What else is concealed in our mysterious and beautiful nature? How many interesting reservoirs, birds and animals there are on our Earth. And I would like to tell you about 4 of the most unusual lakes on Earth. Who would have thought that there would be an asphalt lake on our native Earth? 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. Great asphalt! Of course, you cannot enter the lake and plunge into the lake, but it is located in the crater of a former mud volcano, its depth is ... 90 meters (!), And its area is 46 hectares. Coming out of the bowels of the earth through the mouth of the volcano, the oil lying at great depths under the influence of evaporation loses all volatile substances and turns into asphalt. All this is happening 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 Lake Trinidad retains its reserves, despite the fact that every year up to 150 thousand tons of asphalt is mined from it, which is used for construction needs. Most of it is exported to the USA, England and China. During the development of the lake, more than 5 million tons of asphalt were mined, while the level of the wonder lake dropped by only half a meter! Any object hitting the surface of the lake disappears into the black abyss. Scientists who have explored the coastal depths of the "reservoir" have discovered a whole cemetery of prehistoric animals. Including skeletons of mastodons, extinct during the Ice Age, who 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 the waters Dead sea conducted since ancient times. Resin is used in a wide variety of areas: medicine, for road construction, coating of ship hulls, in the chemical industry.
Ink lake
Such an 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 them! Until recently, people could not understand how such an unusual substance turned out to be in the reservoir. Scientists, after conducting relevant studies and analyzes, came to the conclusion: the whole thing is in the composition of the water of two small rivers flowing into this mysterious lake. One of them contains just 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 the lake pit, the streams interact with each other, replenishing the amount of wonderful ink. Local residents treat 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, the Middle East.
Empty lake
But the secret of the Russian Empty Lake, located in Altai, has not yet been revealed. Around all the reservoirs are teeming with fish and lake game, and in Pustovoe there are no blades of grass, no fry, no birds on the shore, and this despite the fact that rivers flow out of the fish lakes and flow into Pustooye. 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 experiments ended in the same way: the fish and other animals, 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 water is absolutely not poisonous, suitable for consumption, and even ... resembles champagne due to the smallest bubbles of harmless natural gas. The lake water was studied by experts from Germany, USA, Belgium and Britain, and no one has yet been able to 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 all 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 instantly dies. A person who for a second lowers a hand in the water watches in horror as it turns red, becomes blistered, the skin slides off, revealing bloody bones, bursting veins and blood vessels. And the fact is that the water contains in a huge concentration ... sulfuric acid. Very dangerous research carried out by scientists in 1999 led to a stunning conclusion: concentrated sulfuric acid is thrown into the lake by two sources located at its bottom. It is not surprising that the Sicilian mafia has hidden its victims in these deadly waters from time immemorial: an hour - and even a person's teeth are gone.
Oddly enough, but in the folklore of the peoples of the world there is almost no mention of enchanted, enchanted or sacred streams and rivers, with the exception of the Jordan and the Ganges. But there are so many legends about mysterious and creepy, dangerous and frankly evil lakes and ponds in oral folk art that you cannot count.
MAGIC WORLD OF BLUE MOUNTAINS
The belief in the existence of enchanted lakes and ponds has long been a subject of research by folklorists. However, there is no doubt about the well-known fact that there are really enough reservoirs in the world that have some incomprehensible natural properties and thanks to them becoming the focus or source of paranormal activity. In some lakes and nearby, UFOs are allegedly often observed, strange creatures are found in others, and still others are reputed to be strange without any specific real or invented reason.
Several of these strange lakes are hidden in the mysterious and almost impassable Andes. Not everyone knows that this majestic mountain range has a younger brother, a much more modest and nondescript ridge called the Cordillera Azur (Blue Mountains). It stretches parallel to the Andes and is replete with cold reservoirs - lakes and lagoons, around which mainly South American Indians who speak the Quechua language live. These places are so beautiful that painters have come here for inspiration from time immemorial, and now photographers have joined them, although the Cordillera Azur is still one of the most difficult to access mountainous countries planets.
There, at an almost transcendental height, in the wilderness and desertedness, lies the "strange" Lake Gaipo. According to rumors, several years ago it was firmly chosen by a wide variety of UFOs. Several researchers, who ventured to this forgotten place 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 in the morning and from three to four in the afternoon. At this time of day, the Indians repeatedly saw some luminous objects falling into the lake or, conversely, taking off from the water. The shape of these unknown luminous objects is striking in its variety: 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 crawl upward along the slopes of the mountains that frame Gaipo. And since in the horizons of local residents there is no place for such a concept as interplanetary or even more interstellar contacts, the Indians consider the observed phenomena to be the intrigues of witches and sorcerers.
