On the appearance of a convective toroidal vortex in Lake Baikal

Warm natural gas floating up from the bottom of Lake Baikal causes convection in the water column in the form of a toroidal body of revolution–toroidal vortex. The giant convection, several kilometers in size, arises once the Rayleigh number achieves a critical value (1000–2000). A linear relationship is found between the depth of a water pond and the size of the toroidal body.