The a website operated by the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism calls it "the pearl of the Middle Urals".

Core samples taken from the lakebed show evidence of the lake's granite foundation forming during the Late Pleistocene into the Early Pliocene era.

Though geographically old, the lake's body of water is relatively young, having been formed by retreating glaciers between 10 and 20 thousand years ago.

[1] The glaciers' retreat also left a rich sedimentary bed of clay in the lake, and this sediment has been used to study the state of the ancient environment of the Holocene era.

[4] Human activity at Lake Tavatui likely began in the Holocene era, soon after the glaciers had begun to retreat.