There are many mysterious lakes on the planet, about which mythology tells terrible things of an anomalous nature. Such lakes even have names that speak: Dead Lake, Devil's Lake, or even Lake of Death.

Today we are talking about reservoirs that frightened our ancestors with their properties, and contemporaries bypass such places.

Not far from St. Petersburg (about 80 km) there is a real lake dead water- Kalishchenskoye (also pronounced as Kaplischenskoye). They say that in ancient times there was an old Russian "temple" here, where worshipers of the faith rendered sacrifices to the gods, hence the name.

However, on the northern shore of the dead lake is the village of Kalishche, which most likely gave the name to the reservoir.

Over the years, a beautiful forest has grown around the lake, which has become home to a variety of birds and animals, but there is a strange silence in the marvelous forest around the lake. It is interesting, but fish really do not live in this lake, and even scientists find it difficult to explain this strange phenomenon.

Approaching the lake, of course, does not move into the soul wild horror of unknown origin, but at night a slight glow appears over the reservoir. According to scientists, swamp gas poisoned the water and the immediate surroundings of the lake, so there are no fish and birds here.

Ten years ago, the lake willingly gathered tourists, who left memories: “we used to rest there, we were afraid of course, but it was so interesting” ... “we dug small holes there, they emitted swamp gases and glowed strongly at night, it was so cool and scary.”

IN Kaluga region the gloomy glory of a bad place is carried by a lake with the name "Thunder of the Lord." In the spring it is clearly seen that this place seems to be outlined by an infernal circle. Over the years, misfortunes have occurred on this lake, often ending in the death of people.

The explanation of misfortunes is hidden in the name of the lake - an electric shock, but of such power that a person's heart instantly stops. Residents of the district are sure that ball lightning is to blame for everything, appearing too often over the waters of the lake. However, experts do not see the mystical background in the causes of electric shocks, having their own explanation without the participation of evil spirits.

The problem of the unfortunate lies in the elementary neglect of safety precautions. So, a high-voltage line was laid next to the lake, and the wires in some places sagged low enough, which vacationers do not pay attention to until they fall under an electrical shock.

On the territory of the former Soviet Union, anomalous reservoirs are well known. For example, in Latvia, there is a lake with a telling name - Devil's. Local residents do their best to dissuade tourists from visiting this place. But few people listen to advice, wanting to touch some mystery.

Tourists are located on the shore of the lake, and after a couple of hours they try to get away from this dead place. impressionable people with a rich imagination and may even go to a psychiatrist. Rumor has it that the bottomless lake - never giving up the drowned - keeps its dead at a great depth, putting them shoulder to shoulder.

Dead Lake is often visited by researchers, according to the research of which a powerful energy flow emanates from the bottom of a gloomy reservoir. According to Latvian scientists, the lake is a meteorite crater with a depth of up to 70 meters. In the depths of a curious lake, radioactive radon gas is collected in large volumes, which is responsible for all the mystical happenings in the area.

It must be for this reason that you can’t spend a long time near the lake, because otherwise you can simply go crazy. According to the measurements of experts, an energy flow of incredible strength rushes into the sky directly from the center of a small reservoir, in which they see the culprit in the death of vacationers.

Dead Lake is conveniently located in Kazakhstan, where people often drown in a relatively small body of water. The locals do not favor the reservoir, and advise visitors to bypass the place on the tenth road. Even on the hottest days, the water of the lake is extremely cold, which is apparently the main reason for the death of swimmers. True, vegetation does not start at all in the lake, and there is no fish, but there are not even mosquitoes there!

The most mysterious thing is that drowned people do not float to the surface, but freeze at the bottom like candles (well, according to legends). Scientists explain the lifelessness of the lake with gas that comes out of the crevices of the bottom. But more detailed studies have not been, and are unlikely to be.

In the North Caucasus, in Karachay-Cherkessia, of course, there is a “dead lake” - Black. It is located high in the mountains and is quite small. It is noteworthy, but bushes, trees do not grow around, for some reason even grass does not grow.

According to local residents, the mysterious lake is bottomless. If you look at the lake from above, it seems completely black. Locals never swim in it, and tourists are not taken there.

