Explanation: What are these bubbles frozen into Lake Baikal? Methane. Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia, is the world's largest (by volume), oldest, and deepest lake, containing over 20% of the world's fresh water. The lake is also a vast storehouse of methane, a greenhouse gas that, if released, could potentially increase the amount of infrared light absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, and so increase the average temperature of the entire planet. Fortunately, the amount of methane currently bubbling out is not climatologically important. It is not clear what would happen, though, were temperatures to significantly increase in the region, or if the water level in Lake Baikal were to drop. Pictured, bubbles of rising methane froze during winter into the exceptionally clear ice covering the lake.

Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
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& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Earth - Zemlya Publikacii so slovami: Earth - Zemlya
Sm. takzhe: Zemlya iz mezhplanetnogo prostranstva Zahod Zemli s "Oriona" Protivosumerechnye luchi i festival' planet Voshod Zemli: video Udarnyi krater Manikuagan: vid iz kosmosa Zemlya i Luna: vid s drugoi storony Snezhnaya burya 1938 goda v Verhnem Michigane Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>