The most mysterious places in the ocean. Secrets of the sea depths. Great Blue Hole, Belize
If it seems to you that humanity has already studied everything on this planet, then you are deeply mistaken. The ocean is one of those natural phenomena that seems familiar at first glance, but in fact hides many unsolved mysteries. Everyone has probably heard about the sunken Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle. However, these are not all the mysteries and wonders of the ocean that still amaze scientists. Here are 15 of the most incredible facts about the ocean and its inhabitants.
1) Luminescent plankton
From the outside it seems that you have arrived on another planet; the blue glow emanating from the water is in no way associated with planet Earth. In fact, this amazing glow is caused by luminescent plankton. And although it looks fabulous, luminescent plankton is not the only creature on earth with such an ability - fireflies do the same thing, only on land.
2) Red tides 
It sounds both beautiful and creepy at the same time. And such tides really pose a danger. The red color of the water comes from the bloom of a special type of algae. The degree of threat depends on the concentration of these algae: the fact is that during flowering they release a special toxin that can destroy fish, plants and other living organisms, thus disturbing the balance of the ecosystem. For humans, this toxin can also be dangerous, since, depending on its amount in the water, itching and more serious allergies may occur. There are cases when there was so much of this algae that the toxin even penetrated into the air.
3) Sharks are cannibals 
No, this is not about the fact that a shark can eat a person - we have known this for a long time. Much more surprising is that a shark can attack its own kind - small sharks, sometimes even of the same species. Scientists have only recently encountered this behavior of sharks. It is believed that they are capable of this only in case of severe and prolonged hunger.
4) Fish-artist 
Patterns similar to those we draw with a stick in the sand have been discovered on the ocean floor. It turned out that these circles are “drawn” by male Fuga fish to attract a female.
5) Pyrosomes 
Pyrosomes are fascinating underwater creatures. They look like huge, hollow tubes with luminescent elements, closed at one end. They can reach several meters in length. Besides the alien appearance, what is also surprising is that this tube, thought to be one creature, is actually made up of many small organisms that copy themselves to create a huge colony, which from the outside appears to be a single organism.
6) Glass squid 
This type of squid has a special organ that makes its body completely transparent. Moreover, not all glass squids live at great depths. There are also subspecies that live in well-lit shallow water, so transparency helps them hide from predators.
7) Underwater waterfalls 
You probably remember the one on the island of Mauritius, but the largest underwater waterfall is located in the Denmark Strait. Such amazing natural “tautologies” are formed at the meeting points of two currents - warm and cold. Since cold water is heavier than warm water, it literally falls down. Here's a waterfall for you. It’s a pity that the vast majority of such phenomena are hidden from the human eye.
8) Mysterious disappearances 
There are many stories about ships and planes that disappeared without a trace: some simply disappeared from radar, others managed to inform dispatchers about problems. These cases are united by a common result - the missing ships and planes were never found.
This time we will talk about an American submarine. In 1968, she disappeared without a trace in the Atlantic Ocean. There were many rumors surrounding her disappearance, including an exploding torpedo and the machinations of Soviet intelligence services.
9) Mysterious structure at the bottom of the Baltic Sea 
And although we are talking about the oceans in this article, there is simply no way around this mystery. In 2012, a structure was found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, giving rise to a new round of rumors about regular visits by UFOs. Not without reason, I must say. The design of the structure is reminiscent of the famous ship from the Star Wars universe - the Millennium Falcon. Scientists still cannot say exactly what this phenomenon is. The natural origin is extremely doubtful, because the design includes metal elements that could not have formed naturally. One of the versions is also the assumption that this structure was built during the Ice Age.
10) Black holes 
Everyone knows what black holes are in space - invisible to the human eye, they create a vacuum into which all objects nearby are sucked. Some time ago, scientists discovered approximately the same thing, only under water. This powerful whirlpool sucks in everything that gets in its way.
11) Ice flowers 
Fragile, crystal-like flowers can be found throughout the Arctic, as well as on ice drifting in the ocean. Besides the fact that they are simply fabulously beautiful, they are also a source of sea salts and other elements that eventually evaporate and remain in the atmosphere.
12) Underwater icicles 
They are found in cold seas and oceans, especially near glaciers. When seawater freezes, some of the salts are forced out, forming a rich, heavy brine that flows down the ice into regular, less cold, saltier seawater. Next, this solution falls down under the influence of its own gravity, simultaneously freezing the water with which it comes into contact.
