Water is the most abundant substance on Earth, occupying more than a third of the entire surface of our planet. The variety of shapes and sizes of this life-giving force is striking. Water is omnipresent, it is present in all living organisms and fills numerous cavities in the world.
Meanwhile, for the water element remains one of the greatest mysteries in the world, since only 5% of the world's oceans have been studied by people. and expensive research using bathyscaphes made it possible to partially study unique world under a multi-kilometer layer of water, opening the curtain into the secrets of the depths of the sea.
Who would have thought that under the calm surface of the water are hidden ancient monsters and outlandish creatures, about which legends were made, which were considered just another invention of a science fiction writer and never left their refuge at the bottom of the ocean? Scientists continue to hypothesize about the existence of alien objects that hide the depths of the sea. But even experienced specialists cannot explain some of the mysterious events that took place in the depths of the sea.
Legendary ship, its first and last launch ("Titanic")
A sensational tragic event of the last century was the sinking of the Titanic, its time, the world miracle of shipbuilding. The owners self-confidently believed that no one and nothing in the world was capable of crushing this giant, except for the Lord, and therefore his unexpected, catastrophic fate shocked the entire world community. According to the official version, the giant ship collided with an iceberg, although the sea was calm at night and did not pose a threat. Due to significant damage to the hull, the liner went to the bottom of the ocean, forever inscribing its name on the list called "Secrets of the Deep Sea".
Irony of fate or coincidence? Unsinkable giant
Over the course of time, other reasons for the shipwreck of the mighty "Titanic" and its tragic descent into the depths of the sea were also found. The mysteries of the disaster have come to the surface in part thanks to research that has reliably established that:
- Telegraph operators ignored reports of ice drift by sending telegrams, an expensive pleasure available only to the wealthiest passengers.
- The belated awareness of the collision and the impossibility of making a saving maneuver are also due to the lack of binoculars in the lookout.
- The captain also played a cruel joke and his unwillingness to change course or reduce the ship's speed.
- The huge number of victims was the result of the inattention of the liner workers to the fullness of the boats. In a panic, the boats were lowered into the water half empty.
- On the giant ship, there was not a single red rocket announcing an imminent disaster.
Through a hundred years and the depths of the sea. Merciless destruction of luxury
For more than a century (since 1912) a giant liner has been resting on the ocean floor. The last two decades have had a devastating impact on the ship. The causes of irreparable damage entail the next secrets of the depths of the sea. The Titanic suffered from bounty hunters who plundered the ship and stole even the mast beacon, and from the destructive action of bacteria that turned the best steel of the time into pitiful pieces of rusty metal.
Without a trace and a consequence. Disappearances in the Western Atlantic
The category of depths "also includes the mysterious disappearances of flying and swimming facilities in the most mystical place. Atlantic Ocean- Bermuda Triangle. What versions have left the covers of periodicals of the last century! Guests from other planets, and fantastic monsters, and even evaporation were blamed for the disappearance of ships and planes without a trace. unique nature that produce the depths of the sea. Secrets led scientists further and further, thanks to which amazing stories about black holes, leaps through time space and quite logical conclusions about the experiments of the American special services appeared. Nonetheless, none of the theories stood up to scrutiny. All of them were doomed to be considered unsubstantiated.
Inexplicable, but true: the location of the Bermuda Triangle
For three decades, 37 aircraft and 38 ships, as well as a nuclear submarine and a balloon, have disappeared. Until 1975, mysterious cases continued, which received the name "Secrets of the Deep Sea". The Bermuda Triangle, as scientists calculated, has an area of 1 million km 2 and is located between the islands of the same name, south cape Florida and Puerto Rico. A characteristic feature of this place is the multi-tiered system of air and sea currents.
Questions are in the air. Unresolved disputes
The secrets of the depths of the sea, which cannot be understood and do not correspond to the conclusions of common sense, still remain unsolved. More and more new information gives rise to new questions, many of which cannot be answered.
