Mysterious lake. Some Mysterious and Mysterious Lakes of the World. Lake Brosno, Russia
What else does our mysterious and beautiful nature? How many interesting bodies of water, birds and animals there are on our Earth. And I would like to tell you about the 4 most unusual lakes on Earth. Who would have thought that on our native Earth will there be an asphalt lake? And it turns out there is even such a thing.
Asphalt Lake
Trinidat Island became famous only because in its central part there is a real asphalt lake. Magnificent asphalt! Of course, you can’t go into the lake and take a dip, but it is located in the crater of the former mud volcano, its depth is... 90 meters (!), and its area is 46 hectares. Emerging from the bowels of the earth through a volcano, oil lying at great depths loses all its volatile substances under the influence of evaporation and turns into asphalt. All this happens in the center of the lake basin. The place where more and more layers of liquid asphalt appear is called “Mother Lake”. It is thanks to him that the Trinidad lake retains its reserves, despite the fact that every year up to 150 thousand tons of asphalt are extracted from it, which is used for construction needs. The bulk of it is exported to the USA, England and China. During the development of the lake, more than 5 million tons of asphalt were extracted, while the level of the miracle lake dropped by only half a meter! Any object that falls on the surface of the lake disappears into the black abyss. Scientists who researched coastal depths"reservoir", they discovered a whole cemetery of prehistoric animals. Including the skeletons of mastodons, extinct during the Ice Age, which lived in this region. There are also deposits of valuable resin in the Dead Sea, famous for its salt reserves. The whole world knows about the extreme salinity of its water, in which it is impossible to drown. However, only specialists know about the deposits of the rarest resin. Extraction of this unique substance from waters Dead Sea has been going on since ancient times. Resin is used in a wide variety of fields: medicine, for road construction, coating ship hulls, and in the chemical industry.
Ink Lake
This unusual lake is located in Algeria, near the city of Sidi Bel Abbess. The lake is filled with ink. There are no fish or plants in the lake, since the poisonous dark blue ink is only suitable for writing with! Until recently, people could not understand how such an unusual substance ended up in the reservoir. Scientists, having carried out relevant research and analysis, came to the conclusion: it’s all about the composition of the water of two small rivers flowing into this mysterious lake. One of them contains simply a huge amount of dissolved iron salts, the other contains all kinds of organic compounds from peat bogs located in the river valley. Merging together into a lake basin, the streams interact with each other, replenishing the amount of wonderful ink. Local residents view this miracle differently: some consider it a devilish obsession; others, on the contrary, benefit from it. The ink is sold not only in stores in Algeria, but also in Africa, the Mediterranean countries, and the Near and Middle East.
empty lake
But the mystery of the Russian Empty Lake, located in Altai, has not yet been revealed. All the reservoirs around are teeming with fish and lake game, but in Pustoy there is not a blade of grass, not a fry, not a bird on the shore, and this despite the fact that rivers flow from the fish lakes and flow into Pustoy. Researchers have tried dozens of times to populate the mysterious lake with local aquatic fauna and flora, giving preference to the most unpretentious species. However, all the experiments ended the same way: the fish and other living creatures, after a day or two, died, the vegetation rotted. The empty remained empty. But what is most surprising is that chemists, who have repeatedly analyzed water for the content of toxic substances, have proven that the water is absolutely non-toxic, suitable for consumption, and even... resembles champagne thanks to the smallest bubbles of harmless natural gas. The water of the lake was studied by experts from Germany, the USA, Belgium and Britain, and no one until now could explain or at least offer a plausible hypothesis about the phenomenon of this amazing reservoir. Will this mystery be solved in the foreseeable future? Alas, experts shrug their shoulders vaguely.
acid lake
But still, the most “dead” sea on planet Earth is the ill-fated Lake of Death - a large body of water located in Sicily. Its shores and waters are devoid of any vegetation and living creatures; even birds do not fly over the lead-gray water. Swimming in it is deadly. Any living creature that falls into the water of this terrible lake dies instantly. A person who dips his hand into the water for a second watches in horror as it turns red, becomes covered in blisters, the skin peels off, revealing bloody bones, bursting veins and blood vessels. But the fact is that water contains... sulfuric acid in huge concentrations. Very dangerous studies conducted by scientists in 1999 led to a stunning conclusion: concentrated sulfuric acid is released into the lake from two sources located at its bottom. It is not surprising that from time immemorial the Sicilian mafia hid their victims in these deadly waters: an hour - and a person does not even have teeth left.
There are many mysterious lakes on the planet, about which mythology tells terrible things of an anomalous nature. Such lakes even have names that speak volumes: Dead Lake, Devil’s Lake, or even Lake of Death.
Today we're talking about about reservoirs that frightened our ancestors with their properties, and even our contemporaries avoid such places.
Not far from St. Petersburg (about 80 km) there is a real lake dead water – Kalishchenskoye (also pronounced as Kaplishchenskoye). They say that in ancient times there was an old Russian “temple” here, where worshipers of the faith offered sacrifices to the gods, hence the name.
However, on the northern shore of the dead lake there is the village of Kalishche, which most likely gave the name to the reservoir.
Over the years, a beautiful forest has grown around the lake, becoming home to a variety of birds and animals, but in the marvelous forest around the lake there is a strange silence. It’s interesting, but there really are no fish living in this lake, and even scientists find it difficult to explain this strange phenomenon.