13) Rogue Wave 
Rogue waves are extremely rare. And thank God. Their height reaches 30 meters, and it is almost impossible to predict their appearance. Sailors say that such waves look like real walls of water.
14) Underwater structures 
Near one of the Bahamas islands, called Bimini, scientists have discovered something resembling an ancient road. Everything would be fine, but this road is under water! Of course, the discovery became a sensation and immediately gave rise to many rumors about the discovery of the lost Atlantis. However, during further research, there was reason to believe that this road is the result of geological changes, and not human activity.
It should be noted that the Bimini Road is not the only underwater attraction that claims to be Atlantis. There is an amazing place off the coast of Japan called Yonaguni. The Japanese believe that these are the remains of an ancient civilization, most likely destroyed by a tsunami.
15) Ocean Milky Way 
Recently, blue flashes have been spotted wandering in the ocean. They are amazing because they can be seen from satellites. Scientists make different assumptions: some say that these are simply large accumulations of luminescent organisms; others argue that this is impossible, because the concentration of bacteria in the water must be simply unimaginable for the glow to be visible from a satellite. One way or another, there is no exact answer to this question yet. The mystery remains unsolved.
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The world's oceans are full of mysteries, and this gives us the opportunity to dream and fantasize. It takes about 70 % our planet, and only 5 % water space have been studied. This means that under the watery shell of the Earth there are many secrets that have not yet been discovered.
website collected 10 amazing objects found underwater. But this is just a drop in the bucket. We cannot even imagine what awaits us in the depths of the water.
Great Blue Hole, Belize
In recent years, as a result of the movement of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, the distance between them has increased significantly. This impressive phenomenon can be seen both on land and diving deep underwater. The phenomenon was captured by several underwater photographers.
Marine biologist Alexander Mustard noted that visitors can be very surprised by the crystal clear water and enchanting views. The speed of movement of the plates is about 2.5 cm per year.
Ancient city of Heraklion, Egypt
Once upon a time in Zhejiang Province there was a mysterious city called Shichen. His mystery was that one day he simply disappeared. As it turned out later, the valley in which the city was located was turned into an artificial reservoir for the construction of a new hydroelectric power station. The authorities had to relocate 290 thousand people. A dam was built on the territory of the city, as a result of which Shichen ended up at the bottom of the lake.
It's hard to believe, but after more than half a century, the city's wooden beams and staircases are in good condition, as if time flows somehow differently there.
Underwater sculpture park
The unique museum was created by an English sculptor Jason Taylor. It is located at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea, not far from the coast of Grenada. The first exhibits were sunk to the seabed in 2006.
Today the museum has more than 65 exhibits, the collection of which is replenished annually. This project benefits not only as a cultural site, but also as an important part of the wildlife ecosystem.
"Black smokers" on the ocean floor
In the entire history of civilization, the world's oceans have been studied to a maximum of 5%. We know less about the processes occurring in vast expanses and in the water column beneath them than we do about the far side of the Moon. LifeGid tells the amazing secrets of the inner life of the ocean and the power of the elements.
Alas, there is a possibility that we will never know much of what is happening in the World Ocean. The planet is undergoing rapid, large-scale changes: the temperature of the atmosphere is rising, the polar caps are melting. Due to thoughtless economic activities, the ocean is subject to enormous pollution with plastic waste. Coral reefs and many species of ocean life are under threat of extinction.
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The ocean is a creative turbidity
Back in the 19th century. Telegraph cables were laid along the bottom of the oceans. It soon turned out that an unknown force from time to time easily tears thick wire harnesses. There have been cases when several telegraph lines failed at once within a few hours, and they were broken in a clear straight line.
It is now known that most often this natural phenomenon occurs in underwater canyons located where large rivers flow into the ocean. The study of such accidents made it possible to learn about the existence of so-called turbidite flows. We are talking about huge flows of silt and turbidity that rush from shallow water over steep underwater slopes.
As it moves downwards, the flow captures more and more masses of bottom sediments. Finally he reaches the bottom of the slope, his energy runs out, and the material he brought is laid down in a thin layer. Over millions of years, sedimentary layers of impressive thickness and characteristic structure are formed at the bottom. Geologists even gave them a special name - turbidites.
Below is a video with laboratory simulation of turbidite flow.