However, such strange phenomena are observed not only in remote and inaccessible places. The attention of researchers is attracted, for example, by the Al-Chichika lagoon, located near the city of Veracruz (Mexico). It is small - just over three kilometers across, but strikingly deep - over six hundred meters. This reservoir was reputed to be enchanted long before European conquerors appeared on its shores and gave shelter to the Mexican species of water elves known as "chanekwe" and other evil spirits.
The researchers who visited those places noted various anomalies already on the approaches to the lagoon. Batteries ran out in electrical appliances, 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 some electromagnetic disturbances created by unknown sources located in or near the lagoon.
In 1998, biologist Arturo del Moral decided to thoroughly investigate the reservoir and faced the same obstacles as his predecessors. Moreover, the members of the Moral's expedition heard strange sounds emitted by the water column at night, and they had the impression that something was floating there.
Moral managed to talk to 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 glow emanating from the water. Not caring in the least about his own safety, the fearless city dweller ran to the very edge of the water and, to his surprise, saw “something huge and luminous. This thing emerged from the water, hovered a meter or two above the lagoon, and then flew into the night sky.
Other local residents told Moral that the 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 clusters hover over the surface of the lagoon near the coast and emit white or red flashes. The sight is breathtaking. No wonder the pioneer of ufology, Maurice Jessup, was very fond of visiting the shores of the Al-Chichika lagoon. He even nicknamed it the Perst crater, struck by the similarity of the lagoon with 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 "fleeting light phenomena" observed in some lunar craters (for example, in Plato's crater; at full moon they can be seen through ordinary binoculars). Probably, the scientist believed that the lights in the lunar craters could be explained by a deeper study of the light phenomena in the craters of the earth.
KILLER LAKES
In October 1994, the Americans were shocked by the news of the terrible crime. Susan Smith, a young mother in Union, North Carolina, intentionally allowed her car to roll off a boat dock into John D. Long Lake. Susan's sons, strapped to the back seat, drowned. Their mother received a life 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 resembled an episode from a horror movie. All seven passengers of the jeep drowned, one of the eyewitnesses tried to save them, but drowned and also died. The investigation found that the car was on the hand brake.
According to local residents, the misfortune happened for one single reason: Lake John D. Long is bewitched. Of course, the judicial authorities do not take such explanations seriously and do not intend to re-examine Susan Smith's case. But lakes in which people die under mysterious circumstances do exist, and a very lengthy 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 American state Texas and seems to outperform Lake John D. Long. For many years in a row in Whitney every now and then a variety of cars roll off the dock walkways, and the number of drowned people here is steadily growing. Police divers found several dozen cars on the muddy bottom of the lake, but never found human remains. Many of the cars lying in the lake simply should not have rolled there: their parking brakes were on, as was the case with Susan Smith's car in North Carolina. Also worthy of mention is the fact that two UFOs landed on the shores of Lake Whitney during the Alien Parade (another massive UFO invasion observed around the world) in 1974-1975, leaving scorched bald spots on the ground in Calvert.
The second largest country in the world - Canada - is also rich in black spots and, in particular, lakes, which are very ill-famed. In June 1966, the elderly couple and their teenage son went fishing in Lake Anion, located in an abandoned quarry thirty-three kilometers north of Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Arriving at the place and not finding a single living soul there, the fishermen were delighted at first, but soon they became creepy. Suddenly there was pitch darkness. The frightening silence was only occasionally broken by a strange rattle, which, according to one of the few witnesses, was accompanied by "a sharp, suffocating smell of steel being worked with an emery wheel." And then, to the horror of the parents, their fifteen-year-old son suddenly disappeared.
Father and mother called the boy for a long time, but they did not receive an answer. When the mysterious haze that enveloped the lake in broad daylight dispersed, the parents saw their son, who appeared from nowhere and, terribly worried, said 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 mental disorder, and the boy was admitted to a mental hospital, but he could not be cured.
GREAT LAKE TRIANGLE
In addition to relatively small lakes, in the waters and surroundings of which all sorts of devilry is going on, there are also huge lakes that look more like seas. Sometimes all sorts of things also happen in them. The clearest example of this is the American Great Lakes, gigantic 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 Gurley devoted a separate book to this topic, "Great Lake Triangle".
