Apparently the hunt for Nessie has taken off in Russia. As I have
posted, Russia is the mother lode of potential deep fresh water lakes
that could readily harbor any form of deep water reptile like Nessie.
So far any plausible lake that could hold such a creature and also
provide casual human access also generates reports. There are
thousands of lakes without that necessary human access in Russia and
North America. So putting a lot of boots on the ground is a great
first step. This seems to be occuring.
The main requirement to achieve a sighting is stealth. These
critters dive on sound to avoid us. They are not too curious either.
So slipping out on to the lake at night in a canoe is a good bet.
You may get lucky.
Searching for
Russia's ‘Loch Ness’
March 31, 2013 Andrei
Khimik, special to RBTH
Deep-water dives in
the icy, Siberian depths of Yakutia’s Lake Labynkyr have sparked
“Loch Ness Fever” in every watery corner of Russia. RBTH looks at
expeditions and legends that surround some of Russia’s strangest
waters.
The dive made by
Dmitry Schiller’s team into the icy waters of Lake Labynkyr on
February 1, 2013 could qualify for the Guinness World Records. The
team members dived to the bottom of the polar lake at the coldest
time of year, in Russia’s coldest region.
The dive has already
prompted a blaze of publicity in the Russian media, not to mention
the repercussions it has borne. Rumors abound that parts of the
skeleton and jaws of a huge animal were found on the lakebed, with
the help of camera technology.
The members of
the Russian Geographical Society team have since denied
this claim, but “Nessie Fever” was unstoppable. Both
scientific and pseudo-scientific exploration teams have set off in
pursuit of a Russian Loch Ness Monster all over the country.
Fans of paranormal
events from RBTH’s editorial team have tracked the movements
of different expeditions and compiled a list of Russia’s more
obscure lakes that might yet earn the title of “The Second Loch
Ness.”
Nessie’s brother
from Lake Labynkyr
Lake Labynkyr is
located at an altitude of 1,020 meters (3,346 feet) above sea level,
and its depth is 52.6 meters. The lakebed has an anomalous fissure,
with a depth that reaches 75–80 meters.
Locals only ever refer
to the lake as “The Second Loch Ness.” Viktor Tverdokhlebov,
local lead researcher of a team from the East-Siberian Section of the
Soviet Academy of Science, recorded in his notes a sighting of an
unidentified animal floating on the lake’s surface and resembling a
giant fish.
“It was moving in an
arc, at first along the lake, and then it came toward us... a
dark-grey, oval-shaped body moved across the water. Against this
background could be made out two symmetrical white spots, which could
be eyes, and standing up on its body was something like a stick —
perhaps a fin.
We only saw a small
part of this animal, but we could imagine there was a massive body in
the water. It was undoubtedly a predator — one of the most powerful
predators in the world,” wrote Tverdokhlebov.
Very possibly, this
report by a respected scientist has made the Lake Labynkyr Monster
one of the more serious contenders for the role of a Second Nessie,
even though the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) has rejected media
reports of an alleged large animal jawbone located on the bed of the
lake.
The giant bull-pike of
Lake Khaiyr (Pestsovoye)
With its own “Valley
Of Death” and flying saucers, Yakutia is a paradise for fans of the
paranormal.
Raspberry Lakes
Not far from Astrakhan
are the so-called “Raspberry Lakes.” They are noticeable not only
for their color, but also for their distinct raspberry-like scent.
This was one reason
why salt extracted from the lakes in hundreds of tons each year was
considered the best in the land and delivered to the table of Russian
Empress Catherine the Great.
This salt retains a
pale pink color, along with the faint tang of raspberries. The color
and aroma of salt in these waters are due to tiny crustaceans called
“Artemia.” When they die and decompose, they give a unique
fragrance to the salt water. These crustaceans are a favorite item in
the diet of flamingos.