It is quite possible that this phenomenon would have remained known only to a narrow circle of people associated with marine geology and oceanology.
But nature allowed itself an unexpected “advertising move”. At some point in history, the turbidites that accumulated on the bottom of the modern Bay of Biscay were compressed, crushed and raised above sea level. This is how the famous beaches of the Basque Country arose. The coastlines, dotted with countless rows of stone battlements, attract photographers and even became the location for an episode of Game of Thrones.
The surface of Sakoneta beach in the Basque Country was formed by turbidite flows millions of years ago (photo flickr)
Alien ecosystem and ocean smokers
In the last quarter of the 20th century, a major discovery took place: in the zones of mid-ocean ridges (rifts), powerful streams of mineralized boiling water flow from the depths! Black clouds of sulfur compounds rise above the vents from which these fountains erupt, which is why they are nicknamed “black smokers.”
An incredible ecosystem, as for the Earth, has formed around them. The place of photosynthesis in it was taken by the oxidation of inorganic substances. Therefore, around the “smokers” a numerous little world of creatures settled down that do not need either light or oxygen. They thrive in the dark and in a soup of substances that are toxic to other organisms. They don’t care about enormous pressure either.
And one more important nuance. The sea offered a chance in the future to discover similar life on the bottom of the oceans on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
Ocean and flowers from the snow queen
Global warming is causing significant changes in the atmosphere and surface waters in the polar regions. And it gives rise to previously unprecedented natural phenomena. For example, the so-called “frost flowers”.
Field of “frozen flowers” in the Canadian Arctic (photo by Matthias Wietz)
It is interesting that you will not find any mention of this phenomenon in the diaries and descriptions of researchers of the early 20th century. It is doubtful that they did not notice such a phenomenon. But in the last couple of decades, reports of “frost flowers” have become commonplace. We are talking about the following. Sometimes the air temperature over a sea covered with young thin ice quickly drops below -20 °C. At the same time, the temperature of water and ice remains around 0 °C.
Under such conditions, a layer saturated with water vapor appears near the ice surface. If at this moment the weather remains calm, then water vapor, in contact with frosty air, settles on the surface of the sea in the form of numerous ice crystals several centimeters in size. Immediately after the crystals form, salt aerosols begin to settle on them. Therefore, “frost flowers” are much saltier than the underlying ice.
Fields of frosty flowers are short-lived. It is enough for the ice to become thicker and colder, and the wind to blow, and the unusual sight disappears before our eyes.
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Fingers of Death
This phenomenon became famous about five years ago thanks to BBC filming. Although it was first described back in 1974. They called it brine (English: brine - strong brine, brine and icicle - icicle).
When salty seawater turns into fresh ice in Antarctica, the saturated brine accumulates in cavities within the ice. It has an extremely low temperature. As the ice moves, the supercooled brine falls down, and as it moves, an ice tube is formed, inside which is a very cold, concentrated solution.
At birth, the tube is fragile, with thin walls. But the flow of cold brine contributes to their thickening and growth. When such an ice pipe reaches the bottom, it freezes all living things it touches. Sedentary marine organisms are doomed to death when colliding with brynicles.
A spectacular quirk of atmosphere
A green ray is a short bright flash that appears at the moment when the disk of the sun finally disappears below the horizon. Or vice versa - it is just rising above the sea in the morning. Perhaps this is the most romantic of all the natural phenomena mentioned in this publication that can be seen in the sea.
It is rare, but not unique. Sailors have always been somewhat superstitious people, but they were not afraid of the green ray: it was believed that seeing it was good luck. Jules Verne, Anton Chekhov, science fiction writers Strugatsky mention the green ray in their works. He also appears in the third part of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Although the phenomenon is called a ray, in reality it can look different: like the green edge of the solar disk, or just like a green segment. But what remains classic is the green flame rising from the sea.
The appearance of the green beam is caused by the refraction of light in very transparent air. That is why this optical effect is extremely rare on land.
Underwater waterfalls
There are also waterfalls in the oceans: denser water rolls down the slopes at the bottom. Moreover, these waterfalls are in many ways superior to their land counterparts. The largest one discovered in the sea is in the Denmark Strait, separating Greenland and Iceland, its height is about 4000 m (for comparison: Angel, the record holder among land waterfalls - 970 m).