Many striking and mysterious events taking place here, according to Gurley, are explained by “the action of some destructive force, so powerful and rapid that anyone who dares to penetrate here, it destroys mercilessly (however, this does not prevent the Great Lakes from being navigable, and navigation there very lively. - Author's note). 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 examined 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, a woman who did not want to be named was driving along the coast to Eastlake, Ohio. Suddenly she saw "an object that looked like an airship, at both ends of which were burning bright lights." This object drew a pretzel in the air, darted back and forth, as befits a classic UFO, and did not show the slightest desire to fly away.
Having reached the house, the woman told her husband about what she had seen and persuaded him to go to the nearest beach to look at the miracle. When they arrived ashore, 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 managed to determine the approximate dimensions of the object. He was "bigger than a football field." The observers had 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" landed on 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 is 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. So, for example, it happened with the Chima Indians living on the island of Trinidad, which huddled in Atlantic Ocean off the northeast coast South America... Once upon a time, an Indian village was on the shore of a crystal clear lake Peach Lake. Now ...
Once the gods of the forest gave the people of the Chima tribe an extraordinary bird - a hummingbird. This tiny creature, the motley plumage of which changes its shade depending on the angle of incidence of the sun's rays on it, was supposed, according to the plan of the gods, to decorate the life of people, soften their hearts and cheer souls. After all, it was not for nothing that the gods created the birds as beautiful, like 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 to its nest from a tree. Remembering the courage of this tiny creature protecting his home from enemies, the Indians had to fearlessly engage the enemy if necessary.
However, it so happened that, by the will of evil spirits, black thoughts were born in the heads of the Chima. Looking at how a tiny bird, hovering over flowers, feasting on nectar, they thought: if this creature drinks the sweet essence of a flower, then how should it taste? 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, the delicacy turned out to be useless. And the gods, offended by such an attitude towards their gift, decided to punish Chima. The next morning, after the shameful meal, people saw that blue waters their lakes turned into sticky brown mud.
Such is the legend of the Chima Indians, who to this day 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 a semi-liquid black mass, which consists of 40 percent bitumen, 30 percent of clay and 30 percent of salt water, is 45 hectares. There are even small islands covered with vegetation on the lake. In the depressions between the viscous asphalt waves, rainwater accumulates, and bituminous oils shimmer on it with all the colors of the rainbow, remotely resembling the plumage of a hummingbird, with which it allegedly all began.
For a hundred years now, hundreds of tons of natural asphalt have been mined here every year, 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 in which case it will be as difficult for a person to get out of it as a fly caught in a jam. True, after some time, the drowned man, drawn to the bottom, will again be on the surface, since the asphalt is in constant slow motion. But, of course, very few people will be happy about it.
The legend about the origin of Peach Lake does not satisfy scientists, they still argue about where it came from. Many believe that the accumulation of natural asphalt formed in the crater of a dormant volcano. Oil, gradually coming from the bowels of the earth, mixed with volcanic ash and formed an asphalt cauldron over time.
According to another version, the lake of asphalt was once at the bottom of the sea, and about 50 million years ago, the bodies of small sea animals sank to the bottom, turning into oil there, and then, under the influence of processes in the earth's crust, this oil was displaced to the surface and thickened under the influence sun.
Peach Lake is the largest, but not the only asphalt lake in the world. They are in California, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and other places.
Evil lakes
Probably, many of you have met names on a geographical map 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 the most different, unusual shades of water: red, crimson, blue-green, blue, yellow, white and even black. And scattered colorful lakes around the globe!
There is, for example, in Carpathian mountains near the town of Svalyava, at an altitude of 700 meters above sea level, Lake Sinyak. The sulfur compounds dissolved in it give the water an intense blue color. There are many similar lakes in the Caucasus Mountains, but the queen of blue lakes is considered to be Lake Gek-Gel ("Blue Lake"), located in Azerbaijan in the Asgun Gorge, at an altitude of 1576 meters.
Most of all in the world of White Lakes. There are about twenty of them in Russia alone. At first glance, there is nothing unusual about such lakes. But as soon as the wind begins to catch up with the waves, like a mirror water surface covered with white lambs. Perhaps this is where the name comes from.
But on the island of Kunashir - one of the Kuril Islands - there is a milky white lake, moreover ... boiling. It is filled with a solution of sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, hot volcanic gases constantly rise from the bottom, which heat the "water" to a boil.
