World’s Oldest Lake May Be an Infant Ocean, Scientists Say
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WASHINGTON — Scientists said today that they have discovered hot vents in the bottom of the world’s oldest and deepest lake, indicating that the lake could be an infant ocean forming at the point where Asia appears to be splitting apart.
A team of American, Soviet and Canadian scientists on June 26 found hot vents in an underwater field the size of two football fields more than 1,300 feet below the surface of Lake Baikal, in southern Siberia about 200 miles north of Mongolia.
The field of vents, which supports a rich community of life including sponges, bacteria, worms, snails and fish, is the first such formation found in fresh water, said Kathleen Crane, a geophysicist at Hunter College in New York City.
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