 Lake Baikal is in a rift valley, created by the Baikal Rift Zone, where the Earth's crust is slowly pulling apart.At long and wide, Lake Baikal has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in Asia, at , and is the deepest lake in the world at .The bottom of the lake is below sea level, but below this lies some of sediment, placing the rift floor some below the surface, the deepest continental rift on Earth.