Approaching the lake, of course, the soul is not filled with wild horror of unknown origin, but at night a light glow appears over the reservoir. According to scientists, swamp gas has poisoned the water and the immediate surroundings of the lake, which is why there are no fish or birds here.
A dozen years ago, the lake eagerly attracted tourists, from whom there were memories: “we vacationed there before, we were afraid of course, but it was so interesting” ... “we dug small holes there, they emitted swamp gases and glowed strongly at night, it was so cool and scary.”
IN Kaluga region the gloomy glory of a bad place is carried by a lake called “The Thunder of the Lord.” In the spring it is clearly visible that this place seems to be outlined by a circle of hell. Over the years, misfortunes have happened on this lake, often ending in the death of people.
The explanation of the misfortune is hidden in the name of the lake - an electric shock of such power that a person’s heart instantly stops. Residents of the area are sure that ball lightning, which appears too often over the waters of the lake, is to blame. However, experts do not see a mystical background in the causes of electric shocks, having their own explanation without the participation of evil spirits.
The problem for the unfortunate people is a simple disregard for safety precautions. So, a high-voltage line was laid next to the lake, and the wires in some places sagged quite low, which vacationers do not pay attention to until they get electrocuted.
In the territory of the former Soviet Union, anomalous bodies of water are well known. For example, in Latvia, there is a lake with a telling name – Devil’s. Local residents do their best to dissuade tourists from visiting this place. But few people listen to advice, wanting to touch some secret.
Tourists settle down on the shore of the lake, and after a couple of hours they try to get away from this disastrous place. Impressionable people with a rich imagination may even go to a psychiatrist. Rumor has it that the bottomless lake - which never gives up the drowned - keeps its dead at great depths, lined up shoulder to shoulder.
Dead Lake is often visited by researchers, according to their research, a powerful energy flow emanates from the bottom of the gloomy reservoir. According to Latvian scientists, the lake is a meteorite crater with a depth of up to 70 meters. In the depths of a curious lake, radioactive gas radon is collected in large volumes, which is responsible for all the mystical happenings in the area.
It must be for this reason that you can’t spend a long time near the lake, because otherwise you can simply go crazy. According to experts, an energy flow of incredible power rushes into the sky directly from the center of a small reservoir, which they see as the culprit in the death of vacationers.
In Kazakhstan, Lake Dead is comfortably located, where people drown quite often in a generally small body of water. Locals do not like the reservoir, and advise visitors to bypass the place by the tenth road. Even on the hottest days, the lake water is extremely cold, which apparently is the main reason for the death of swimmers. True, there is absolutely no vegetation in the lake, and there are no fish, and there are not even mosquitoes there!
The most mysterious thing is that drowned people do not float to the surface, but stand frozen at the bottom like candles (well, this is according to legend). Scientists explain the lifelessness of the lake by gas that comes out of the crevices of the bottom. But there have been no more detailed studies, and there are unlikely to be any.
In the North Caucasus, in Karachay-Cherkessia, of course, there is a “dead lake” - Black. It is located high in the mountains and is quite small. It is noteworthy that there are no bushes, trees, or even grass growing around.
According to local residents, the mysterious lake is bottomless. If you look at the lake from above, it appears completely black. Locals never swim in it, and they don’t take tourists there.
There are very, very many such anomalous “dead” lakes all over the Earth, each with its own legend and mystery. By the way, about the legend of Lake Kalishchenskoye - when the fashion for psychics and paranormal energy rapidly began to take hold in the country, schoolchildren passing the GTO standards were replaced by thoughtful people with dowsing devices.
UFO researchers mysteriously wandered around with metal/wooden frames and looked for geopathogenic zones. After that, a nice place somehow suddenly became deserted.
Oddly enough, in the folklore of the peoples of the world there is almost no mention of enchanted, enchanted or sacred streams and rivers, with the possible exception of the Jordan and the Ganges. But there are so many legends about mysterious and creepy, dangerous and downright evil lakes and ponds in oral folk art that it’s impossible to count.
THE MAGICAL WORLD OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
The belief in the existence of enchanted lakes and ponds has long been a subject of study by folklorists. However, there is no doubt about the well-known fact that there are indeed enough bodies of water in the world that have some incomprehensible natural properties and, thanks to them, become the focus or source of paranormal activity. In some lakes and in the vicinity of them, UFOs are allegedly often observed, in others strange creatures are found, and still others are considered strange without any specific real or fictitious reason.
Several such strange lakes are hidden in the mysterious and almost impenetrable Andes. Not everyone knows that this majestic mountain range there is a younger brother, a much more modest and nondescript range called the Cordillera Azur (Blue Mountains). It runs parallel to the Andes and is replete with cold bodies of water - lakes and lagoons, around which the South American Indians who speak the Quechua language mainly live. These places are so beautiful that from time immemorial painters have come here for inspiration, and now photographers have joined them, although the Cordillera Azur still remains one of the most inaccessible mountainous countries on the planet.
There, at an almost transcendental height, in the wilderness and desolation, lies the “strange” Lake Gaipo. According to rumors, several years ago it was firmly favored by a wide variety of UFOs. Several researchers who ventured to this place forgotten by God and people found that the rumors were confirmed. Local Indians said that paranormal phenomena are observed here regularly, but they are brightest at six o'clock in the morning and from three to four hours p.m. At this time of day, the Indians repeatedly saw certain luminous objects falling into the lake or, conversely, taking off from the water. The shape of these unknown luminous objects is strikingly varied: balls, ovals, rectangles, rings. They freely penetrate the surface of the water, hover and slowly move a few centimeters from it, and then either rush into the sky with lightning speed, or sedately and leisurely crawl up along the slopes of the mountains framing Gaipo. And since in the horizons of local residents there is no place for such a concept as interplanetary or, especially, interstellar contacts, the Indians consider the observed phenomena to be the machinations of witches and sorcerers.
