Frozen bubble lake crack#

‘There are areas of the lake where bubbles grow so big that cars fall through the ice,’ he said. In deep winter, there are roads over the ice, but the larger methane bubbles pose a threat. These bottom sediments are similar to bogs in that they contain a lot of gas, including methane.

Frozen bubble lake crack#

It does not have a solid bottom: instead there is a cushion of bottom sediments that has been filling the most narrow lower part of the crack for millions of years Pictures and video by Stanislav Tolstnevīaikal is located in a rift zone which is a deep - in fact the largest on the planet - crack in the Earth’s crust which narrows at depths of several dozen kilometres. ‘Local anglers say that other, smaller and more chaotic, bubbles are ‘the breathing of Baikal seals’ and point to the areas where these animals rise to the surface to take some air’.īubbles of frozen methane seen through crystal clear ice of lake Baikal. ‘Methane bubbles freeze in layers one over the other, and the floors of them can grow 1.5 metres (5ft) deep. ‘The first time I paid attention to these bubbles was about four years ago, then I learned to distinguish methane from air bubbles. 'This kind of ice, the purest, can only be seen in some areas of the lake in November and December’, said Stanislav Tolstev, 46, photographer and tour guide from Irkutsk. ‘Ice covering the shallow straits and bays begins to form by the end of November, while the rest of Baikal freezes by the middle of January. Picture by Stanislav TolstnevĪ tranquil video of white and silver bubbles of methane caught in newly-formed ice was filmed at Maloye More, a strait that separates the lake’s largest island of Olkhon from the western shore of Lake Baikal. Bubbles of frozen methane seen through crystal clear ice of lake Baikal.