This is a cooperative program involving the U.S. Geological Survey and Russian scientists from the Institute of Oceanology, Institute of Limnology, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, and Institute of the Earth's Crust. The program is aimed at developing a detailed structural and stratigraphic history of the Baikal Rift system. Elements of the program include the processing and interpretation of multichannel seismic data already collected by Russian colleagues, the collection of new, higher resolution and more accurately navigated MCS data from Lake Baikal, the processing and interpretation of these new data, and the integration of all available data sets into a comprehensive model of continental rift development. Objectives of the program include: o Reconstruction of the structural and stratigraphic evolution of that portion of the Baikal Rift that underlies Lake Baikal; o Development of models for the evolution of the lake basins; and o Location of appropriate drilling sites that would address the problems of timing of structural events and shifts in patterns of deposition, and that would provide the most continuous sections for studies of climate change and biologic evolution.