The sinking of the Titanic became a kind of trigger that created a subject for incessant controversy both among the public and among genius scientists. Was the iceberg the cause of the wreck of a giant ship designed to stay afloat in any unexpected disaster? What ruined the gigantic liner, interrupting its first solemn conquest of the water element? Is it all the fault of evil fate and excessive confidence in the unsinkability of the ship, or is there a more trivial reason behind the disaster?
There is even less clarity in the Bermuda Triangle case. The disappearance of dozens of pieces of equipment and people without the slightest clue and trace gives rise to fertile ground for the most grandiose assumptions, which cannot be confirmed or refuted at the present stage.
Scientists continue to explore the smallest details and facts, compiling statistics and theories, and also developing instruments for further studying the oceans. It is hoped that the innovations created by upcoming technologies will shed light on the dark mysteries of the past, lurking at the very bottom of the deep sea.
Some say that the boundary of our knowledge of the world lies in space, but they flatter themselves: the boundaries of our knowledge are still on Earth. The oceans still represent one of nature's greatest mysteries. Many of us take the ocean for granted, but it is huge, powerful and almost infinite, and its depths can be fraught with something unimaginable. 10 examples of such surprises - in this post!
Bimini Road, also called the Bimini Wall, is located in the Bahamas. She lies under water at a depth of only about half a meter, so that she can be seen through the water. Some of its stones are 6 meters long! Someone thinks that it was formed naturally, someone - that people laid it. There is only one question left: why build a road under water? ..
9. "Milk Sea"
The effect of the "milky sea" occurs when in a certain area of the ocean all the water seems to change color and becomes a milky blue-white hue. This is a rather frightening phenomenon; many sailors and travelers felt completely disoriented when faced with it. Many scientists argue that this is due to the activity of bacteria, however, bacteria have not yet been found that can change the color of water all day long, but not constantly, but from time to time.
These stunning ancient pyramids were found in Japan near Yonaguni Island. Researchers say they may be older than Egyptian pyramids! All this is great, but how exactly did they end up under water? Nobody can say for sure. If they are man-made, they may have been part of the city. But people cannot live under water! Or ... once could they? Or were they not built by humans? Who knows.
The question for philosophers who love riddles such as "can God create a stone that he himself cannot lift": how can an underwater waterfall exist if water is everywhere? Nevertheless, underwater waterfalls exist and can even be very dangerous - the currents that form near them can destroy the ship. So far, scientists have discovered 7 underwater waterfalls, and, most likely, these are not all such phenomena that we know about. The largest of them is located off the coast of Denmark.
6. Underwater crop circles
You know about "crop circles" - mysterious patterns, looking at which people think that these circles left a UFO upon landing? So these circles also exist under water. Apparently, aliens are not very worried about where exactly to land - on land or in the ocean! In fact, scientists believe that these traces remain from the mating ritual of one of the species of fish - this is not as interesting as the version with aliens, but what can you do?
Ah, the Bermuda Triangle! Once upon a time, people were really worried about the need to fly or swim in this area if the route ran through it. Now they talk about him less, but before he was a weighty cause for excitement. It was also called the "Devil's Triangle", and many planes and ships in this area disappeared without a trace. Some say that there is a portal to another world! This may not be true, but why tempt fate?
All the items on this list are real mysteries, but Cuban underwater city- something that really makes you seriously think. Off the coast of Cuba, there is a structure whose existence makes one think that perhaps the myth of Atlantis was based on real facts! It is an underwater city with giant pyramids and sphinx sculptures. Some believe that the city is over 10,000 years old and sank during an earthquake. It's really hard to come up with another explanation.
The Devil's Sea is an area in the sea about 100 km from the Japanese capital Tokyo, near the territory of Guam. Many sailors are afraid to enter these waters. Many brave ships have sunk here, trying to cross the Devil's Sea. Strong storms and storms break out in this area "out of the blue", out of a clear sky. In addition, no one lives here - no fish, no birds, no whales, no dolphins. Most likely, there is something connected with this that we humans do not know!