However, this kind of strange phenomena is observed not only in remote and hard-to-reach places. The attention of researchers is drawn, for example, to the Al Chichika lagoon, located near the city of Veracruz (Mexico). It is small - just over three kilometers across, but amazingly deep - more than six hundred meters. This body of water was reputed to be enchanted long before European conquerors appeared on its shores and gave shelter to the Mexican variety of water elves, known as “chanekwe”, and other evil spirits.
Researchers who visited those places noted various anomalies already on the approaches to the lagoon. The batteries in electrical appliances ran out, the video tape became unusable, and the reception of radio signals in the DV, SV, HF and VHF bands stopped. All this made it possible to put forward a hypothesis about certain electromagnetic disturbances created by unknown sources located in or near the lagoon.
In 1998, biologist Arturo del Moral decided to thoroughly explore the reservoir and faced the same obstacles as his predecessors. Moreover, the members of the Moral expedition heard strange noises, emitted at night by the thickness of the water, and they got the impression that something was floating there.
Moral managed to talk with one of the residents of the nearby town of Pueblo del Seco, and he said that in March 1996, at about ten o’clock in the evening, he saw a dazzling yellow light emanating from the water. Not caring at all about his own safety, the fearless townsman ran to the very edge of the water and, to his surprise, saw “something huge and luminous. This thing came out of the water, hovered a meter or two above the lagoon, and then flew off into the night sky.”
Other local residents told Moral that light phenomena in the lagoon have a periodicity: in the spring they are observed more often, especially at night. Moral even managed to film these phenomena. They are very beautiful: luminous clumps hover over the surface of the lagoon near the shores and emit white or red flashes. This spectacle is breathtaking. No wonder the pioneer of ufology, Maurice Jessup, loved to visit the shores of the Al-Chichika lagoon. He even nicknamed it the Perste Crater, struck by the similarity of the lagoon to craters on the Moon and the strange similarity of the terrain to the lunar surface.
In one of his books, Jessup described in detail the “transient light phenomena” observed in some lunar craters (for example, in the crater of Plato; during a full moon they can be seen through ordinary binoculars). Probably, the scientist believed that the lights in lunar craters could be explained by more deeply studying light phenomena in terrestrial craters.
KILLER LAKES
In October 1994, Americans were shocked by the news of a terrible crime. Susan Smith, a young mother from Union, North Carolina, intentionally allowed her car to roll off a boat dock and into John D. Long Lake. Susan's sons, strapped into the back seat, drowned. Their mother received a life prison sentence for premeditated murder. Almost two years later, another car crashed from the same pier into the same lake, in which three adults and four children were sitting. At the same time, the car spontaneously rolled between the monuments to Michael and Alex Smith, Susan’s young sons. This sight was reminiscent of an episode from a horror film. All seven passengers of the jeep drowned; one of the eyewitnesses tried to save them, but choked and also died. The investigation found that the car was on the handbrake.
According to nearby residents, the misfortunes occurred for one single reason: Lake John D. Long is enchanted. Of course, the judicial authorities do not take such explanations seriously and are not going to reconsider the case of Susan Smith. But lakes in which people die under mysterious circumstances do exist, and a very extensive section of “magical” folklore and literature about the supernatural is devoted to them.
One of the most notorious killer lakes is called Whitney. It is located north of the town of Waco in the US state of Texas and seems to be more harmful than Lake John D. Long. For many years now, in Witney, all sorts of cars have been rolling off the docks every now and then, and the number of drowned people here has been steadily growing. Police divers found dozens of cars on the muddy lake bottom, but never found human remains. Many of the cars lying in the lake simply shouldn't have rolled there: their parking brakes were on, as was the case with Susan Smith's car in North Carolina. Worth mentioning is the fact that during the “alien parade” (another massive UFO “invasion” observed throughout the world) in 1974–1975 in Calvert on the shores of Lake Whitney, two UFOs landed, leaving scorched bald spots on the ground.
The second largest country in the world - Canada - is also rich in bad places and, in particular, lakes, which are very notorious. In June 1966, an elderly couple and their teenage son went fishing to Lake Anion, located in an abandoned quarry thirty-three kilometers away. north of the city Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Arriving at the place and not finding a single living soul there, the fishermen were happy at first, but soon they felt terrified. Suddenly there was pitch darkness. The frightening silence was only occasionally broken by a strange grinding sound, which, according to one of the few witnesses, was accompanied by “a sharp, suffocating smell of steel being sanded.” And then, to the horror of the parents, their fifteen-year-old son suddenly disappeared.
The father and mother called for the boy for a long time, but never received an answer. When the mysterious haze that had shrouded the lake in broad daylight cleared, the parents saw their son, who appeared out of nowhere and, terribly worried, reported that he had seen “some kind of round plane.” The boy ran to him, but did not remember what happened next. Soon, memory loss turned into a mental disorder, and the boy was placed in a mental hospital, but he could not be cured.
