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The West Siberian Glacial Lake, also known as West Siberian Lake (russian: Западно-Сибирское море) or Mansiyskoe Lake (russian: Мансийское озеро), was a periglacial lake formed when the
West Siberian Lake Overview
Former lakes of Asia Glaciology Proglacial lakes History of Siberia {{glaciology-stub
The West Siberian Glacial Lake, also known as West Siberian Lake (russian: Западно-Сибирское море) or Mansiyskoe Lake (russian: Мансийское озеро), was a periglacial lake formed when the Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
outlets for each of the Ob and Yenisei
The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук, ...
rivers were blocked by the Barents-Kara Ice Sheet during the Weichselian Glaciation
The Weichselian glaciation was the last glacial period and its associated glaciation in northern parts of Europe. In the Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation. It was characterized by a large ice sheet (the Fenno-Scandian ice sheet) ...
, approximately 80,000 years ago. It was situated on the West Siberian Plain
The West Siberian Plain (russian: За́падно-Сиби́рская равни́на ''Zapadno-Sibirskaya ravnina'') is a large plain that occupies the western portion of Siberia, between the Ural Mountains in the west and the Yenisei River ...
, and at its maximum extent the lake's surface area was more than 750,000 km2 which is more than twice that of the present-day Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...
.
It is theorized that although drainage to the Arctic Ocean basin (e.g. by the Ob and Yenisei Rivers) was prevented, the lake would eventually overflow to the Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
through a circuitous route that would include the Aral Sea, the Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...
, and the Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
. This would have resulted in water from the Selenga River and Lake Baikal draining over a course of some , considerably longer than any river's course today.
See Mangerud et al. (2004) for diagrams and descriptions of the lake as well as postulated drainage patterns.
See also
* theBaikal seal
The Baikal seal, Lake Baikal seal or (''Pusa sibirica''), is a species of earless seal endemic to Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia. Like the Caspian seal, it is related to the Arctic ringed seal. The Baikal seal is one of the smallest true seal ...
, a freshwater seal
The freshwater seals are seals which live in freshwater bodies.
The only exclusively freshwater seal species is the Baikal seal, locally named ().
The others are the subspecies or colonies of regular saltwater seals. These include two subspecie ...
of Lake Baikal probably related to Caspian seal
The Caspian seal (''Pusa caspica'', syn. ''Phoca caspica'') is one of the smallest members of the earless seal family and unique in that it is found exclusively in the brackish Caspian Sea. It lives along the shorelines, but also on the many roc ...
s.
* the Turgai Sea
The Turgai Sea, also known as the Turgay Sea, Turgai Strait, Obik Sea, Ural Sea or West Siberian Sea, was a large shallow body of salt water (an epicontinental or epeiric sea) during the Mesozoic through Cenozoic Eras. It extended north of the pre ...
or West Siberian Sea, a Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...
to Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...
extension of the Tethys Sea
The Tethys Ocean ( el, Τηθύς ''Tēthús''), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean that covered most of the Earth during much of the Mesozoic Era and early Cenozoic Era, located between the ancient continents ...
separating Europe and Asia
* Paratethys
Notes
External links
West Siberian Lake Overview
Former lakes of Asia Glaciology Proglacial lakes History of Siberia {{glaciology-stub