Another real mystery is the mysterious circles near the Persian Gulf, which glow and rotate. Some scientists claim that it is plankton, but most researchers disagree. Most likely, this is another of the unknown oceanic phenomena (although, of course, as in other phenomena on Earth, aliens may be involved in this).
This is perhaps even too mysterious even for this list! Some people believe that what we mistake for a UFO at the bottom of the Baltic is just rock. Others say it is an old sunken submarine. But this camera looks like it just stepped out of frame " Star wars"! The team of researchers who discovered it claims that it rests on a huge pillar, and inside it there is like a staircase leading to a black hole. It doesn't matter whether you believe in the versions given here or not - one thing is clear: definitely, this is truly a mystery to humanity!
- I was in the sea in the evening, about 5-6 kilometers from the coast, - the fisherman Tony Pamaka from the seaside town of Tronte, Adriatic, told the correspondent of the Europeo magazine on November 14, 1998. - At about four o'clock in the morning, when I was choosing gear from the depths, I suddenly saw a red light coming from under the water. As soon as I took out the tackle, I hastened to leave that place, but the red light followed me, then rising to the surface and scattering over a large area, then sinking to the bottom and turning into a crimson star. I don’t remember how I got to the coast. It was terrible, terrible, I spent more than two hours in chills and convulsions from fear and did not go out to sea for a week. Now I am afraid to sail more than 200 meters ... At first, the relatives and friends perceived the poor fellow's story as a hallucination or a fantasy, but soon abnormal phenomena at sea began to repeat themselves. Mysterious glow, red and green rays, seething sea, huge columns of water suddenly rising a hundred meters, mysterious "beards" on the surface, fixed by the air coast guard ... What is it? Of course, there can be no talk of any accumulations of microorganisms and deep-sea creatures that form bizarre "fiery" forms. What then? ... Cuba, northeast coast, August 3, 1999. Twenty-seven miles offshore, the crew of the Hermes tuna boat was struck by an incredible sight: in the coming twilight, first in front, then to the right, left and behind the ship appeared some alarming streaks of light, as if from the depths of the floodlights connected together flashed. The ship with the numb fishermen found themselves in a luminous ring. “What was happening was so eerie, we felt so helpless away from the coast and in the face of obvious danger that we were completely at a loss. The young guys cried and prayed. Suddenly, very close to the water, with the sound of a bottle of champagne being opened, a luminous drop-shaped object flew out and approached the ship with lightning speed, hovering at an altitude of 50-100 meters. Having made a circle, he dropped to 20 meters and flooded us with soft green light. Then, just as lightning fast, he jumped off and, having flown off by 2-3 cables, sank sharply into the water ... I radioed to the base and ordered to take a course home, ”said the captain of the fisherman Valentino Peyra. A Japanese dry cargo ship with a displacement of 80 thousand tons was heading for San Francisco. A day after leaving the port of registration, a strange thing happened at night - from a strong blow, the ship shuddered, rose and again stood on an even keel, swinging great from side to side several times. The officer of the watch raised the alarm. However, the sea was calm, the ship continued on its course, no leaks were found in the holds. But the terrified team demanded an answer from the discouraged captain: what made such a colossus on the water jump like a rubber ball?