There are a lot of such anomalous "dead" lakes all over the Earth, each has its own legend and mystery. By the way, about the legend of Lake Kalishchenskoe - when the fashion for psychics and paranormal energy rapidly flooded in the country, here schoolchildren passing the TRP standards were replaced by thoughtful people with biolocators.

UFO researchers wandered mysteriously with metal/wooden frames and looked for geopathic zones. After that, a nice place somehow drastically depopulated.

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 can’t count them.

THE MAGIC WORLD OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

Belief in the existence of enchanted lakes and ponds has long been a subject of study for folklorists. However, there is no doubt that the well-known fact that there are indeed enough reservoirs in the world that have some incomprehensible natural properties and, thanks to them, become the focus or source paranormal activity. UFOs are allegedly frequently observed in and around some lakes, outlandish creatures are found in others, and still others are considered strange for no particular real or imagined reason.

Several of these strange lakes lurk in the mysterious and almost impassable Andes. Not everyone knows that this majestic mountain range there is 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 South American Indians mainly live, speaking the Quechua language. These places are so beautiful that from time immemorial painters have come here for inspiration, and now photographers have joined them, although the Cordillera Azur is still one of the most inaccessible mountainous countries on the planet.

There, at an almost transcendental height, in the wilderness and deserted, 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 into this godforsaken place, 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 the 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, hang and slowly move a few centimeters from it, and then either rush into the sky with lightning speed, or sedately and leisurely creep up along the slopes of the mountains framing Gaipo. And since in the horizons of local residents there is no place for such a concept as interplanetary, or even more so interstellar contacts, the Indians consider the observed phenomena to be the machinations of witches and sorcerers.

However, this kind of strange phenomena are observed not only in deaf and hard-to-reach 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 in diameter, but amazingly deep - more than six hundred meters. This reservoir was reputed to be enchanted long before the appearance of European conquerors on its shores and provided shelter for the Mexican variety of water elves, known as "chaneque", and other evil spirits.

The researchers who visited those places noted various anomalies already on the approaches to the lagoon. Batteries ran low in electrical appliances, the videotape became unusable, and radio signals in the LW, MW, HF and VHF bands ceased to be received. All this made it possible to put forward a hypothesis about some electromagnetic disturbances created unknown sources located in or near the lagoon.

In 1998, biologist Arturo del Moral decided to carefully explore the reservoir and faced the same obstacles as his predecessors. Moreover, the members of the Moral expedition heard strange sounds emitted at night by the water column, and they had the impression that something was floating there.

Moral managed to speak with one of the inhabitants 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 off into the night sky.

Other locals 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 capture these phenomena on film. They are very beautiful: luminous clusters hang over the surface of the lagoon near the coast and emit white or red flashes. This spectacle 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 Perste crater, struck by the similarity of the lagoon to craters on the Moon and the strange similarity of the terrain to the lunar surface.

In one of his books, Jessup described in detail the "transient light phenomena" observed in some lunar craters (for example, in Plato's crater; on a full moon they can be seen through ordinary binoculars). Probably, the scientist believed that the lights in the lunar craters could be explained by more deeply studying the light phenomena in the craters of the earth.

KILLER LAKES

In October 1994, Americans were shocked by the news of a terrible crime. Susan Smith, a young mother from Union, North Carolina, deliberately let her car roll off the boat dock into John D. Long Lake. Strapped into the back seat, Susan's sons drowned. Their mother received a life sentence for murder. Nearly two years later, another car crashed into the same lake from the same pier, containing three adults and four children. At the same time, the car spontaneously swept between the monuments to Michael and Alex Smith, Susan's young sons. The scene was like a scene from a horror movie. All seven passengers of the jeep drowned, one of the eyewitnesses tried to save them, but choked and also died. The investigation found that the car was on the handbrake.

According to the local residents, the misfortunes occurred for one single reason: Lake John D. Long is enchanted. Of course, the judicial authorities do not take such explanations seriously and are not going to reconsider the case of Susan Smith. But the lakes, in which people die under mysterious circumstances, do exist, and a very lengthy section of "magical" folklore and literature about the supernatural is dedicated to them.

