ice freezes, it expands. If the outside ring on ice were to freeze first, then when the inner core froze, I could see it being forced to push up instead of out.

I'm guessing those are pretty light rocks, though. If they were heavy at all, the expansion would fracture the outside ring, and no lift would happen at all.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Degrees

Well, when ice freezes, it expands. If the outside ring on ice were to freeze first, then when the inner core froze, I could see it being forced to push up instead of out.

I'm guessing those are pretty light rocks, though. If they were heavy at all, the expansion would fracture the outside ring, and no lift would happen at all.

This sounds reasonable to me.

I have seen ice cubes in the ice tray in the freezer with little spikes in the center of the the cube sticking up like the tops of Hershey kisses.

No rocks though.

Not just me, apparently.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by BigV

I have seen ice cubes in the ice tray in the freezer with little spikes in the center of the the cube sticking up like the tops of Hershey kisses.

I know that thing exact. Even documented it, somewhere here on Teh Cellar.

Usually with hot water in the cube makers.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Area = 12.248 sq mi

Period/decimal should be a comma.

12,248 sq miles, twelve thousand, two hundred forty-eight square miles.

Just saying, man, put that hatchet down...

[Gravdigr]

I'm having a little trouble buying that any water anywhere in Russia is considered even close to clean.

I did find this at wiki's Lake Baikal page:

It is considered among the world's clearest lakes...

Under Environmental Concerns, though, the phrase "...the lake's ultra-pure water..." is used.

So, there is the possibility, however slight, that I may not know wtf I'm talking about.

[Gravdigr]

Urrbody settle the fuck down.

I found Lake Michigan.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Here's another set of fantastic pictures at Lake Baikal taken last winter. Some very different from previous pictures.


https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/20...photos/590374/

[Diaphone Jim]

I have thought for many years that Lake Baikal is the only place in Russia that I would like to visit.
The picture of the lonely orange van takes my breath away.
Another flop for IE; had to go Chrome.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That Orange van made me think I'd want the windows open just in case. But then most people who die being dumped in cold water are dead in less that a minute.

[Diaphone Jim]

This popped up from somewhere this morning:
https://earthsky.org/earth/what-is-t...7pSf8RWISVRafo

Good article with good links.
Not sure how a hydro plant by itself could Aralize Baikal.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Most of Lake Baikal’s 2,500-plus species of plants and animals are found nowhere else in the world. Scientists believe up to 40 percent of the lake’s species haven’t been described yet.

What a massive project it would be to catalog them all, think of the paper work and man hours saved for every species exterminated.

[SPUCK]

This is like the elephant in the room no one is mentioning...

Rock on a pedestal. Why would there be a multi kilogram rock a hundred feet from shore in a DEEP lake available to 'sit on a pedestal'?