- I decided that the dry cargo ship ran into a reef or a sand bank, - the captain reported to the team, - but then I changed my mind - in this area of the ocean, where the depth reaches 4-5 kilometers, it is impossible to talk about any banks. Having assembled the team, I presented a personal, purely subjective, theory that we were thrown by some huge, floating or "frolicking", underwater unidentified object. No submarine superboat of terrestrial origin and, moreover, a sea animal, could not do this with a colossus made of 2.5-centimeter steel ... The version of the captain was actively supported by numerous supporters of UFOs. The sailors of the fishing vessel Troza, who were fishing for halibut in the Grottamare region, 6 miles from the coast, recorded on the radar a large underwater body that resembled a "very long tongue." This is how the boatswain Pietro Ferres, a 47-year-old sea wolf, describes the event: “The machines were choosing a deep-sea trawl, and suddenly at some point the compass became very agitated, the cables became taut and the vessel rushed astern at high speed. Another minute or two, and we would have turned over, but somewhere in the depths the cables burst, the trawl disappeared, and the ship, like a cork, swayed on the water. It’s impossible to believe what happened. We were all seized with terror. " What huge steel object (otherwise why was the compass worried?) Deprived the fishermen of the trawl? Submarine? Alien submarine car? No answer was received to these questions. True, some skeptics assure that such underwater objects are nothing more than the super-newest spy vehicles of the United States and Russia. However, this is unlikely - not a single modern earth mechanism can move under water at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour or more, according to technical experts. F. Ritchie, the commander of the Federico Padre, recalls: “We were 15 kilometers from Pedazo (Mediterranean), when suddenly a huge column of water rose 100-150 meters straight ahead; meanwhile the sea around was perfectly calm. This could not have been an underwater rocket launch, since no underwater object appeared on the radar monitors. Try to find yourself in our place - mentally, of course, and you will feel what horror we experienced ... ”In 2003, sensational research results were published in the USA Mariana Trench... Scientific researchers have immersed in the deepest part of the world's oceans (depth 11,045 meters) a special apparatus - an unmanned platform equipped with powerful searchlights, very sensitive television and video systems, microphones. The platform descended on six inch steel cables. At first, the technique did not provide any unusual information. But a few hours after the immersion, silhouettes of strange large objects (at least 12-16 meters) began to flicker on the TV monitor screens in the light of powerful searchlights, and the microphones at that time transmitted sharp sounds to the recording devices - the grinding of iron and dull blows on metal. Uniform strikes, can you imagine? When the platform was raised (and never lowered to the bottom due to incomprehensible obstacles that impeded the descent), it was discovered that the powerful steel structures were bent, and the steel cables seemed to be sawn off. A little more - and the unique platform would forever remain in the deepest underwater depression on Earth. Scientists and experts declined to comment clearly, but popular science magazines commented on the sensation unequivocally and unanimously - someone exists at incredible depth. Reasonable, owning, at least, metal processing technologies. And once again the question arises: is man the only "owner" of the planet Earth? Or maybe, along with our terrestrial civilization, there is another, underwater, and much more ancient? Or maybe really "aliens" have created their underwater bases in the depths of the oceans? Do they study us, make their space travels from there? Or are they gradually preparing the colonization of the Earth? Or maybe, in the near future, scientists will offer their reasoned versions and conclusions?
Giant stone structure in the Sea of Galilee
In 2003, scientists discovered a large round stone structure in the Sea of Galilee 9 meters below sea level. The structure was built of basalt cobblestones, folded into a conical structure, which is 2 times the size of Stonehenge. In the course of research, the results of which were recently announced, archaeologists have established that this structure is very similar to ancient place mass graves that were previously found in other parts of the planet, but it can also be a ceremonial structure. Archaeologists have not previously encountered structures of this size and such nuances of the structure, therefore, they can only speculate about its age, how it was built and for what exact purposes.
Abnormal circles on Google Earth
Anomalous circles have been found underwater off the coast of Florida, North Carolina, and in Belize by archaeologists and Internet enthusiasts alike. Despite the fact that their existence is officially recognized, their historical purpose cannot be precisely determined, but many assume that these are ancient burial places. They are very similar in shape to the stone structures found in Saudi Arabia... Structures under water are better preserved than those remaining on the surface, and scientists have established that they were built around the eighth millennium BC (and those found in Saudi Arabia - around the 7th millennium).
Facility at Lake McDonald, Ontario
Divers uncovered evidence of antiquity in Eastern Canada while participating in a unique research project in 2005. It was a strange stone structure under water 12 meters below sea level - a huge boulder weighing 453 kilograms stands on 7 stones the size of a baseball, which in turn rest on a smooth slab at the top of the ledge. At first it was assumed that this is a structure of natural origin, but later scientists and archaeologists changed their point of view. They came to the conclusion that this "pyramid" is man-made, because 7 small stones, on which the boulder stands, could not be naturally under it in this form.
