Located in southeastern Siberia, Lake Baikal is the world's oldest lake (about 25 million years) and its deepest (5,315 ft or 1,620 m.) Baikal contains a huge volume of water, more than that held by all the American Great Lakes combined, over 20% of the world's fresh water. Nearly 400 miles in length and, at its widest point, over 50 miles across, Lake Baikal transects some of the world's most pristine natural terrain and some of the most geologically unstable. Scientists, who are monitoring the seismic shifts that steadily tear the region apart, say that Baikal is becoming an ocean. The region is growing apart at the rate of over 2cm per year. Scientists say nothing, therefore, can protect the pipeline from the frequent earthquakes that strike the area.