One of the most infamous killer lakes is called Whitney. It is located north of the town of Waco in US state Texas and, it seems, surpasses John D. Long Lake in malignity. For many years now, various cars have been rolling down the wharf bridges in Whitney, and the number of drowned people has been steadily growing here. 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. Worthy of mention is the fact that during the "parade of aliens" (another massive "invasion" of UFOs observed around the world) in 1974-1975 in Calvert, on the shores of Lake Whitney, two UFOs landed, leaving scorched bald spots on the ground.

The second largest country in the world - Canada - is also rich in dead places and, in particular, lakes, which are very notorious. In June 1966, an elderly couple and their teenage son went fishing on Anion Lake, located in an abandoned quarry thirty-three kilometers north of the city 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 terrified. suddenly came pitch darkness. The frightening silence was only occasionally broken by a strange grinding sound, which, according to one of the few witnesses, was accompanied by "a sharp, suffocating smell of steel being processed with an emery wheel." And then, to the horror of the parents, their fifteen-year-old son suddenly disappeared.

The father and mother called the boy for a long time, but they did not wait for an answer. When the mysterious haze that enveloped the lake in broad daylight dissipated, the parents saw their son, who appeared out of 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, the memory loss turned into a mental disorder, and the boy was placed in a mental hospital, but he could not be cured.

VELIKOOZORSKIY 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. All sorts of things happen in them too. The clearest example of this is the American Great Lakes, giant freshwater reservoirs that separate the Canadian province of Ontario from the United States. A lot has been written about the mysterious phenomena associated with them, and Jay Gurley devoted a separate book, The Great Lake Triangle, to this topic.

Many amazing and mysterious events taking place here, according to Gurley, are explained by “the action of a certain destructive force, so powerful and swift that it destroys mercilessly anyone who dares to penetrate here (although this does not prevent the Great Lakes from being navigable, and navigation there very lively - ed.). And no one has yet offered an explanation for this power and swiftness. Or maybe the power and swiftness of this mysterious force is somehow connected with UFOs?

In March 1998, the Center for the Study of UFOs carefully investigated reports of the appearance of unidentified flying objects near the Perry nuclear power plant on the shores of one of the Great Lakes of Erie. On March 4, an unnamed woman was driving along the coast in Eastlake, Ohio. Suddenly she saw "an object resembling an airship, at both ends of which bright lights were burning." This object made 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 saw and persuaded him to go to the nearest beach to look at the marvel. When they arrived on shore, the UFO was still maneuvering over the lake. It was winter. Erie was frozen, but the ice under the UFO cracked and broke. This time, eyewitnesses were able to determine the approximate size of the object. It was "larger than a football field". The observers got the impression that the "airship" was waiting for the return of some small flying objects sent for reconnaissance.

Soon the guess was confirmed: the "airship" 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 thickness of the ice and plunged to the bottom, where the UFO base was located. Or maybe the crew was just 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 to the Chima Indians living on the island of Trinidad, who crouched in Atlantic Ocean off the northeast coast South America. Once an Indian village was located on the shore of a crystal transparent lake Peach Lake. Now…

Once the gods of the forest gave the people of the Chaima tribe an unusual bird - a hummingbird. This tiny creature, whose motley plumage changes its shade depending on the angle of incidence of the sun's rays on it, was, according to the plan of the gods, to decorate the lives of people, soften their hearts and cheer their souls. After all, it was not for nothing that the gods created pichugs beautiful, like revived flowers. 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, if necessary, had to fearlessly engage in battle with the enemy.

However, it so happened that, at the behest of evil spirits, black thoughts were born in the heads of the Chima. Looking at how a tiny bird, hovering over flowers, feasts on nectar, they thought: if this creature drinks the sweet essence of a flower, then what should it taste like? Isn't it interesting to have a sacred bird baked in banana leaves for lunch? No sooner said than done. Having caught a lot of 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 the 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 Chaima 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 clay and 30 percent salt water, is 45 hectares. There are even small islands covered with vegetation on the lake. Rain water accumulates in the recesses between the viscous asphalt waves, and bituminous oils shimmer on it with all the colors of the rainbow, vaguely resembling the plumage of a hummingbird, from which it all allegedly began.

For a hundred years now, hundreds of tons of natural asphalt have been mined here every year, but it does not become less.

