9316299 Kelts The Baikal Drilling Project is a multi-institutional effort to investigate the paleoclimatic history and tectonic evolution of the Lake Baikal sedimentary basin in the Late Neogene. Recent climate modelling studies have predicted the pattern of temperature expected for the Baikal region in response to Milankovitch forcing. Proxy climate time series obtained from Baikal sediment cores will provide essental ground truthing for these types of models. Lake Baikal occupies the largest basin in the Baikal Rift Zone, one of the two major continental rift zones in the world. Hence, Lake Baikal provides an opportunity to study the recent evolution of an important tectonic feature. ***