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The idea of an underwater city of the future first appeared, oddly enough, in the USSR back in the 1960s. The project was code-named Ichthyander-66. The underwater house was made in the shape of an inverted glass by employees of the Institute of Mining Mechanics and Technical Cybernetics. Just imagine, in those years, a hydropolis with a volume of only 6 cubic meters turned out to be a real underwater technological paradise. It was equipped with telephone communications, video equipment, artificial and natural lighting. The house was designed for two people; a bunk bed was made for sleeping. Fresh water and air were delivered through hoses from the surface. Ventilation even allowed smoking inside the house. Divers delivered food in special containers. Despite the undeniable success of Soviet scientists, the project, after the creation of underwater houses “Ichthyander-67” and “Ichthyander-68”, in which even rabbits, turtles and rodents lived together with people, was decided to be closed. Why is still not known.
By the way, the French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau also worked on creating an underwater city in the 1960s. The project was called "Precontinent". According to Cousteau's plan, 5 inhabited stations were to appear on the ocean floor, where researchers could live and work for a long time. The first base was set up at a depth of 10 meters. Two aquanauts stayed in it for 196 hours and thereby proved that a person can live comfortably in an underwater house. Then the second station was built a little deeper - it looked more like an “underwater village”. In addition to a house for researchers, the site included rooms for a mini-submarine and a warehouse. People spent a month there. And finally, the third base was set up at a record depth of 100 meters. Oceanographers stayed there for three weeks, breathed a mixture of helium and oxygen and carried out work outside the station. They installed an oil rig at a depth of 110–130 meters. Thus, it was proven that at great depths a person can perform complex work even faster than on land. Is there any doubt that underwater construction is an absolute reality?
Due to lack of funding, Cousteau's project had to be closed. At the same time, scientists say: before the end of the century, or rather, in the next 30–40 years, a station city with apartments and shops, institutes and factories, hospitals and theaters, streets and restaurants will be built in the center of the Atlantic. However, this will require overcoming difficulties no less than when landing people on Mars. But it is simply necessary to overcome them, scientists believe, otherwise humanity may simply not survive, because the latest data suggests that the level of the World Ocean will rise greatly in the near future. This means that people will have to develop not only land, but also water.
Nature began to often remind us of this. Not long ago, a hurricane hit Karachay-Cherkessia. The gusty wind reached 20 meters per second, it literally uprooted trees, overturned cars and blew roofs off houses. Moreover, during the hurricane, heavy hail the size of a chicken egg began. Because of these huge hailstones, 28 people ended up in the hospital with bruises and cuts. In Italy, near Naples, huge hail the size of a tennis ball also fell.
There was also hail in Georgia. It was preceded by a strong hurricane that blew away the roofs of 80 houses in the Georgian region of Kakheti. In total, residents of six villages suffered from the natural disaster, but the greatest damage was caused to the village of Gelati, where the disaster completely destroyed the harvest.
Georgians are perplexed: what happened to the climate in their sunny country? After all, they only recently managed to recover from a big flood and had just repaired their zoo, which had been closed for a long time due to the summer flood. Then, in June 2015, hundreds of residential buildings in the center of Tbilisi were flooded. Flows of water demolished cars, houses and bridges and even destroyed a zoo, from which dozens of predators escaped.
Experts believe that something wrong is happening on the planet. The climate is changing dramatically. In recent months alone, abnormal floods, unprecedented hurricanes, snowfalls and droughts have been recorded in different parts of the globe.
In our country, this news went almost unnoticed, although it is the most discussed in Asian countries. Japan has also recently been hit by natural disasters. The most powerful hurricane in the last half century destroyed hundreds of houses and paralyzed all transport links. The country suffered tens of millions of dollars in damage.
A month ago in Tajikistan, mudflows came down from the mountains and blocked the channels of two large rivers. As a result, two new huge lakes appeared, which overflowed with water and burst. All the water poured into the surrounding villages. Houses and buildings, roads and power lines were destroyed. Preliminary estimates put the damage at $100 million.
There have also been several floods in our country this year. First, houses in six settlements of the Khabarovsk Territory were flooded, then, due to prolonged rainfall, several districts of St. Petersburg were flooded, then Sochi almost completely went under water.
The summer in Central Russia was generally abnormally rainy, and with the arrival of autumn there was even more water. It seems like nothing special, this happens, mudflows, landslides, and hurricanes happen on the planet. However, employees of a research laboratory at NASA posted a new report on the Internet, which says that a new Flood may occur on Earth!