Surface amazing lake in some places it is so hard that you can walk on it, but it’s 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 jam. True, after some time, the drowned man, dragged to the bottom, will again be on the surface, since the asphalt is in constant slow motion. But, of course, this will not please anyone.

The legend about the origin of Peach Lake does not satisfy scientists, they are still arguing about where it came from. Many believe that the accumulation of natural asphalt was formed in the crater of a dormant volcano. Oil, little by little coming from the bowels of the earth, mixed with volcanic ash and eventually formed an asphalt cauldron.

According to another version, the asphalt lake was once at the bottom of the sea, and about 50 million years ago the bodies of small marine animals sank to the bottom, turning into oil there, and then, under the influence of processes in the earth's crust, this oil was displaced to the surface and thickened under the action of sun.

Peach Lake is the largest, but not the only asphalt lake in the world. They are in California, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and other places.

ominous lakes

Probably many of you have met geographical map names that mention colors: Black, White, Yellow, Red Sea, Belukha Mountain and others. But there are especially many so-called colored lakes on our Earth. And these lakes really have the most different, unusual shades of water: red, crimson, blue-green, blue, yellow, white and even black. Moreover, colorful lakes are scattered all over the globe!

There are, 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. Many similar lakes are also located in the mountains of the Caucasus, but the Gek-Gel lake (“Blue Lake”), located in Azerbaijan in the Asgun Gorge, at an altitude of 1576 meters, is considered the queen of blue lakes.

Most of all in the world of White Lakes. Only in Russia there are about twenty of them. At first glance, there is nothing unusual in such lakes. But as soon as the wind starts to make waves, the mirror-like water surface is covered with white lambs. Perhaps that's where the name comes from.

But on the island of Kunashir - one of Kuril Islands- there is a milky-white lake, and ... boiling. It is filled with a solution of sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, hot volcanic gases rise from the bottom of it all the time, which heat the “water” to a boil.

In Western Siberia and Central Asia, there are many lakes with a purple-red color. During sunset, they change their color a little 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 ... for the smell, which is very reminiscent of the smell of ripe raspberries. By the way, the salt extracted from these lakes retains a persistent aroma of raspberries or violets and was once very much appreciated at the royal court.

Another Raspberry Lake, located in the south of Siberia in the Kulunda steppe, attracts not only with its beauties. In the water of this lake, saturated with magnesium salts and soda, stones are constantly formed and grow (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 banks of mediterranean sea, in Western Europe, in Bolivia, Japan.

By the way, there is a unique two-colored lake on the Japanese island of Kyushu. One half of it turned yellow due to sulfur impurities, and the other half became pink due to iron oxides.

Three colored lakes lie in the crater of the Keli Mutu volcano on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Two of them are painted in different shades of green, and the third is black and red. The internal forces of the earth and ... chemistry are to blame for this. The lakes were formed in different craters of the volcano, rich in various minerals. All three lakes bear the romantic names Tivoye Ata Polo, which means "Lake of Enchanted People". Tivoye Noea Moeri Kos Fay is translated as "Lake of young men and girls", the third - Tivoye Ata Mboepoe - "Lake of drowned hopes".

The name Sarykul, which means "yellow lake", is used by many lakes. The largest of them is located in Chelyabinsk region Russia. The water in this lake resembles highly diluted coffee in its color due to the fact that many particles of clay 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 Kahinidaakh, located in Yakutia, the water is a kind of solution of soot, ash and soot. The phenomenon is explained by the fact that this lake is located in a depression where a fire raged several millennia ago (coal burned there for several years). Later, the fire was flooded with water.

But in Algeria, near the city of Sidi Bel Abbes in picturesque mountains Atlas, the hollow 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.

BRONTIDS, OR SOUNDING LAKES

In the spring of 2002, a group of French researchers on inflatable boats examined one of the southern bays of the 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 a giant was beating a 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 dates back several centuries, and the sounding lakes themselves are found on all continents. On the territory of Eurasia, the most famous "talking" lake is Ladoga. Often, fishermen who have gone 2–3 kilometers from the shore hear a mysterious rumble, rolling, like a distant echo of a thunderstorm. When the sky is covered with clouds, these mysterious sounds (brontides) often come across beginners on the lake - both "water motorists" and yachtsmen, immediately directing 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 the sounds that are observed in a number of coastal regions of the Mediterranean.