In Western Siberia and Central Asia there are many purple-red lakes. During sunset, they change their color slightly and become 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 ... a smell that is very reminiscent of the smell of ripe raspberries. By the way, the salt extracted from these lakes retains the persistent aroma of raspberries or violets and was once highly prized at the royal court.
Another Raspberry Lake, located in the south of Siberia in the Kulundinskaya steppe, attracts not only with its beauty. In the water of this lake, saturated with magnesium salts and soda, stones are constantly forming and growing (to the delight of the local population, which widely uses this extraordinary building material).
Lakes with red water are also found in the Italian Alps, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in Western Europe, in Bolivia, and Japan.
By the way, there is a unique two-color lake on the Japanese island of Kyushu. One half of it turned yellow due to sulfur impurities, and the other half, due to iron oxides, turned pink.
Three colored lakes lie in the crater of Keli Mutu Volcano on Flores Island in Indonesia. Two of them are painted in different shades of green, and the third is black and red. The inner 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 romantic names Tivoe Ata Polo means "Lake of the enchanted people". Tivoe Noea Moeri Kos Fay is translated as "Lake of youths and girls", the third - 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 clay particles are dissolved in it as a result of constant erosion of the banks.
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 "most-most" black lake in the world - Lake Kakhinaidaakh, located in Yakutia, 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 millennia ago (coal was burning there for several years). Later, water flooded the conflagration.
But in Algeria, not far from the city of Sidi Bel Abbes, in the picturesque Atlas Mountains, the basin of the lake is not filled 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 inflatable boat researchers examined one of the southern bays African lake Victoria, where, according to local residents, a large animal unknown to science appeared.
The hydrophones lowered into the water recorded strange loud sounds, as if some giant was hitting the same giant 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 reappeared 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 coast hear a mysterious roar, rolling, like a distant echo of a thunderstorm. When the sky is covered with clouds, these mysterious sounds (brontids) are often caught by newcomers to the lake - both "motorboats" and yachtsmen, who immediately direct their ships 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 regions of the Mediterranean.
Much less often, another type of brontid is observed on Ladoga - a long sound similar to the sound of a broken bass string. It is even less common to hear two or three such sounds in a row. And some water tourists, who have lodged for the night on numerous skerries in the northwestern part of Ladoga, suddenly wake up from the sound of the wheels of a rapidly approaching train, although there is, of course, no train nearby.
At the beginning of 1890, the American professor S.A. Forbes traveled to Lake Shoshone in Yellowstone National Park to study invertebrates. In his report, he made the following entry: “In this place, in an early quiet morning, we heard the mysterious sounds for which the lake is famous. They were like the trembling of a harp string that someone was touching at the top of the trees. It was also like the ringing of telegraph wires, and sometimes like quiet melodic voices talking high above us. The sound appeared somewhere far away, approaching and becoming louder, and then receding and disappearing in a different direction. Sometimes it seemed that he was aimlessly wandering around us. In each case, the phenomenon lasted from a few seconds to half a minute. Usually, these sounds can be heard on a calm, clear morning just 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, while working on the nearby Yellowstone Lake, heard similar sounds. They resembled some kind of metallic vibration that arose directly overhead and then moved southwest. On average, this phenomenon was observed for about 30 seconds. Sometimes the sounds resembled the howl of the wind, although it was completely calm around.
In the same place, researcher Hugh M. Smith in 1919 heard something like the distant hum of a huge bell, repeated at intervals of about ten minutes. It is curious that strange sounds, reminiscent of the sound of an organ, were observed by Smith during the movement of the canoe, in which the members of the expedition were.
In Australia, Wilg's “sobbing water hole” near Ruthven Station became famous since 1870. Once, two sheep shearers spent the night not far from her. However, they did not manage to get enough sleep: in the middle of the night, they suddenly heard a quiet cry, which became louder and louder. Then it was replaced, according to witnesses, with devilish otherworldly sounds, "which are beyond the power of a human voice." The sounds grew. It began to seem to the shearers that their eardrums were now bursting, a wild fear literally fettered them, not allowing them to leave the damned place. Then the howl became quieter and gradually turned into a quiet whine. When all was quiet, the shearers jumped on their horses and galloped away.
Sounds similar to the Ladoga brontids and reminiscent of distant thunderclaps are also observed on the coast of the North Sea, mainly on quiet foggy days. They are known to the locals by the hard-to-pronounce name "Mistpoeferry". The same rumblings in the Ganges delta are called "barisal cannons." A similar phenomenon in the state of New York bears the consonant name of the "Seneca Lake Cannon".