VELIKOOZERSK TRIANGLE
In addition to relatively small lakes, in the waters and surroundings of which all sorts of devilry happens, there are also huge lakes that are more like seas. Sometimes all sorts of things happen in them too. The clearest example of this is the American Great Lakes, giant freshwater bodies of water that separate the Canadian province of Ontario from the United States. Much has been written about the mysterious phenomena associated with them, and Jay Gourley devoted a separate book, “The Great Lakes Triangle,” to this topic.
Many of the amazing and mysterious events taking place here, according to Gourley, are explained by “the action of some destructive force, so powerful and swift that anyone who dares to penetrate here is destroyed mercilessly (however, this does not prevent the Great Lakes from being navigable, and navigation there very lively. - Ed.). And no one has yet offered an explanation for this power and swiftness.” Or maybe the power and swiftness of this mysterious force is somehow connected with UFOs?
In March 1998, the UFO Research Center closely investigated reports of the appearance of unidentified flying objects near the Perry Nuclear Power Plant on the shores of one of the Great Lakes of Erie. On March 4, the woman, who did not want to give her name, was driving along the coast in Eastlake, Ohio. Suddenly she saw “an object similar to an airship, at both ends of which bright lights were burning.” This object made a pretzel shape in the air, rushed back and forth, as befits a classic UFO, and did not show the slightest desire to fly away.
Having reached home, the woman told her husband about what she had seen and persuaded him to go to the nearest beach to see the miracle. When they arrived on shore, the UFO was still maneuvering over the lake. It was winter. Eri was frozen, but the ice under the UFO cracked and broke. This time, eyewitnesses were able to determine the approximate size of the object. It was “bigger than a football field.” Observers got the impression that the “airship” was waiting for the return of some small flying objects sent for reconnaissance.
Soon the guess was confirmed: the “airship” sank onto the ice-bound surface of the lake and began to take these scouts on board, and then the object disappeared from sight. Perhaps he passed through the ice and sank to the bottom where the UFO base was located. Or maybe the crew was simply tired of the idle curiosity of earthly onlookers?
ASPHALT LAKE
The gods punish those who try to break the unwritten laws given from above. This, for example, happened to the Chaima Indians living on the island of Trinidad, which nestled in Atlantic Ocean off the northeastern coast South America. Once upon a time, an Indian village was located on the crystal shore clear lake Peach Lake. Now...
One day, the gods of the forest gave the people of the Chaima tribe an unusual bird - a hummingbird. This tiny creature, whose motley plumage changes its hue depending on the angle of incidence of the sun's rays on it, was, according to the plans of the gods, to decorate people's lives, soften their hearts and cheer their souls. After all, it was not for nothing that the gods created the birds as beautiful as flowers that came to life. In addition, this bird, the size of a fly, was distinguished by amazing courage: with strong blows of its beak it could knock down a snake crawling towards its nest from a tree. Remembering the courage of this tiny creature defending its home from enemies, the Indians, if necessary, had to fearlessly engage in battle with the enemy.
However, it so happened that, by the will of evil spirits, black thoughts were born in the heads of the Chima. Watching the tiny bird hover over the flowers and feast on the nectar, they wondered: if this creature drinks the sweet essence of the flower, then what must it taste like? Isn't it interesting to try a sacred bird baked in banana leaves for lunch? No sooner said than done. Having caught many birds with a net woven from grass, the Indians tried to arrange a feast. However, nothing came of this - their prey turned out to be too small and fragile, and the delicacy turned out to be worthless. And the gods, offended by this attitude towards their gift, decided to punish the Chima. The next morning after the shameful meal, the people saw that the blue waters of their lake had turned into sticky brown mud.
This is the legend of the Chima Indians, who still live in the vicinity of Peach Lake. This lake, located on the island of Trinidad near the village of La Brea, is filled with... asphalt! The area of the pit with the semi-liquid black mass, which consists of 40 percent bitumen, 30 percent clay and 30 percent salt water, is 45 hectares. There are even small islands covered with vegetation on the lake. Rainwater accumulates in the depressions between the viscous asphalt waves, and bitumen oils shimmer on it with all the colors of the rainbow, vaguely reminiscent of the plumage of the hummingbird, from which it all supposedly began.
For a hundred years now, hundreds of tons of natural asphalt have been mined here annually, but it is not getting smaller.
Surface amazing lake in places it is so hard that you can walk on it, but it is better not to do this, after all, the depth of the bubbling brown-black cauldron is 82 meters, and if something happens, it will be as difficult for a person to get out of it as for a fly caught in jam. True, after some time the drowned man, pulled to the bottom, will again find himself on the surface, since the asphalt is in constant slow motion. But, of course, this will make few people happy.
The legend about the origin of Peach Lake does not satisfy scientists; they are still arguing about where it came from. Many believe that the accumulation of natural asphalt formed in the crater of a dormant volcano. Oil, which gradually came from the bowels of the earth, mixed with volcanic ash and over time formed an asphalt cauldron.
According to another version, a lake of asphalt was once at the bottom of the sea, and about 50 million years ago the bodies of small marine animals sank to the bottom, turning into oil there, and then, under the influence of processes in the earth's crust, this oil was forced to the surface and thickened under the influence of sun.
Peach Lake is the largest, but not the only asphalt lake in the world. They are in California, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and other places.
SINNER LAKES
Probably many of you have met geographical map names that mention colors: Black, White, Yellow, Red Sea, Belukha Mountain and others. But there are especially many so-called colored lakes on our Earth. And these lakes really have a variety of unusual shades of water: red, crimson, blue-green, blue, yellow, white and even black. Moreover, colorful lakes are scattered all over the globe!