Much less often on Ladoga, another type of brontides is observed - a long sound, similar to the sound of a broken bass string. It is even rarer to hear two or three such sounds in a row. And some water tourists, who have settled down for the night in the numerous skerries of the northwestern part of Ladoga, suddenly wake up from the sound of the wheels of a rapidly approaching train, although, of course, there is no train nearby.

At the beginning of 1890, the American professor S.A. Forbes visited Lake Shoshone in Yellowstone National Park to study invertebrates. In his report, he made the following entry: “In this place, in the early quiet morning, we heard the mysterious sounds for which the lake is famous. They were like the trembling of a harp string, which someone touched at the top of the trees. It was also like the tinkling of telegraph wires, and sometimes like soft, melodious voices talking high above us. The sound originated somewhere far away, approaching and getting louder, and then receding and disappearing in another direction. Sometimes it seemed that he wandered aimlessly 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 shortly before sunrise, at this time of day the sounds are louder and clearer. But once I heard them at noon when the breeze was blowing.

Forbes' colleague, Professor Edwin Linton, while working on nearby Yellowstone Lake, heard similar sounds. They seemed to be some kind of metallic vibrations that arose directly above their heads, and then moved to the southwest. On average, this phenomenon was observed for about 30 seconds. Sometimes the sounds resembled the howling of the wind, although there was complete calm all around.

In the same place, explorer Hugh M. Smith in 1919 heard what sounded like a 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 also observed by Smith during the movement of the canoe in which the members of the expedition were.

In Australia, starting in 1870, Wilga's "weeping water hole" became famous near Ruthven Station. One day, two sheep shearers spent the night not far from her. However, they did not manage to sleep: in the middle of the night, a quiet cry was suddenly heard, which became louder and louder. Then it was replaced, according to witnesses, by diabolical otherworldly sounds, "which are beyond the power of the human voice." The sounds were growing. It began to seem to the shearers that their eardrums were about to burst, a wild fear literally fettered them, preventing them from leaving the accursed place. Then the howl became quieter and gradually turned into a soft whine. When all was quiet, the shearers jumped on their horses and galloped away.

Sounds similar to the Ladoga brontides and reminiscent of distant thunder peals are also observed on the coast of the North Sea, mainly on quiet foggy days. They are known to the locals under the unpronounceable name "mistpoeferra". The same peals in the Ganges delta are called "barisal cannons". A similar phenomenon in the state of New York is consonantly called the "guns of Seneca Lake."

Researcher Albert J. Ingalls writes of enigmatic sounds: "Their direction is indeterminate, and, like the beginning of a rainbow, they are always 'elsewhere'."

In the Connecticut River Valley, this phenomenon is called the “roar of Mudus” (after the name of the city), and in Haiti it is called “gouff-free”. In the Philippines, locals consider unusual sounds to be the peculiar 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, correspondents of the journal Nature undertook an investigation into the so-called "Greytown sounds" that are heard in coastal lakes and on the coast of Costa Rica, Guatemala and Trinidad. These were strange metallic vibrating musical sounds, and 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 rumbles in the distance when it releases steam” (that is, very similar to some Ladoga brontides).

With all the extensive statistics of observations of such a phenomenon over the past two centuries, an acceptable explanation has not been found for it, and those who speak out are sometimes simply naive. In geophysics, there is a whole field of science called atmospheric acoustics. There is also the acoustics of the ocean, but, alas, there are no acoustics of lakes. In one story by an Armenian writer, schoolchildren, together with a teacher, explored the mysterious sounds emitted by an alpine lake and which the locals attributed to the roar of an underwater deity. So, the guys found a hole into which the waters of the lake periodically rushed, making frightening sounds at the same time. This is practically all that I managed 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. Seismic activity is very high there, geysers periodically operate nearby, connected with lakes, apparently, with a common water layer. When they work, these musical sounds appear, apparently.

Well, as for the Ladoga Brontides, the reader will have to be content with a very mean assumption that, perhaps, they are associated with the peculiarity of the underwater currents and the complex topography of the lake bottom.