Researcher Albert J. Ingalls writes of the mysterious sounds: "Their direction is indefinable, and like the beginning of a rainbow, they are always 'somewhere else'."
In the Connecticut River Valley, this phenomenon is called the "roar of Mudusa" (after the name of the city), and in Haiti - "goof-fra". In the Philippines, locals consider unusual sounds to be a kind of voice of a distant sea and are sure that they are produced by waves hitting the shore or the walls of grottoes. They also believe that these mysterious sounds are closely related to weather changes and usually herald the arrival of a typhoon.
In 1870, Nature correspondents undertook an investigation of the so-called "Greytown sounds" that are heard in coastal lakes and on the coasts of Costa Rica, Guatemala and Trinidad. They were strange metallic vibrating musical sounds with a characteristic rhythm. Two additional, but inconsistent 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 rumbling in the distance makes when it releases steam" (that is, very similar to some Ladoga brontids).
With 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 express themselves are sometimes simply naive. In geophysics, there is a whole area of science called atmospheric acoustics. There is also the acoustics of the ocean, but, alas, there is no acoustics of the lakes. In one story by an Armenian writer, it was told how schoolchildren, together with a teacher, explored the mysterious sounds emitted by a high-mountainous 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 I have been able to read about the studies of the “voices of the lakes”. By the way, about the same explanation of the "devilish sounds" of Wilg's "water hole" is expressed for the Australian phenomenon.
A more or less acceptable explanation is given to the sounding lakes of Yellowstone National Park. There is a very high seismic activity; nearby geysers periodically operate, connected with lakes, apparently, by a common water layer. When they work, these musical sounds seem to arise.
Well, as for the Ladoga brontids, the reader will have to be content with a very meager assumption that, perhaps, they are associated with the peculiarity of the underwater currents and the complex topography of the lake bottom.
BLOOD BAIT
Lake Tovel, located not far from the Italian city of Trento, may soon become a place of pilgrimage for tourists, since, 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 town of Tueno. As the legend says, after a hot fight in the lake "there was more blood than water." Since then, the water in it sometimes began to turn into blood. As a rule, this happened on the eve of another violent internecine feud. The last time, however, this happened in the dry summer of 1964 and was in no way connected with the war on the peninsula.
Indescribable horror seized then 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 or go crazy. They almost completely scooped up the ominous lake, using water to irrigate their plots and "bloody" all 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 is a unicellular algae, which contains a high concentration of carotenoids in its plasma. Under certain conditions, it is capable of rapidly multiplying - up to 4 thousand cells in 1 cubic meter. cm (the water turns red at the same time) and also rapidly die off, sinking to the bottom and covering it with a thick purple carpet.
For several years now, a research team led by Alessandro dal Piatza, a leading researcher at the Trent Museum of Natural History, has been trying to determine the most favorable conditions for algae reproduction. If scientists still manage to solve this problem and it will be possible to artificially induce the effect of a "bloody" lake, a real invasion of tourists awaits these places.