There is, for example, in Carpathian mountains near the city of Svalyava, at an altitude of 700 meters above sea level, Lake Sinyak. Sulfur compounds dissolved in it give the water an intense blue color. Many similar lakes are also located in the Caucasus mountains, but the queen blue lakes Lake Gek-Gel is considered (“ Blue Lake"), located in Azerbaijan in the Asgun Gorge, at an altitude of 1576 meters.
There are more White Lakes in the world. There are about twenty of them in Russia alone. At first glance, there is nothing unusual in such lakes. But as soon as the wind begins to make waves, like a mirror water surface covered with white lambs. Perhaps that's where the name comes from.
But on the island of Kunashir - one of Kuril Islands- there is a milky-white lake, and... boiling. It is filled with a solution of sulfuric and hydrochloric acids; hot volcanic gases rise from the bottom all the time, which heat the “water” to a boil.
In Western Siberia and Central Asia there are many lakes with a purple-red color. During sunset, they change their color slightly and look like bowls filled with molten gold.
There are truly unique raspberry lakes near Astrakhan, which are named so not only for their color, but also... for their smell, which is very reminiscent of the smell of ripe raspberries. By the way, the salt extracted from these lakes retains a persistent aroma of raspberries or violets and was once very valued at the royal court.
Another Raspberry Lake, located in the south of Siberia in the Kulunda steppe, attracts not only its beauty. In the water of this lake, saturated with magnesium salts and soda, stones are constantly forming and growing (to the joy of local population, which widely uses this extraordinary building material).
Lakes with red water are also found in the Italian Alps, on the banks Mediterranean Sea, V Western Europe, in Bolivia, Japan.
By the way, on Japanese island Kyushu has a unique two-color lake. One half of it became yellow due to sulfur impurities, and the other half became pink due to iron oxides.
Three colored lakes lie in the crater of the Keli Mutu volcano on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Two of them are painted in different shades of green, and the third is black and red. The internal forces of the earth and... chemistry are to blame for this. The lakes were formed in different craters of the volcano, rich in various minerals. All three lakes bear the romantic names Tivoe Ata Polo meaning “Lake of Enchanted People”. Tivoe Noea Moeri Kos Fai is translated as “Lake of Youths and Girls”, the third is Tivoe Ata Mboepoe - “Lake of Drowned Hopes”.
Many lakes bear the name Sarykul, which means “yellow lake”. The largest of them is located in Chelyabinsk region Russia. The color of the water in this lake resembles highly diluted coffee due to the fact that many particles of clay are dissolved in it as a result of the constant erosion of the shores.
There are many black lakes on Earth. The color of the water in them is explained not only by the presence of peat. For example, in the “very, very” black lake in the world - Lake Kakhinaidaakh, located in Yakutia, the water is a kind of solution of soot, ash and soot. The phenomenon is explained by the fact that this lake is located in a depression where a fire raged several thousand years ago (coal burned there for several years). Later the fire was flooded with water.
But in Algeria near the city of Sidi Bel Abbes in picturesque mountains The atlas of the lake basin is filled not with water, but with the most real... ink. Two rivers flowing into the ink lake carry iron salts and the remains of various vegetation, which, mixing with each other, turn the lake into a huge inkwell.
BRONTIDES, OR SOUNDING LAKES
In the spring of 2002, a group of French researchers on inflatable boats explored one of the southern bays African lake Victoria, where, according to local residents, a large animal unknown to science appeared.
Hydrophones lowered into the water recorded strange loud sounds, as if some giant was hitting a similarly gigantic anvil with a hammer. These sounds arose an hour or two after sunrise and stopped shortly before sunset; sometimes they stopped for a long time and appeared again after five to seven days.
However, the history of this phenomenon goes back several centuries, and the sounding lakes themselves are found on all continents. On the territory of Eurasia, the most famous “talking” lake is Ladoga. Often, fishermen who have gone 2-3 kilometers from the shore hear a mysterious rumble, booming, like the distant echo of a thunderstorm. When the sky is covered with clouds, these mysterious sounds (brontids) often attract newcomers to the lake - both “watermotorists” and yachtsmen, who immediately direct their vessels to the shore.
By the way, in various literary sources you can find distorted versions of this term, but it directly goes back to the Italian word “brontidi”, meaning sounds that are observed in a number of coastal areas of the Mediterranean.
Much less often on Ladoga, another type of brontid is observed - a long sound, similar to the sound of a broken bass string. It is even rarer to hear two or three such sounds in a row. And some water tourists, camped overnight on numerous skerries in the northwestern part of Ladoga, suddenly wake up to the sound of the wheels of a rapidly approaching train, although, of course, there is no train nearby.
At the beginning of 1890, American professor S.A. Forbes visited Lake Shoshone in Yellowstone National Park to study invertebrates. In his report, he made the following entry: “In this place, early on a quiet morning, we heard the mysterious sounds for which the lake is famous. They resembled the trembling of the strings of a harp, which someone touched at the top of the trees. It also sounded like the ringing of telegraph wires, and sometimes like quiet melodic voices talking high above us. The sound arose somewhere far away, getting closer and becoming louder, and then moved away and disappeared in another direction. Sometimes it seemed that he was wandering around us aimlessly. In each case, the phenomenon lasted from a few seconds to half a minute. These sounds can usually be heard on a calm, clear morning shortly before sunrise; at this time of day the sounds are louder and clearer. But one day I heard them at noon when the breeze was blowing.”