BLOOD BAIT

A place of pilgrimage for tourists may soon become Lake Tovel, located not far from Italian city Trento, because, according to ancient legend, the water in it can turn into blood.

According to legend, during one of the internecine wars of the gloomy Middle Ages, a large detachment of knights from the fortress of Trezenya was surrounded and defeated by an army from the neighboring city of Tuenno. As the legend says, after a hot fight in the lake "there was more blood than water." Since then, the water in it began to sometimes turn into blood. As a rule, this happened on the eve of another cruel internecine strife. 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 the people then. Some in a panic fled 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 out the ominous lake, using water to water their allotments and "bloody" all the nearby lands. This phenomenon of nature was scientifically substantiated by a botanist from Trento, an associate professor at the universities of Padua and Camerino, Vittorio Marchesoni. He found that the blame for everything is a unicellular algae containing in its plasma high concentration carotenoids. Under certain conditions, it is able to multiply rapidly - up to 4 thousand cells per 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, a scientific team led by Alessandro dal Piazza, a leading researcher at the Trent Museum of Natural History, has been trying to determine the most favorable conditions for the reproduction of algae. If scientists still manage to solve this problem and it will be possible to artificially cause the effect of a “bloody” lake, these places will be in for a real invasion of tourists.

The Great Lakes are the largest accumulation of fresh water on Earth (22.7 thousand sq. km). The system includes five bodies of water: Lake Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario. The Great Lakes have long been used as natural waterways despite the fact that the journey along them was fraught with considerable dangers.

Today, the bottom of the Great Lakes is literally strewn with the skeletons of ships that once suffered a shipwreck in their waters. Among local scuba diving enthusiasts, even a special direction has appeared - wreck diving, during which divers find and explore sunken ships.

We are used to the fact that most shipwrecks occur in the ocean. The culprits of disasters are, as a rule, storms, icebergs and coral reefs. However, those who live near the Great Lakes are familiar with storms, and with mysterious waves, and even ... with their own "version" of the Flying Dutchman.

Storms on large lakes are a phenomenon of the same order as storms on small seas. But they are much less often reported in the newspapers, and only a few, the most outstanding catastrophes, get into the headlines of the major newspapers. According to the latest data provided by American divers, between six and ten thousand shipwrecked ships rest at the bottom of the Great Lakes. Every year this list is updated with a dozen discovered ships. Approximately one in five can be identified - water and time do not spare either logbooks or hulls.

The story of one of these ships, which disappeared during a storm in 1912 and was discovered sixty years later, formed the basis of the musical "Christmas Schooner". The fact is that the main cargo of the ship was Christmas trees. In vain, the residents were looking forward to the arrival of the festive cargo - the fir trees remained at the bottom of the lake, so they did not please anyone. For a long time, the schooner was listed among the missing until it was discovered by scuba divers.

Another story - and completely from the category of mystical. It is willingly told to tourists. On September 18, 1679, the Griffon ship, owned by the French traveler René Robert, Chevalier de La Salle, was to arrive in Niagara, New York. This ship was built here, and it was well known to the locals. When it became clear that the Griffon was delayed, at first no one attached much importance to this - the ships quite often ran out of schedule for several hours. But since the ship did not appear either a day or a week later, it became clear that another shipwreck had occurred. There were no witnesses to the tragedy that took place on the Griffon, it simply disappeared without a trace. Its wreckage was discovered and identified only in 1955. But this is far from the strangest. Many people who do not know each other claim that on foggy nights, the Griffon is often seen silently sailing through Lake Huron. At night, it is impossible to see all the details of its equipment, but the outlines of the vessel are easily recognizable.

Such ghost ships on the Great Lakes have become accustomed to. Mentions of them are found in chronicles dating back to the middle of the 17th century. For example, in New Haven (Connecticut) in 1648, many people simultaneously saw a ghost ship. Moreover, he did not just sail past, but showed the astonished spectators the scene of a shipwreck. This outstanding event was interpreted as a sign sent down by God, shedding light on the mystery of the death of one of the missing ships. However, those who have encountered ghost ships note that they quite often depict scenes of their crash, repeating them at each meeting with observers.

If in the distant XVII century. the appearance of ghosts and mysterious shipwrecks were explained by the play of supernatural forces, today scientists have taken up the solution to this phenomenon. There were plenty of hypotheses.

