Upwellings in Lake Baikal

Research on Lake Baikal reveals that upwellings, driven by coastal run-off and alongshore winds, occur annually during the lake's direct temperature stratification period. These upwellings extend up to 60–100 km along the coast and can reach 250 km in North Baikal, with water rising from depths of 100–200 m at speeds of 0.1 × 10⁻² to 6.5 × 10⁻² cm/s. Additionally, intràbasin cyclonic macrovortices cause pelagic upwellings and coastal downwellings, lasting from 7 to 88 days and covering depths of 80–300 m in August, extending to 400–800 m by early-mid November. These phenomena cover 20–60% of the lake's basins and intensify coastal currents, forming a unique thermobar with a heat inert zone in November—a feature not observed in other lakes. The study utilized shipboard and satellite observations to document these processes for the first time.

Shimaraev, M. N., Troitskaya, E. S., Blinov, V. V., Ivanov, V. G., & Gnatovskii, R. Yu. (2012). Upwellings in Lake Baikal. Doklady Earth Sciences, 442(2), 272–276. https://doi.org/10.1134/s1028334x12020183