Anomaly in the Baltic Sea
It could be a UFO, the Nazis' secret underwater weapon, or just a huge piece of rock underwater - nevertheless, the discovery of a disk-shaped anomaly in the Baltic Sea (and its study in 2012) is causing a lot of controversy among scientists. Swedish scientists managed to convince everyone that this is definitely not a UFO, but there are still many questions. Firstly, no layer of silt was found on the surface of this block, which is always present on objects that have been under water for a long time. Secondly, this rock 80 meters wide is covered with some strange markings, and it is supported by an 8-meter pillar.
Lake Baikal mystery
Lake Baikal in southern Siberia is unique in many ways. It is the oldest, deepest and largest freshwater lake on Earth. The greatest depth of the lake is 1642 meters, and many species of fish that live in it cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. Since the ice from Lake Baikal usually completely disappears in June, astronauts from the International Space Station were surprised to find large ice rings near southern shores Baikal in April 2009. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but there is an assumption that they arise due to the rise of deep waters and an increase in the temperature of the surface layer of water in the central part of the ring structures, but such phenomena have never been noticed here before.
Ecology
Some people believe that there are practically no unexplored places left on our planet by the beginning of the 21st century, but the largest part of the Earth - the world's ocean - remains a virtually unexplored space... And this is not surprising, since every student knows that the ocean covers more than 70 percent of the surface of our planet, and the average depth of the water system is about four kilometers.
It is these conditions that make the ocean the most populated part of the Earth's ecosystem, which, however, is one of the less friendly on our planet. The ocean is very cold, incredibly dark and lack of oxygen. And what is the terrifying pressure, which in the depths of the ocean is thousands of times higher than the pressure on the surface of the planet! Thanks to all these factors, biochemistry underwater world is unlike any other world.
However, despite all these seemingly unbearable conditions that impede the development of life, one cannot but admit the fact that we have just touched the study of deep-sea life. Now every scientist realizes that the ocean is home to an incredible variety of living organisms that we know almost nothing about! In some regions, we can say something specific about only one percent of the inhabitants of the ocean floor.
The most bizarre world
The inhabitants of the underwater world differ significantly from the inhabitants of the planet's surface, and some have an incredible appearance. Take a deep sea shark, or a monster-like idiakant, frightening red glow of the so-called postorbital photophores! Species of bioluminescent fish, crawling sea lilies, blood-red molluscs, octopuses with glowing suckers, cone-shaped jellyfish a meter or more wide are fascinating; an armored snail and many, many other harmless and deadly poisonous creatures.
Probably one of the most impressive inhabitants of the deep sea is the 13-meter giant octopus or architeutis, which was recently filmed for the first time. It is known, however, that these creatures can be truly gigantic in size- up to 18 meters in length, although no one has yet seen them live. It is only known that only sperm whales and Greenland polar sharks are able to resist such predators.
Life in the depths also thrives in the form of bacteria, worms and crustaceans that literally dot the abyssal (deep sea) plains, which are mostly the ocean floor. They feed on organic food, which snow falls on them from the upper layers. And what happens deep under the ocean floor? For a long time it was believed that life there was impossible, but in 2003, researchers discovered a unique bacterium in the sedimentary layer at a depth of three hundred meters below the bottom. The Pacific... This bacterium has lived there for many millions of years.
An incredible sight is the deep-sea corals, which were found at a depth of six thousand meters, where the water temperature does not exceed two degrees Celsius. Despite this, deep sea corals may well rival the splendor of its tropical shallow-water cousins... More recently, it was discovered that these slow-growing living organisms line the seabed from the coast of Ireland to New Zealand (they even cover the pillars of oil drilling rigs).