Yakutia has not
just one alleged Loch Ness Monster, but two. According to witnesses,
Lake Khaiyr, which is located above the Arctic Circle, is home to an
unknown animal of monstrous proportions. The animal’s description
corresponds closely to the Lake Labynkyr monster.
A 1964 expedition
from Lomonosov Moscow State University’s North-Eastern
Research Department, led by G. Rukosuev, recorded that a mysterious
animal with a long snake-like neck lives in Khaiyr.
A member of a
biological expedition team from the Yakutsk Division of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, Nikolai Gladikh, left a written record.
“At 7 a.m. I went to
the lake to get water, with a bucket. I couldn’t have gone more
than 15 or 20 meters when I heard some kind of splash and saw a huge
animal crawling out of the water. It was probably 4 to 4.5 meters
[13-14 feet] long, 1.5 to 2 meters tall, with a long neck, maybe 1.5
meters. It had a small, flat head, like a snake,” reads Gladikh’s
record.
After talking with
locals, a team of researchers was able to gauge that the beast at the
center of these stories is generally called the “Bull-Pike.”
Despite the fact that the animal’s described appearance is
cartoonish, it has not deterred scientific researchers from looking
into the case.
The Brosno Dragon
The Russian Ogopogo —
a mythical animal known only from reported sightings — lives in
Lake Brosno, located in Tver Region. There have been no
scientifically confirmed sightings of the beast, but legend would
have us believe this is another Nessie.
As the story goes, the
Brosno Dragon is a large, lizard-like plesiosaur — an object of
fascination for many crypto-zoologists all over the world.
Credence for the
legend of these lake lizards is strengthened by the lake’s unusual
depth: at 41 meters (134.5 feet) it is the deepest lake in the Tver
Region. The decaying detritus on the lakebed, which causes bubbles of
hydrogen sulphide to rise to the surface, also adds eerie
believability to the story. From a distance, the bubbles give the
impression of something moving in the middle of the lake.
Prehistoric animals in
Elgygytyn Lake
Elgygytyn Lake is
found 500 kilometers (310 miles) to the northwest of Anadyr, which is
the capital city of Chukhotka — the farthest-flung region of
Siberia. The lake area measures 120 square kilometers (46 square
miles), and its depth in some places reaches 170 meters (557 feet).
Analysis of sediment
at the bottom puts the lake’s age at 3.5 million years old. Despite
its extreme northern location, the lake has never been covered in
glaciers — suggesting the presence of some unknown, primordial,
life traces in its waters.
Of course, local
people have come up with a number of legends of the existence of a
“great beast” living in Elgygytyn Lake.
The formation of
Elgygytyn Lake is something of a mystery itself. It is perfectly
circular in shape, and American scientific journals have speculated
that it was formed by a falling meteorite. Alternative theories have
posited that the lake basin might be the crater of an extinct
volcano.
Homes, churches, bell
towers and more, on the bed of Lake Svetloyar
Lake Svetloyar is
a small lake in the forests of Nizhny Novgorod Region, just 12 square
kilometers in size (4.6 square miles). In terms of its makeup, it
closely resembles other lakes formed 12,000–14,000 years ago at the
end of the Ice Age.
Lake Svetloyar is one
of Russia’s most mysterious lakes. Nothing is normal about it —
from the unusual water, the pure taste of which remains unchanged
over long years, to the peculiar legend of the city of Kitezh, which
mysteriously sank underwater when the Tatar–Mongol army of Batu
Khan came to besiege its walls.
Geologists cannot
agree on Lake Svetloyar’s origins, despite research that has
dragged on for half a century. Some claim it formed on karst systems,
which would be a blow to the idea of a city of Kitezh that
voluntarily submerged beneath the waters.
Still others claim the
lake is formed of solid rock, which is typical for the western part
of Russia. Yet this rock structure is lined with faults, and Lake
Svetloyar lies at the intersection of two such faults. This would
mean that islands, which hypothetically stood in the lake, could
indeed be submerged below the water in one of the faults. One such
island might have been the site of the legendary city of Kitezh.
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