Whether the flood will really be worldwide or will only flood some regions, no one knows for sure, but it is already clear that humanity is not yet ready for such a development of events. According to scientists, this prospect does not bode well, because the waters of the World Ocean have been explored much less than space. One can only guess what monsters are hiding in the World Ocean.
Scientists recently recorded strange sounds right off the coast of Antarctica. Scientists have suggested that the source of this frightening low-frequency sound is icebergs scraping along the ocean floor. Glaciers are melting, and the entire snowy continent is beginning to move. But many researchers disagree with this conclusion. They are sure that this sound can only be produced by living creatures living under many kilometers of ice. After all, the sound constantly fluctuates: it comes closer, then moves away, as if the very source of this strange sound is moving.
The ocean is filled with a huge amount of sounds. This includes the hummocking of ice, the splashing of waves, the creaks from the movement of continents, volcanic eruptions, and the “talking” of fish. What surprised me most was that dolphins and cetaceans turned out to be the most talkative. An unimaginable number of sounds, tones, radiations, both in frequency, in repetition periods and in diversity.
But is this possible? After all, it is generally accepted that ice water is absolutely lifeless, microbes can hardly exist in it, where are marine animals? However, several years ago scientists proved that this is not so. Living creatures exist under a multi-meter crust of ice in Antarctica.
Scientists discovered an unusual translucent fish, through the skin of which all its internal organs are visible, at a depth of 750 meters! She survived in incredibly difficult conditions - in darkness, salt water, monstrously low temperatures and in complete isolation from the external environment. Another inhabitant of Antarctica is a creature that resembles a shrimp, like those that end up on our table. It was discovered by NASA scientists when they drilled into the Antarctic ice to take water samples.
At the depths of the ocean, which we considered lifeless, real life exists, including in Antarctica, despite sub-zero temperatures. The ocean is populated everywhere.
Creatures unknown to science may indeed live under the ice of Antarctica. It was they who could make the strange sounds that scientists recently recorded off the coast of the icy continent.
The fact that humanity, which walks around with tablets, has entangled the entire planet with the Internet and launches space rockets into space, knows practically nothing about the underwater depths, is also evidenced by photographs of the lake from space, which capture an unusual dark ring on the icy surface of Baikal. Such almost black circles were first noticed back in 1999, then in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2009. In the early 2000s, scientists organized daily space monitoring of the surface of the lake and found that mysterious dark formations, regardless of the time of day, appear in different places of the lake.
Russian scientists are convinced that the mysterious circles are the result of a rare natural phenomenon, and not traces of some unknown civilization. Most likely, these circles appeared due to the warm underwater currents of the lake. But if this is really the case, then what temperature should the subglacial current of Lake Baikal be for its flow to leave such steam on the surface of the lake? Researchers have calculated that for such circles to remain on a two-meter thick layer of ice, the water must almost boil! Otherwise, the current simply will not be able to wash away such a thick layer of ice. However, modern science cannot yet confirm or refute one of these hypotheses, because Baikal today is practically unexplored. Even the few scientists who attempted to explore the lake encountered something inexplicable in its depths.
On July 24, 2008, the Mir deep-sea research vehicle was unloaded from a Russian ship into Lake Baikal. This is the first dive of such a device in fresh water. The situation is unusual, and the whole team is on edge. “The World” slowly begins to plunge into the abyss of water: two hundred meters, four hundred... there is only a black pool around. Suddenly, at a depth of 500 meters, the device gives a signal: an object has been found. The red alarm button lights up, the submersible approaches. Scientists are unable to figure out what exactly is overboard. Silt instantly begins to rise from the bottom, and the water becomes cloudy. The command comes from the ground: “Surface immediately!”, and “Mir” goes to the surface. What exactly the deep-sea vehicle recorded and why the decision was made to urgently raise the bathyscaphe is still not known. According to the official version, a storm began, and it was simply dangerous to continue working in such conditions. However, there is another, unofficial version, according to which the bathyscaphe encountered something in the depths of Lake Baikal that, according to modern science, cannot exist in fresh water.