Forbes' colleague, Professor Edwin Linton, was working on nearby Yellowstone Lake and heard similar sounds. They resembled some kind of metallic vibrations that arose directly above our heads and then moved to the southwest. On average, this phenomenon was observed for about 30 seconds. Sometimes the sounds resembled the howling of the wind, although there was complete calm all around.
In the same place, researcher Hugh M. Smith in 1919 heard something similar to the distant hum of a huge bell, repeated at intervals of about ten minutes. It is curious that strange sounds, reminiscent of an organ, were also observed by Smith while the canoe in which the expedition members were moving.
In Australia, starting in 1870, Wilga's "weeping water hole" near Ruthven Station became famous. One day, two sheep shearers spent the night not far from her. However, they were unable to get enough sleep: in the middle of the night, a quiet cry was suddenly heard, which became louder and louder. Then it was replaced, according to witnesses, by devilish otherworldly sounds, “which are beyond the power of a human voice.” The sounds grew louder. It began to seem to the shearers that their eardrums were about to burst; wild fear literally shackled them, not allowing them to leave the damned place. Then the howl became quieter and gradually turned into a quiet whine. When everything was quiet, the shearers jumped on their horses and galloped away.
Sounds similar to the Ladoga Brontides and reminiscent of distant thunderclaps are also observed on the North Sea coast, mainly on quiet foggy days. Local residents know them under the unpronounceable name “mistpoeferry”. The same booms in the Ganges delta are called “barisal cannons.” A similar phenomenon in the state of New York is consonantly called “Seneca Lake guns.”
Researcher Albert J. Ingalls writes about the mysterious sounds: "Their direction is indeterminable, and, like the beginning of a rainbow, they are always 'somewhere else.'"
In the Connecticut River Valley, this phenomenon is called the “rumble of Mudus” (after the name of the city), and in Haiti it is called “gouff-fre.” In the Philippines, local residents consider unusual sounds to be a kind of voice of the distant sea and are sure that they are produced by waves hitting the shore or the walls of grottoes. They believe that these mysterious sounds are closely related to changes in weather and usually herald the arrival of a typhoon.
In 1870, correspondents from the journal Nature undertook an investigation into the so-called “Greytown sounds” that were heard in coastal lakes and on the coasts of Costa Rica, Guatemala and Trinidad. These were strange metallic vibrating musical sounds, and with a characteristic rhythm. Two additional, but not consistent, factors were also noted: sounds are more often heard on metal ships, but only at night. And researcher S. Kingsley heard the sounds “that a locomotive makes in the distance when it lets off steam” (that is, very similar to some Ladoga Brontids).
Despite all the extensive statistics of observations of such a phenomenon over the past two centuries, no acceptable explanation has been found for it, and those who speak out are sometimes simply naive. There is a whole field of science in geophysics called atmospheric acoustics. There are also ocean acoustics, but, alas, there are no lake acoustics. One story by an Armenian writer told how schoolchildren, together with their teacher, explored the mysterious sounds made by a high-mountain lake and which local residents attributed to the roar of an underwater deity. So, the guys discovered a hole into which the waters of the lake periodically rushed, making frightening sounds. This is practically all that we have been able to read about research into the “voices of lakes”. By the way, approximately the same explanation for the “devilish sounds” of Wilg’s “water hole” is expressed for the Australian phenomenon.
A more or less acceptable explanation is given for the sounding lakes of Yellowstone national park. There is very high seismic activity there; geysers periodically operate nearby, connected to lakes, apparently a common water layer. Apparently, these musical sounds arise when they work.
Well, as for the Ladoga Brontids, the reader will have to be content with a very parsimonious assumption that perhaps they are associated with the peculiarity of underwater currents and the complex topography of the lake bottom.
BLOODY BAIT
Lake Tovel, located not far from Italian city Trento, because, according to ancient legend, the water in it can turn into blood.
According to legend, during one of the internecine wars of the Dark Middle Ages, a large detachment of knights from the Trezenya fortress was surrounded and defeated by an army from the neighboring city of Tueno. As the legend says, after a hot fight in the lake “there was more blood than water.” From then on, the water in it sometimes began to turn into blood. As a rule, this happened on the eve of another brutal internecine feud. The last time, however, something like this happened was in the dry summer of 1964 and was in no way connected with the war on the peninsula.
Indescribable horror then gripped people. Some in panic ran headlong away from the lake, others, on the contrary, threw themselves into the water and drowned, others lost their minds from fear... But the local peasants, embittered by the drought, were not going to drown themselves or go crazy. They almost completely drained the ominous lake, using the water to irrigate their plots and “bloody” all the nearby lands. This natural phenomenon was scientifically substantiated by a botanist from Trento, associate professor at the universities of Padua and Camerino, Vittorio Marchesoni. He found that the culprit was a single-celled algae containing a high concentration of carotenoids in its plasma. Under certain conditions, it is capable of rapidly multiplying - up to 4 thousand cells per 1 cubic meter. cm (the water turns red) and also quickly die, sinking to the bottom and covering it with a thick purple carpet.
For several years now, a scientific team led by Alessandro dal Piazza, a leading employee of the Trent Museum of Natural History, has been trying to determine the most favorable conditions for the growth of algae. If scientists manage to solve this problem and it is possible to artificially induce the effect of a “bloody” lake, a real invasion of tourists will await these places.