The most rationally minded researchers attributed the incident to storms of great strength. They still occur - for example, in 2003, a storm broke out over the Great Lakes, accompanied by snow and rain. The wind speed reached 100 km/h. The elements destroyed hundreds of buildings, more than one and a half million people were left without electricity. Of course, modern means of communication helped to transmit a storm warning to all residents of the area, so that only two people died. And two or three centuries ago, ship captains had to rely only on signs. Hurricanes and storms on the Great Lakes are often attributed to the influence of El Niño (El Nino in Spanish - "Christ Child"). This warm seasonal surface current in the eastern Pacific occurs every two to seven years and has an adverse effect on the climate. Hurricanes, tornadoes and storms caused by El Niño are extremely powerful and unpredictable. However, not in all cases, the death of ships was due to a storm.

The Indians living on the coast of the Great Lakes have preserved many ancient legends, which are based on real facts. In particular, local tribes are well aware of one natural phenomenon that has so far remained almost unexplored - the "Three Sisters". The Three Sisters are three huge waves that suddenly appear on the smooth surface of the lake and rush to the shore, sweeping away everything in their path. The legends of the Chippeza tribe explain the appearance of the "Three Sisters" by the movement of a giant sturgeon, as if living in the Great Lakes. Modern Americans are also familiar with this phenomenon, but they call it "session", which means "level fluctuations". On June 26, 1954, the session hit coastline Lake Michigan between the cities of Whiting (Indiana) and Wakegen (Illinois), destroyed dozens of buildings and 50 people, of whom 8 drowned. Many of the fishermen sat quietly on the shore of the lake with fishing rods. The weather was beautiful, the lake looked perfectly calm. Suddenly, a water shaft about three meters high fell on the shore. It happened so suddenly that no one had time to escape.

A similar phenomenon was also observed on Lake Superior. Jay Gawley, who wrote a book about the mysteries of the Great Lakes, described the catastrophe that occurred with the bulk carrier "Sames E. Davidson" with a displacement of six thousand tons. If the disappearance of ships that plied the waters of the Great Lakes in the 17th century can be explained by their technical imperfection and the absence of a meteorological service, then the death of a modern dry cargo ship seems inexplicable. The wave effortlessly destroyed a ship that could withstand an ocean storm. Her power must be colossal! The wind, no matter how strong, could not give the wave such energy. Where, then, do such waves come from on the Great Lakes? The most likely version seems to be that the Three Sisters and similar phenomena are caused by tremors. In this case, both the sudden formation of waves and their amazing energy are easily explained. But if this were true, then the seismic stations of the United States and Canada would easily compare data on tremors with the frequency of occurrence of huge waves. The Great Lakes phenomenon would be explained, even predictable, from seismic data. However, there is no direct correspondence between earthquakes and waves.

Even more mysterious is the fact that planes go missing over the Great Lakes. A three-meter wave could not bring them down! But the fact remains: there are many more air crashes over the lakes than over the rest of the adjacent territory. This area is gradually gaining fame as an anomalous zone, no less famous than the Bermuda Triangle.

Among the hypotheses explaining the "strange behavior" of lakes, there are the most incredible. In particular, ufologists are convinced that anomalous phenomena are either caused by aliens or are the object of their interest. According to Jay Gauley, over the Great Lakes, observers have repeatedly noticed strange objects that can move completely silently and have extreme maneuverability. In this regard, it was suggested that in the Great Lakes region there are some kind of “gates” through which aliens enter our world. Their use creates a disturbance in nature, as a result of which huge waves arise on the lake, and the planes lose control and fall.

Scientists also believe that the myth of flying saucers has the same dubious value as the legends of the Indians about the giant sturgeon. In any case, attempts to explain the inexplicable should be based on facts, and not on a blind faith in the existence of "brothers in mind." However, we have to admit that modern science is able to explain only a part of the phenomena observed on the Great Lakes. In particular, according to experts, the main culprits of shipwrecks are still not mythical aliens and not even the Three Sisters, but the most common storm waves. The fact is that lakes, no matter how large they are, are still much smaller than the ocean. Therefore, storm waves are different there. In the oceans, long and relatively gentle waves are formed, which only shake ships. Only those ships that are in close proximity to the coast are at risk. They can be thrown onto rocks or reefs. It is no coincidence that the captains, having received a storm warning, took the ships to the open sea. In large lakes and small seas, a different effect is observed: the waves there are short and very steep. They are able not only to rock the ship, but also to turn it over. This insidious property of storms on lakes is well known to everyone who swims in the Caspian Sea, Baikal and Lake Ladoga.