Deep-sea research vehicle "Mir-1"
The next dive of the Mir took place only a week later and was even stranger. Almost immediately after the device reached the 700-meter mark, the equipment malfunctioned, and then the scientists who were inside the “Mir” felt a strong shock and a dull blow, after which a grinding sound of metal was heard. It became clear: the bathyscaphe collided with something. But with what? The device weighs more than 18 tons, and only an object of truly gigantic size can unbalance it.
Scientists stated that the bathyscaphe received serious damage as a result of a collision with the Metropolia platform, on which the expedition was based. An allegedly banal storm then greatly hampered the movement of the apparatus, and therefore an emergency situation occurred. This explanation seemed absurd to many researchers, because a few days later a recording of the exact moment when the submersible was damaged hit the Internet: “The hydrate layer in the wall is transparent. Wow! Look, it’s as clear as ice. Is our camera recording? Now he writes, yes” (the recording is turned off).
Then the recording ends. But if you believe the information released by the scientists themselves, it was next to these hydrates that they discovered “bizarrely shaped bitumen buildings,” which for some reason were never captured in the frame. Moreover, the clear Baikal water was absolutely calm. But then what kind of storm were the scientists talking about? And what did the researchers actually encounter?
This is not the only mystery of Lake Baikal. Back in 1982, researchers from the Irkutsk Institute recorded a strange phenomenon - the brightest glow of Baikal water. Measurements of water samples at different depths of the lake then showed that the intensity of the glow decreases with depth, while the brightness of the light in the same place can change. It seems that the source of this glow is artificial, scientists said then. But what does this mean? Could there really be unknown objects of artificial origin at the bottom of Lake Baikal?
Incredibly, eyewitness accounts have been preserved, according to which the strange underwater glow of Lake Baikal can move.
In June 1992, a group of students at the Institute of Technology saw pulsating lights in the depths of the lake, reminiscent of electric welding; they soon formed a large circle that slid along the surface and disappeared after some time.
1977 During the descent of Soviet hydronauts along the underwater ridge of Lake Baikal, an amazing phenomenon occurred, which was described by employees of the Institute of Oceanology. Then hydronauts studied the degree of penetration of sunlight to depth. At that moment, when the scientists reached the required depth and turned off the spotlight to take measurements, they saw a powerful foreign glow in the water column that was moving. Scientists, surprised by what they saw, were not even able to give a reasonable explanation for what happened. And today, many years later, the glow of Baikal water remains an unsolved mystery.
The depths of the seas, oceans and the largest lakes on earth keep many secrets that can change the history of the entire earthly civilization. Scientists have no doubt that humanity expects many sensational discoveries when we become full-fledged masters of the water element. In the meantime, we know little about the natural phenomena that we encounter in the water column.
Let's take Easter Island as an example. Since its discovery by Europeans, amazing phenomena have not ceased to occur there. One of them is connected with “disappearing” islands. Since 1802, the captains of many ships wrote in their ship's logs about the discovery of small islands near Easter, but time passed, and other ships traveling the same course did not meet them, as if these islands had disappeared without a trace. Thus, in 1912, the captain of the British ship Gluelon announced the discovery of a giant stone plateau with rocks in which “windows” were cut out near Easter Island. A ship sent later to investigate the find did not find the plateau. Some researchers explain the disappearance of the islands, as surprising as it may sound, by moving to another dimension.
In general, a lot of mysterious and inexplicable things are connected with Easter Island. Tons of books have been written about it, in which scientists are trying to find answers to questions about the origin of the island. Some researchers believe that in fact Easter is not an island at all, but a fragment of a sunken ancient continent.
The final conclusion to the question of whether Easter Island is a piece of a sunken continent and whether underwater cities are hidden near it in the oceanic depths was determined by the research of French archaeologists. In 1978, scientists discovered that around the island there was a mountain range submerged in the sea, and many of the underwater peaks had strange openings resembling windows. Archaeologists who descended into a deep-sea depression said they had discovered something like a huge underwater city, which they were never able to explore. An official ban on underwater archaeological research was given by the local police. What is the reason for this reluctance of local authorities to disclose details of an unknown underwater structure, scientists have yet to find out.
However, Easter Island is not the only point in the Pacific Ocean that keeps many secrets. Thus, near the Japanese island of Yonaguni, archaeologist Robert Shoaf found a strange sculpture carved from stone in the form of a human head.
Surprisingly, a similar discovery was made at another point on the globe - just 19 kilometers from Lake Titicaca on the ruins of the ancient city of Tiahuanaco. This find preserved not only the head, but also the body of the ancient sculpture.