The unusual lake is located next to the Red Sea, on Sinai Peninsula. It is separated from the sea itself by a thin strip of fossilized shell rock. The flora and fauna of this lake is very simple, but the temperature is quite surprising. In the upper layers, the water temperature is +16°C almost all year round, and at a depth of 6 meters or more it ranges from +48°C in winter to +60°C in summer. Therefore, all animals, fish and organisms live closer to the surface. In addition, the layers of water differ in the level of salt content. The salinity at the top is 42-43 ppm, and near the bottom this value is twice as much. On Earth, of course, there are other lakes with high temperature and salinity, but none of them has such an unusual vertical distribution of these parameters.
The warmest reservoir in the eternal frost zone is located in Antarctica; its ice thickness is 4 meters. This is Lake Vanda, which has fresh water directly under the ice, and at depth it is already salty. Even in the coldest weather, when the air temperature reaches -50-70°C, the water maintains a temperature of no lower than +6°C, and at the bottom (at 70 meters depth) - +25-28°C, as if in some southern sea . The most amazing thing is that there are no hot springs at the bottom of this sea. This phenomenon appears to be due to the fact that Wanda is a giant thermos. Its purest water, which contains no microorganisms, is heated by the penetration of the sun's rays through the thickness of the ice. The deepest layers of water are the warmest, which, due to their density and salinity, do not mix with the water that is located on the surface.
In the Republic of Ghana, in the tropical African forests, 30 km from the city of Kumasi, there is one of the most beautiful lakes - Bosumtwi. It is the most unpredictable body of water in all globe. The shape of Bosumtwi is presented as regular around, as if someone specially drew a circle here with a compass and dug a hole 400 meters deep and 7 km in diameter. The water in it is bluish in color, along the banks there are jungles, which often part, revealing entire clearings with small settlements. Several small mountain rivers flow into Bosumtwi, but not a single river originates from it. In this regard, the water level in the lake is constantly rising, thereby flooding the villages located on its shores. However, what shocks people more is that this lake is endowed with an explosive temper. As a rule, it is very calm, silent, but it can suddenly explode at any moment. In its depths, it’s as if a huge bubble of air is bursting, as a result of which a countless amount of water is thrown up, the surface of the lake begins to boil and rage. After this it calms down again.
As a result of these explosions, many fish die, which the indigenous people subsequently collect with nets. Researchers believe that the reason for these phenomena is that there are sediments at the bottom of the lake in which organic matter decomposes, accompanied by the release of gas. This gas accumulates to a certain limit, and then it explodes inside the water column.
For geographers, Lake Bosumtwi is mysterious and enigmatic. Some argue that it was formed as a result of a huge meteorite falling on our planet, while others think that it was an explosion of antimatter that did not leave behind any traces in the form of debris and fragments. The most plausible version is that Bosumtwi was formed as a result of volcanic activity. It is likely that the lake is located on the site of a destroyed volcanic cone that existed in the distant past.
The Great Lakes are the largest concentration of fresh water on Earth (22.7 thousand sq. km). The system includes five reservoirs: Upper Lake, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario. The Great Lakes have long been used as natural waterways, even though travel along them was fraught with danger.
Today, the bottom of the Great Lakes is literally covered with the skeletons of ships that were once shipwrecked in their waters. Among local diving enthusiasts, even a special trend has emerged - wreck diving, during which divers find and explore sunken ships.
We are accustomed to the fact that most shipwrecks occur in the ocean. Disasters are usually caused by storms, icebergs and Coral reefs. However, those who live near the Great Lakes are no strangers to storms, mysterious waves, and even... their own “version” of the Flying Dutchman.
Storms on large lakes are a phenomenon of the same order as storms on small seas. But they are much less often reported in newspapers, and only a few, the most outstanding disasters make it into the news pages of major newspapers. According to the latest data provided by American divers, between six and ten thousand shipwrecked ships rest at the bottom of the Great Lakes. Every year this list is replenished with a dozen discovered ships. About every fifth one can be identified - water and time do not spare either the logbooks or the hulls.
The story of one of these ships, lost during a storm in 1912 and discovered sixty years later, formed the basis of the musical “The Christmas Schooner.” The fact is that the main cargo of the ship was Christmas trees. In vain the residents eagerly awaited the arrival of the holiday cargo - the Christmas trees remained at the bottom of the lake, bringing no joy to anyone. For a long time, the schooner was listed as missing in action until it was discovered by scuba divers.
Another story is completely mystical. They readily tell it to tourists. On September 18, 1679, the Griffon ship, owned by to a French traveler René Robert, Chevalier de La Salle. This ship was built here, and it was well known local residents. When it became clear that the Griffon was delayed, at first no one attached much importance to it - ships were often several hours behind schedule. But since the ship did not appear either after a day or a week, it became clear that another shipwreck had occurred. There were no witnesses to the tragedy that took place on the Griffon; it simply disappeared without a trace. Its wreckage was discovered and identified only in 1955. But this is far from the strangest thing. Many strangers claim that on foggy nights the Griffon is often seen sailing silently across Lake Huron. At night it is impossible to see all the details of its equipment, but the outline of the vessel is easily recognizable.