It is noteworthy that humanity realized how widely these living organisms spread over the ocean floor only when they began to use a special method of fishing. destroying the ecostructure of the ocean floor (we are talking about trawling)... The largest known deep sea coral habitat was discovered only in 2002. It is located off the coast of Norway and covers an area of over one hundred square kilometers.
Hydrothermal wonders
In some places, the abundance of life is simply amazing. One of the most impressive deep sea ecosystems has been found around hydrothermal vents, where superheated water rich in chemicals, erupts from volcanically active ridges located on the ocean floor... Here, thanks to bacteria that feed on methane and sulfides, large communities of living organisms thrive, including giant molluscs, various bizarre fish and even the Rifthia, a giant invertebrate up to three meters long.
Some photosynthetic bacteria that live near certain hydrothermal vents surprise not only with their faint glow, but also their ability to thrive in water temperatures over 121 degrees Celsius! Similar volcanic vents that are usually isolated, sometimes release huge volumes of superheated water that carries bacteria from one crater to another. Such moving streams look like real underwater "flying saucers"!
For the first time, deep-sea emissions through conductive channels at the bottom of the oceans (they were called black smokers) were discovered in 1977 using the American manned underwater vehicle Alvin. Discovery of an entire ecosystem at a depth of two thousand meters, which does not need photosynthesis processes, literally turned mankind's views on life. We now know that such ecosystems are quite common throughout the seabed from Scandinavia to the Pacific Ocean.
Scientists have determined that deep-sea ecosystems develop along the mid-ocean ridge, both in relative shallow water and at a depth of several kilometers. Some experts even tend to think that life on Earth was formed precisely in such vents which can reach 60 meters in height. Others believe that similar geological formations could become the source of life in the frozen water bodies of the Earth, other planets and their satellites, including Mars and Europe.
Hydrothermal vents are not the only oases of life in the depths of the world's oceans. In 1984, biologists discovered the so-called cold springs. It's about places at the bottom of the ocean through which the enriched chemical elements water that sustains life around it. Typically, such sources are found at the borders of continents.
Another unusual source of nutrients for many organisms that allows them to literally thrive is the dead bodies of whales, sperm whales and other large inhabitants of the deep. These bodies sink to the bottom and can serve as a refuge for different organisms for many decades... For example, the carcass of a whale that has settled to the bottom, which weighed up to 160 tons, is capable of feeding more than four hundred species, ranging from sharks and mixins (vertebrates of the cyclostome class), ending with bone-eating "zombie worms" (osedaxes) and living off sulfides bacteria.
Seamounts and chasms
The bottom of the seas and oceans is covered with depressions and hills, but there are also real outstanding volcanic peaks. In fact, these peaks are a kind of analogue of the islands, which, as you know, often characterized by extremely rich and unusual flora and fauna... So underground peaks are home to numerous species unknown to science, of which, probably, half are unique and characteristic only for this particular mountain range.
Despite the fact that the world is thriving intensive fishing, the centers of which are concentrated around about one hundred thousand major seamounts in the oceans, only a few of these seamounts are really well studied... it real paradise for expeditions aimed at discovering new biological species... The largest underwater Mountain chain extends from the mid-ocean ridge for 70 thousand kilometers around the planet!
Exploration of the depths of the world's oceans began around 1930, when American oceanographers descended to a depth of one thousand meters in a steel ball, which was connected to the surface by a cable. And already in 1960 research bathyscaphe "Trieste" sank to a depth of 11 kilometers into the Mariana Trench located not far from the Philippines (as you know, this trench is considered the most deep place on the ground). Since then, no one else has dived to such a depth.
There is no doubt that a new generation of diving technology will help us to further uncover the secrets of the depths. Successful attempts include the launch of a Japanese remote-controlled submarine, which reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in 1995, but was later lost; the recent invention of the Alvin apparatus, which is capable of reaching 99 percent of the seabed... There are also known underwater vehicles that resemble, rather, jet fighters. An army of robots is being developed to build autonomous laboratories on the seabed. Humanity is struggling to unravel the secrets of the world's oceans, but so far it remains one of the greatest mysteries on Earth.