The most mysterious and eerie lakes the world. The lake seems to us as a great resting place where you can swim and fish. But not all lakes are like that. Some are terrifying. And not in vain. Lake Empty (Russia)
Lake Empty is located in Western Siberia in the Kuznetsk Alatau region. Lake Empty is a fresh, clean water body of continental origin, there are no chemical anomalies in its waters. Many scientists have repeatedly carried out a chemical analysis of water from Lake Empty, but not a single study of toxic substances in it has been found. The lake water is clean, suitable for drinking, it looks like champagne because of the smallest bubbles of absolutely harmless natural gases. To conclude why there is no fish in the reservoir, scientists have not succeeded. There have never been environmental disasters or extreme technical accidents in the vicinity of Lake Empty. By chemical composition its water does not differ from the nearest reservoirs of the reserve, which are distinguished by an abundance of fish resources. Moreover, the reservoir feeds several fresh, clean water bodies in the vicinity; the fact that there is fish in them will give a special mystery to what is happening in these dreams. There were several attempts to launch unpretentious fish species of pike, perch and crucian carp into the reservoir. Each of them ended in failure, the fish died, the aquatic plants rotted. And today there are no grass and birds on the shores of the reservoir, there are no fish or fry in the water, the lake protects its mysteries. Why are there no fish in the lake? Samples from the Kuznetsk reservoir were studied by chemists from the USA, Great Britain and Germany. However, none of them was able to put forward a sensible version explaining the absence of fish in the reservoir. To the questions of the inhabitants, what is happening with the Kuznetsk reservoir, scientists are not yet able to answer. However, scientists repeat attempts to explain the extraordinary phenomenon of the Empty Lake with enviable frequency. There are many who wish to visit the shores of the unusual lake, tourists come here and stay for the night. Some of them dream of touching the mystery of nature and solving it. Lake of Death (Italy)
Our world is amazing and beautiful, its nature can be endlessly admired and enjoyed. But besides this, there are places on our Earth that sometimes lead us to bewilderment. Among such places is the Lake of Death on the island of Sicily. This lake can be classified as a phenomenon and unique natural phenomena... The name itself suggests that this lake is deadly for all living things. Any living organism that got into this lake will inevitably die. This lake is the most dangerous on our planet. The lake is absolutely lifeless and there are no living organisms in it. The shores of the lake are deserted and lifeless, nothing grows here. Everything is connected with the fact that any living creature that enters the aquatic environment immediately dies. If a person decides to swim in this lake, then in just a few minutes he will dissolve in the lake. When information about this place appeared in the scientific world, a scientific expedition was immediately sent there to study this phenomenon. The lake discovered its secrets with great difficulty. The conducted water analyzes showed that the composition of the water environment of the lake contains a large number of concentrated sulfuric acid. Scientists were not immediately able to figure out where the sulfuric acid comes from in the lake. Scientists have put forward several hypotheses on this matter. The first hypothesis was that at the bottom of the lake there are rocks that, when washed out by water, are enriched with acid. But further study of the lake showed that at the bottom of the lake there are two springs that release concentrated sulfuric acid into the water environment of the lake. This explains why any organic matter dissolves in the lake. Dead Lake (Kazakhstan)
There is an abnormal lake in Kazakhstan that attracts the attention of many people. It is located in the Taldykurgan region, the village of Gerasimovka. Its dimensions are not large, only 100x60 meters. This body of water is called the Dead. The fact is that there is nothing in the lake, neither algae nor fish. Its water is unusually icy. The water temperature remains low even when the sun is strong outside. People are constantly drowning there. Scuba divers, for some unknown reason, begin to choke after three minutes of diving. Locals do not advise anyone to go there, and they themselves bypass this anomalous place. Blue Lake (Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia)
Blue karst abyss in Kabardino-Balkaria. Not a single river or stream flows into this lake, although every day it loses up to 70 million liters of water, but its volume and depth do not change at all. The blue color of the lake is due to the high content of hydrogen sulfide in the water. There are no fish here at all. The fact that no one has been able to figure out its depth makes this lake creepy. The fact is that the bottom consists of an extensive system of caves. Researchers have not yet been able to figure out what the lower point of this karst lake is. It is believed that under the Blue Lake there is the largest system of underwater caves in the world. Boiling Lake (Dominican Republic)
The name speaks for itself. Located in Dominica, beautiful Caribbean island This lake is actually the second largest natural hot spring on earth. The temperature of the water in the boiling lake reaches 90 degrees Celsius and there are hardly anyone who wants to check the temperature of the source on their own skin. It is enough to look at the photos and it becomes clear that the water is practically boiling here. The temperature cannot be controlled because it is the result of a crack in the bottom of the lake through which hot lava is spewing out. Lake Powell (USA)
Despite its common name (Horseshoe), Lake Powell near Mammoth Lakes is a fearsome killer. The city of Mammoth Lakes was built on top active volcano and this is not the best location. However, for many years the lake was considered safe. But about 20 years ago, the trees around Horse's Horseshoe began to dry up and die abruptly. After ruling out all possible diseases, scientists decided that the trees were choking on excessive levels of carbon dioxide slowly oozing through the ground from underground chambers of cooling magma. In 2006, three tourists took refuge in a cave near a lake and suffocated from carbon dioxide. Lake Karachay (Russia)