The Great Lakes have become accustomed to such ghost ships. Mentions of them are found in chronicles dating back to the middle of the 17th century. For example, in New Haven (Connecticut) in 1648, many people simultaneously saw a ghost ship. Moreover, he not only sailed by, but showed the amazed spectators the scene of a shipwreck. This extraordinary event was interpreted as a sign sent by God, shedding light on the mystery of the death of one of the missing ships. However, those who have encountered ghost ships note that they quite often depict scenes of their crash, repeating them at every meeting with observers.
If in the distant 17th century. The appearance of ghosts and mysterious shipwrecks were explained by the play of supernatural forces; today scientists have taken on the solution to this phenomenon. There were plenty of hypotheses.
The most rational researchers explained what happened as storms of enormous force. They still happen today - for example, in 2003, a storm erupted over the Great Lakes, accompanied by snow and rain. The wind speed reached 100 km/h. The disaster destroyed hundreds of buildings and left more than one and a half million people without electricity. Of course, modern communications helped transmit the storm warning to everyone in the area, so only two people died. But two or three centuries ago, ship captains had to rely only on omens. Hurricanes and storms on the Great Lakes are many attributed to the influence of El Niño (El Nino in Spanish - “Christ the Child”). This is a warm seasonal surface current in the eastern part Pacific Ocean appears at intervals of two to seven years and has an adverse effect on the climate. Hurricanes, tornadoes and storms caused by El Niño are extremely powerful and unpredictable. However, not in all cases the loss of ships occurred due to a storm.
The Indians living on the coast of the Great Lakes have preserved many ancient legends, which are based on real facts. In particular, local tribes are well aware of one thing natural phenomenon, which has still remained almost unexplored - “Three Sisters”. “Three Sisters” are three huge waves that completely unexpectedly appear on the smooth surface of the lake and rush towards the shore, sweeping away everything in their path. The legends of the Chippeza tribe explain the appearance of the “Three Sisters” by the movement of a giant sturgeon, supposedly living in the Great Lakes. Modern Americans are also familiar with this phenomenon, but they call it “session,” which means “level fluctuations.” On June 26, 1954, the session hit coastline Lake Michigan between the cities of Whiting (Indiana) and Wakegen (Illinois), destroyed dozens of buildings and killed 50 people, of whom 8 drowned. Many of the fishermen sat calmly on the shore of the lake with their fishing rods. The weather was beautiful and the lake looked completely calm. Suddenly, a water shaft about three meters high collapsed onto the shore. It happened so unexpectedly that no one had time to escape.
A similar phenomenon was observed on Lake Superior. Jay Gawley, who wrote a book about the mysteries of the Great Lakes, described the disaster that occurred with the Sames E. Davidson cargo ship with a displacement of six thousand tons. If the disappearance of ships that plied the waters of the Great Lakes in the 17th century can be explained by their technical imperfections and the lack of meteorological service, then the death of a modern cargo ship seems inexplicable. The wave effortlessly destroyed a ship that could withstand an ocean storm. Its power must be colossal! The wind, no matter how strong, could not impart such energy to the wave. Where then do such waves on the Great Lakes come from? The most likely version seems to be that the “Three Sisters” and similar phenomena were caused by tremors. In this case, both the sudden formation of waves and their amazing energy are easily explained. But if this were really the case, then seismic stations in the USA and Canada would easily compare data on tremors with the frequency of occurrence of huge waves. The Great Lakes phenomenon would be explained, even predicted, based on seismic activity data. However, there is no direct correspondence between earthquakes and waves.
Even more mysterious, planes are disappearing over the Great Lakes. There was no way a three-meter wave could knock them down! But the fact remains that there are many more plane crashes over lakes than over the rest of the surrounding area. This area is gradually gaining fame anomalous zone, no less famous than the Bermuda Triangle.
Among the hypotheses explaining “ strange behavior» lakes, the most incredible ones can be found. In particular, ufologists are convinced that anomalous phenomena are either caused by aliens or are the object of their interest. According to Jay Gawley, observers over the Great Lakes have repeatedly noticed strange objects that can move completely silently and have extreme maneuverability. In this regard, it was suggested that in the Great Lakes region there is a kind of “gate” through which aliens enter our world. Their use creates a disturbance in nature, as a result of which huge waves appear on the lake, and planes lose control and fall.
Scientists believe that the myth of flying saucers is of the same dubious value as the Indian legends about the giant sturgeon. In any case, attempts to explain the inexplicable should be based on facts, and not on blind faith in the existence of “brothers in mind.” However, we must admit that modern science is able to explain only part of the phenomena observed on the Great Lakes. In particular, according to experts, the main culprits of shipwrecks are not mythical aliens or even the “Three Sisters,” but the most common storm waves. The fact is that lakes, no matter how large they are, are still much smaller than the ocean. That's why the storm waves are different there. Long and relatively gentle waves are formed in the oceans, which only rock ships. Only those ships that find themselves in close proximity to the shore are at risk. They may wash up on rocks or reefs. It is no coincidence that captains, having received a storm warning, took their ships out to the open sea. In large lakes and small seas, a different effect is observed: the waves there are short and very steep. They are capable of not only rocking the ship, but also turning it over. This insidious property of storms on lakes is well known to everyone who sails on the Caspian Sea, Baikal and Lake Ladoga.
But the appearance of ghosts of sunken ships and the disappearance of planes so far has absolutely no scientific explanation. Perhaps these phenomena are somehow related to the geological structure of the area. But it will still be a long time before the mystery of the Great Lakes is solved.