But the most incredible thing is that the figure below the waist is covered with an unusual ornament that resembles scales. According to experts, this is not a work of fiction. The ancient master really depicted creatures unknown to us, but really living, half-fish, half-human. Moreover, the Incas, who considered the Titicaca region their ancestral home, firmly believed that their god was covered with fish scales and emerged from the waters of the lake.
According to Philip Coppens, a researcher of ancient civilizations:
“We find stories about some creature coming out of the water onto the land, transforming into a man from the form of a fish, which he had to be while under water. And so he came out of the water, stepped onto land, took the form of a man, became a representative of civilized humanity, told people about astronomy and various other sciences, and then disappeared into the water again at night. There is an assumption that at some point in time intelligent beings came out of the sea onto land to guide our development. They never said where they came from; whether they were representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations or a lost earthly civilization is not yet known.”
But that's not all. Sumerian-Akkadian mythology speaks of a mysterious race of half-fish, half-humans. According to the surviving records of the “History of Babylonia” by the priest Berossus, people lived like animals until half-fish, half-human creatures emerged from the waters of the Persian Gulf. Berossus calls these creatures Oannes. It was they, according to fragments of the “History of Babylonia,” who taught the inhabitants of Mesopotamia writing, science, the construction of cities and temples, agriculture and metal processing. This is how Berossus described Oannes: “His body was that of a fish, and under the fish’s head there was another [human] one; below there were legs like a man’s and a fish’s tail [behind them]. His voice was human and his language was understandable. During the day this creature did not take food. It gave people writing, science and art. When the sun set, this creature went out to sea again and spent the whole night in its depths, for it was an amphibian.”.
Today we can see images of half-fish, half-humans in different parts of the globe. On the walls of the palace of the Assyrian king Sargon in Iraq, in the British Museum, where ceramic figurines of half-fish, half-humans more than 12 centimeters high are kept, and on the ruins of the old Persian capital of Pasargadae, in modern Iran. The cult of amphibian people was widespread in India, China and even in the Russian North. And although modern archeology interprets such images only as an illustration of legends, some independent experts suggest that ancient people drew, so to speak, from life what they actually encountered. This means that amphibians unknown to us in time immemorial could once really inhabit the Earth.
But if a civilization of half-humans, half-fish really once inhabited the Earth, then what happened to it? Why today can we only guess about its existence, coming across a few ancient artifacts? Science is not yet able to figure this out. However, according to one hypothesis, intelligent life still exists in the deepest parts of the World Ocean - in trenches and depressions. And periodically it makes itself felt.
Researchers from different countries are constantly recording strange sounds underwater. It is quite possible that such sounds are made by some underwater creatures. Perhaps they are even intelligent, or perhaps, on the contrary, too primitive. Perhaps this is just a little-studied natural phenomenon of the World Ocean, some kind of ultrasound that is not so easy to distinguish from the voices of living beings.
“Hi-M-6” was the name of the ship, which in 2003 was discovered by a patrol ship in the waters of New Zealand without signs of life on board. The military tried to contact the drifting ship, but there was no response from the schooner. When the patrollers boarded the strange ship, they found that it was completely empty. All crew members disappeared without a trace. It seemed as if the ship was not under control. It followed an absolutely incomprehensible course, and there were no signals from it at all. This brought up the darkest thoughts.
A similar ghost ship was discovered a few years later, in 2006, in Eastern Australia. The cargo ship "Yan Seng" drifted through the waves without a single soul on board. But where did all the crew go? Answering this question turned out to be not so simple. According to one version, the crew of the boat could simply fall overboard during a storm. However, the life jackets remained intact. In addition, all things were laid out too neatly. According to another hypothesis put forward by the sailors, the crew could have been kidnapped. But this version did not stand up to criticism either - there were no traces of strangers on the ship, a struggle or a search. Moreover, all the goods were untouched. This means that there was no attack on the schooner. But then what happened to the crew?
There are a lot of such examples, and we only know about them from survivors. For the most part, those hundreds of thousands of ships that sank in the World Ocean go to the bottom along with everyone on board, so we simply do not know what happened on them at the last moment.
While scientists were struggling to solve the disappearance of the sailors, another ship, the Bel Amica, disappeared in the Mediterranean Sea. This happened just four months after the Yang Seng tragedy. The sails were also raised, all things remained in their places, but neither the captain nor the sailors were there. At the same time, there were no clear indications as to why the crew members might have left the ship or where they went.