Located in beautiful Ural mountains Russia, this dark blue lake is one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world. During a secret government project, for many years starting in 1951, the lake was used as a dumping ground for radioactive waste. This place is so toxic that a 5 minute visit can make a person nauseous, and a longer visit of an hour is guaranteed to be fatal. During a drought in 1961, the wind carried toxic dust that affected 500,000 people - a tragedy comparable to atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Definitely one of the most polluted places on Earth. Lake Kivu (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
This lake is located on the border between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, with large layers of carbon dioxide at the base of the volcanic rock, as well as 55 billion cubic meters of methane at the bottom. This explosive combination makes Lake Kivu the deadliest of the three exploding lakes in the world. Any earthquake or volcanic activity can pose a lethal threat to the 2 million people living in this region. They can die from both methane explosions and carbon dioxide asphyxiation. Lake Michigan (Canada)
Of the five Great Lakes bordering Canada and the United States, Lake Michigan is the deadliest. Warm, inviting lake - popular place recreation of numerous tourists, despite its dangerous underwater currents, claiming at least several lives every year. The shape of Lake Michigan makes it particularly prone to dangerous currents that arise spontaneously and abruptly. The lake becomes more dangerous in the fall, October and November, when there are sudden and significant changes in water and air temperature. In this case, the height of the waves can reach several meters. Lake Mono (USA)
One of the most developed ecosystems in the world, Mono Lake is located in the California county of the same name. This ancient salt lake has no fish, but trillions of bacteria and small algae thrive in its unique waters. Until 1941 it is amazing beautiful lake was healthy and strong. But Los Angeles intervened, which was just beginning its giant growth spurt. The city drained the tributaries of the lake, which began to dry up. This scandalous destruction natural resources lasted for almost 50 years and when it was stopped in 1990, Mono Lake had already lost half of its volume and its salinity had doubled. Mono became a toxic alkaline lake filled with carbonates, chlorides and sulfates. Los Angeles decided to correct its mistake, but the restoration project will take decades. Lake Manoun (Cameroon)
It is known that on May 18, 1960, three priests saw a horse-headed monster in Lake Lough Ree, Ireland. This is one of three lakes in Ireland where the monster was seen. In 2011, scientists conducted a search expedition that received media coverage. All these facts only fueled public interest in the mysterious lakes. Therefore, we suggest you take a trip to ten of the most mysterious lakes in the world, where monsters were noticed, the existence of which on this moment not proven.
Bear Lakes, Russia
Eyewitnesses claim that a creature that feeds on livestock lives in this mysterious lake. According to a local shepherd, a monster with a small head and a giant mouth crawled out of the water and swallowed the cow entirely. However, ichthyologists investigated the lake and denied all rumors about the existence of the monster.
Loch Morar, Scotland
Local residents claim that they saw a huge creature in the lake. It is curious that it even received the nickname "Morag". However, the analysis of Lake Loch Morar showed nothing, so we can only assume that Morag is a real invention, created against the background of the "dinosaur boom" and the "success" of the famous monster - Nessie.
Lake Brosno, Russia
Eyewitnesses claim that the local monster is very much like a plesiosaur-like lizard. As a rule, most of them talk about the monster in words, but a few even managed to photograph the lizard. Nevertheless, there are no official facts of the existence of the monster at the moment.
Lake Champlain, USA - Canada
The local monster was first described by an eyewitness, a sheriff named Nathan Mooney in 1883. He claimed to have seen a huge black snake about 50 meters long on the lake. In 1977, tourist Sandra Muncie was lucky, and she managed to capture the head, neck and part of the back of the monster on a camera film. The locals gave the nickname to the monster "Champ". And the latest eyewitness testimonies indicate that the monster "Champ" has about five humps on its back.
Lake Storschen, Jämtland province, Sweden
The most mysterious local inhabitant of this lake is a huge lizard, the first information about which appeared back in 1635. For a long time there was no evidence of his existence, and he himself was considered an ordinary medieval legend, but at the very beginning of 2000, local media reported that two girls saw the monster. Initially, they simply did not believe them, but after a while they found traces of enormous size on the shore of the lake, and it has not yet been possible to determine their owner. There is also evidence that scientists have set a giant trap for a pangolin on the lake.
Lake Kok-Kol, Dzhambul region, Kazakhstan
Eyewitnesses claim that this mysterious Kok-Kol lake is inhabited by a gigantic (at least fifteen meters long) bloodthirsty monster that drags animals and birds under the water. Local residents even gave the nickname to the monster - "the water spirit of Aydahar".
Lake Kanas, Xinjiang Province, China
In 1985, students at a local university noticed a huge living creature for the first time. A little later, rumors appeared that the monster was constantly taking birds and animals under the water. In the 90s, the monster showed no signs of life. However, in 2011, several eyewitnesses claimed to have seen the creature rise to the surface. One of them even managed to capture the monster on camera.
