Underwater crater and oil reserves of lake Baikal

Cape and Кiver Shved (one more mysterious name of the Baikal), Cape Tolsty, Bay and River Zelenovskaya that are situated to the south of Cape Baklanyi, are as beautiful as many other Baikal places. In 1989 my cousin Ivan and I came across another mysterious phenomenon here. In Bay Zelenovskaya, 100 – 150 meters off the shore we netted in the evening to eat fish soup in the morning. Not to lose our fishing tackle we fastened to its end a large piece of white foam plastic measuring 50*50*50 cm, so that it was clearly seen even in a stormy sea. Imagine our surprise when in the morning on the water surface we found no traces of our networks and foam. Long search didn’t give any result. We imputed it to thieves passing by and accepted the situation. And only after a while my classmate, one of the administrators of the Baikalrybvod G. Temnikov told me that at that place fishing nets are dragged down the drain into an invisible underwater crater. When fishermen face such a situation they don’t even try to take away their fishing nets and just cut them off. Nobody knows where the Baikal brings its tributes, though sometimes they say the nets are found somewhere tens km to the north of the lake. In the past old men supposed that there was a subterranean passage in the Baikal that connects the lake with other water bodies right up to the North Sea.

One more disclosed mystery of the Baikal is the question if there are oil-bearing layers on its shores or in the sedimentary rock strata. This question was discussed in talks and literature even before the revolution (297, p. 7). In the region of Rivers Bolshaya and Malaya Zelenovskaya one of the most well-known places of oil show is situated. Two of them are located close to Cape Gorevoy cliff near the Barguzinsky Bay and another one – near River Zelenovskaya in the place of Stvolovaya. Up to now the presence of this fossil does not affect negatively the environmental conditions of surrounding water and places, for there are bacteria that feed with oil. This fact was noticed by the members of the expedition “Worlds” in 2008; they also discovered that these useful bacteria create a kind of coral settlement with height of 10 meters and together they perform their useful mission. Probably we should not be zealous in search of large oil reserves here. Let it be so as it is. The poet M. Vishnyakov wrote such a verse concerning this:

Geologist, my friend, my brother tired,

Protect our century against grief –

At the bottom of the Sacred Baikal

Don’t look for oil and gas,

Don’t erect so fast

Pile-drivers and drilling rigs.

There are enough sad discoveries

And fatal inventions.

Boldakovo is a place with several buildings situated in a small bay where formerly there was fish redemption centre taking the omul and corning it. The centre was especially productive during the war and postwar time when people had to significantly increase fish catch. Not far from this place there is the highest peak of the Sea Ridge – Char Davydov. It was named after D.P. Davydov, a famous enlightener and poet. He is the author of the popular song “Glorious Sea”. In summer the flat peak of the mountain represents the matting of blossoming alpine grasslands. 20 km eastwards of the Char we can see Lake Kolok out of which the tributary of the Selenga, River Itantsa, flows. The lake got its name for it represents a nearly perfect circle, a wheel with banks overgrown with wild taiga. The lake has a lot of fish and crystal pure water.

Zarechye and Sukhaya are two independent parts of a big old resident village. Zarechye differs from Sukhaya in that the main part of its population is ethnic Ukrainians, no wonder that locals call it “Ukrainian village”. In the years of Stolypin resettlement when people were moving from the central provinces of Russia to Siberia and the Far East, several residents of little Russian villages dropped behind the main mass in Kabansk because of illness of their eldest. They liked local places and sent a youth to find the Promised Land that turned out to be Zarechye.

Enkheluk is a village that is divided into the New and Old one. The name comes from the Buryat enhe meaning “calm, peaceful”. Such is the Baikal and surroundings there casting pacification and serenity. But the quiet life of Enkheluk was broken when the construction of the Irkutsk Hydropower Station started: the majority of population was moved from the flooded area to higher shores of the lake a few kilometers away. Today Enkheluk is the concentration of individual cottages of Ulan-Ude residents and camping sites. It is always a pleasure to have a rest here, but sanitary situation causes alarm.

See also

• The Many Faces of Multilingual and Mysterious Baikal. A.D.Karnyshev

Literature

1. A.D. Karnyshev "The Many Faces of Multilingual and Mysterious Baikal"© BSU Publishing House, 2011