And in the 19th century, and even in our time, a ship is encountered in the ocean, where everything is fine, it is afloat, soup is being cooked in the galley, but there is no crew, everyone has disappeared. Where? There were versions that everyone was taken away by aliens on a flying saucer... But the version that for some reason they all jumped into the water is not excluded, although it is also quite fantastic.
The first to find the reason why ship crews disappeared for many years in a row was the Soviet hydrographer Vsevolod Berezkin back in the 1930s. He was convinced that some little-studied physical phenomenon was to blame. During research in the Kara Sea on the hydrographic ship "Taimyr", Berezkin recorded a strange, frightening phenomenon. Having filled the shell of the meteorological balloon with hydrogen, before releasing it into the air, the scientist brought it to his ear and at the same instant felt a sharp pain in the eardrum - there was no sound, but there was pain. This is how a strange and frightening phenomenon was discovered for the first time, which scientists called the “voice of the sea.”
Then an unknown natural phenomenon baffled scientists. Only a few years later, Soviet physicist Vasily Shuleikin discovered that special infrasound could be generated in the ocean. The human ear does not perceive it, but the effect on our body is simply destructive. For no apparent reason, a person affected by infrasound panics, his head begins to pound and trembling occurs throughout his body. Fleeing from unbearable sensations, he can throw himself overboard the ship into the depths of the sea.
In the old days, before people explored the entire Earth, geographic maps often showed areas with outlandish names and unusual legends about them. Superstitious sailors could tell a lot about distant islands where either beaches of gold and silver or wild beasts from hell awaited the traveler. Read on in the review about unusual ghost islands that have left their mark on history, literature and mythology.
1. Demon Island
On ancient maps of the 16th and 17th centuries. a new geographical feature has appeared near the coast of Newfoundland - Demon Island. It got its name from sailors sailing nearby who, through the fog, heard frightening screams and moans. It was believed that the island was inhabited by "beasts and other terrible and disgusting creatures emerging from hell, who howl furiously." This is exactly how the Frenchwoman Margarita de la Roque de Roberval described her stay on the Island of Demons. She had to live alone on the island for several years, shooting at wild creatures.
However, the mysterious piece of land between England and Newfoundland was never found in subsequent centuries. Contemporaries believe that sailors named Demon Island one of those pieces of land in the North Atlantic where gannets live. Their cry, very loud during the breeding season, can indeed be mistaken for the sounds of demons.
2. Antilia and Satanazes
On maps of the 15th century to the west of the Iberian Peninsula, Spanish and Portuguese navigators began to depict two large islands: Antilia and Satanazes. These lands, lost in the Atlantic, excited the imagination of local sailors for a long time. They could tell the story of how seven priests and their Christian followers fled from the Muslims in the 8th century. On Antilia they founded seven cities, where all the travelers who arrived there remained. In another version of the story, the sailors only saw Antilia from a distance. When I tried to get closer, the ground always disappeared.
The kings of Spain and Portugal even clashed over ownership of Antilia when one day a rumor spread that the local beaches were strewn with precious metals. Only towards the end of the 15th century, after numerous voyages, Antilia and Satanazes disappeared from geographical maps. However, one of them gave its name to the Antilles in the Caribbean.
Satanazes gets its name from the main demon. The sailors believed that in this area a huge hand appeared from under the water, which grabbed the sailors and dragged them under the water. Sometimes entire ships were lost this way.
3. Atlantis
The mythical Atlantis was first mentioned in the works of Plato. This land is also mentioned by Herodotus, Strabo and other Greeks. This is a large island that lay "west of the Pillars of Hercules" in the Atlantic Ocean. It was believed that Atlantis was a separate, developed state that disappeared during a great flood.
Over the past centuries, there have been many attempts to find Atlantis, which some researchers believe was originally Plato's invention. Others call the island of Santorini (Thira), most of which was underwater after a volcanic eruption around 1500 BC, Atlantis. This event caused the decline of the entire Minoan civilization.
4. Eea
Among the indigenous people of Australia there is a legend about the island of Baralku. This is the place where the main deities live and where the souls of dead people go.
There are many myths about amazing places and extraordinary creatures living there. But these days, few people believe in fairy-tale animals. However, tourists can visit.