Lake Labynkyr, Yakutia, Russia
For the first time, the Yakuts saw the Labynkyr line back in the 19th century. Unfortunately, there is no photo or evidence of the existence of the monster, but several scientific expeditions managed to record the monster. In addition, the noise that the Labynkyr devil makes was recorded on tape. Also, with the help of an echo sounder, a huge shadow was found in the lake, which in size does not fit any of the known fish. Locals claim that the monster is very vicious - it chases fishermen, eats deer and dogs.
Besides the monster, there is where to turn around and hide. Lake Labynkyr is located at an altitude of over a thousand meters. It is about fourteen kilometers long, with a maximum depth of 60 meters. At the bottom of the famous lake there are anomalous faults, which in some places increase the depth to almost a hundred meters. And under the steep banks there are several underwater caves.
Lake Okanagan, Canada
Ogopogo is considered the second legendary monster after Nessie who made British Columbia famous. The monster was first seen in 1958. Eyewitnesses described him as a long serpentine, with a body that resembles a barrel, a long neck and fins.
Loch Ness, Scotland
This is the most famous lake with a monster in the world. A mysterious creature nicknamed Nessie, which gained its popularity back in the 6th century AD. e., according to many scientists, is the last dinosaur living on earth.
At all times, lakes have attracted people with their mystery, because water is a substance endowed with unusual properties. Legends about living and dead water to this day excite curiosity and human consciousness. Daredevils try to independently explore mysterious reservoirs and, unfortunately, do not always return from there alive. Russia is densely dotted with mystical lakes, which annually absorb thousands of innocent victims.
Lake Baikal
It is not for nothing that one of the largest lakes on our planet is called witchcraft, since the phenomena occurring on the territory of the reservoir are difficult to rationalize. Eyewitnesses claim that there are sudden flashes of light or bright glow above the water, which just as suddenly disappear. The capes of the Baikal region are called anomalous zones, since ships passing by them record a temporary failure of navigation devices and disorientation in space. On Lake Baikal, there are frequent cases of people disappearing without a trace. Recently, the famous lake has become a favorite object of ufologists.
Lake Labynkyr in Yakutia
Labynkyr is often compared to the Scottish Loch Ness. According to local fishermen, a creature that vaguely resembles a reptile often emerges from the water surface. Eyewitness accounts are striking in their accuracy: people describe the appearance, size, eyes and behavior of a mysterious animal in the same way. Another proof of the existence of a large animal in the lake, unknown to modern science, is the skulls of large fish found on the shores, crushed, apparently, by incredibly massive jaws. Locals are reluctant to visit the lake for fear of becoming a tidbit for the monster. Studies of the bottom of a strange reservoir have shown the presence of deep-water caves-tunnels. It is striking that in the most severe winters the water on the lake practically does not freeze.
Lovozero
Lovozero is located in the Murmansk region and is also overgrown with mystical legends and superstitions. Near the lake, people often observed the manifestation of hysterical fits of their companions. Those who were in a strange state followed orders like robots and carried out monotonous movements. An expedition studying this phenomenon was unable to provide clear explanations for the reasons for the unusual behavior of people. Local old-timers claim that there is a powerful deity on the islands of the lake, which is especially unfavorable to women. It remains inexplicable that on the territory of Lovozero weather change within a few seconds, and the waves on the water rise up to ten meters in height, which is often the cause of the death of visitors to the lake.
Blue lakes in Kabardino-Balkaria
To this day, mystical properties are attributed to the blue lakes in the Caucasus. Researchers have not been able to sufficiently study these reservoirs, since it is impossible to accurately measure their depth - the waters of the lakes are so bottomless. Presumably, their depths reach at least 400 m. In some places you can see the bottom under a water column of 20-40 m. The most mysterious reservoir of the family is Lake Nizhnee: it was in its waters that several divers died under mysterious circumstances. Nitrogen was found in their blood, despite the serviceable oxygen cylinders. The reservoir does not freeze all year round - the water temperature in the lake does not leave the + 9 ° C mark, and the water level always remains the same. At the same time, it is excluded that any river flows into the lake.
The depths of water beckon to themselves with uncertainty and mysticism, and people increasingly show carelessness, trying to unravel the mysteries of nature. It seems to the gaze of an amazingly beautiful lake surrounded by virgin nature, but, perhaps, at its bottom there are creepy creatures unknown to modern science, waiting for an opportune moment to declare themselves to the whole world.