But the appearance of the ghosts of sunken ships and the disappearance of aircraft still has absolutely no scientific explanation. Perhaps these phenomena are somehow related to geological structure district. But it will be a long time before the mystery of the Great Lakes is solved.

Probably, many of you have seen names on a geographical map that mention colors: Black, White, Yellow, Red Seas, Belukha Mountain and others. And some names, although of foreign origin, but in translation also mean color. For example, Cape Cape in Africa - "Green", Greenland - "Green Country", the Black Forest mountains - "Black Forest" ... 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. Not only Europe or Asia can boast of such curiosities - colorful lakes scattered across the globe!

There is, for example, in the Carpathian Mountains near the town of Svalyava at an altitude of 700 meters above sea level, Lake Sinyak. Sulfur compounds dissolved in it give the water an intense blue color. Many similar lakes are also located in the mountains of the Caucasus, but the Gek-Gel Lake (“Blue Lake”), located in Azerbaijan at an altitude of 1576 meters in the Asgun Gorge, is considered the queen of blue lakes.
Most of all in the world of White Lakes. Only in Russia there are about twenty of them. At first glance, there is nothing unusual in such lakes. But as soon as the wind starts to make waves, the mirror-like water surface is covered with white lambs. This water, washing away the clay shores, acquires a whitish color.
But on the island of Kunashir - one of the Kuril Islands - there is a milky-white lake, and ... boiling. It is filled with a concentrated solution of sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, hot volcanic gases rise from the bottom of it all the time, which heat the water to a boil.

In Western Siberia and Central Asia, there are many lakes with a purple-red color. During sunset, they change their color a little 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 ... for the smell, which is very reminiscent of the smell of ripe raspberries. By the way, the salt extracted from these lakes retains a persistent aroma of raspberries or violets and was once highly valued at the royal court.

Another Raspberry Lake, located in the south of Siberia in the Kulunda steppe, attracts not only with its beauties. In the water of this lake, saturated with magnesium salts and soda, stones are constantly formed and grow (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-colored lake on the Japanese island of Kyushu. One half of it turned yellow due to sulfur impurities, and the other half became pink due to iron oxides.

Three colored lakes lie in the crater of the Keli Mutu volcano on the island of Flores in Indonesia. Two of them are painted in different shades of green, and the third is black and red. The internal forces of the earth and ... chemistry are to blame for this. The lakes were formed in different craters of the volcano, rich in various minerals. All three lakes have romantic names. Ti-voe Ata Polo means "Lake of Enchanted People". Tivoye Noea Moe-ri Koo Fai is translated as "Lake of young men and girls", the third - Tivoye Ata Mboepoe - "Lake of drowned hopes".

The name Sarykul or Sarikol, which means "yellow lake", is carried by many lakes. The largest of them is located in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia. The water in this lake resembles highly diluted coffee in its color due to the fact that many particles of clay 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 Kahinidaakh, located in Yakutia, the water is a kind of solution of soot, ash and soot. The phenomenon is explained by the fact that this lake is located in a depression where a fire raged several millennia ago (coal burned there for several years). Later, the fire was flooded with water.

A natural lake filled with real ink is located in Algiers, near the town of Sidi Bel Abbes. There are no fish or plants in the pond, since this naturally created ink is poisonous and is only suitable for writing with. For a long time, people could not understand how a substance so unusual for a reservoir arises. And recently, scientists, after conducting research and analysis, found out the cause of this phenomenon. It's all about the composition of the water of the two rivers flowing into this lake.

One of the rivers contains a huge amount of dissolved iron salts, the other - all kinds of organic compounds, many of which are borrowed from peat bogs located in the river valley. Merging together into the lake basin, the streams interact with each other, and in the course of constantly occurring chemical reactions, the amount of ink is increasingly replenished.

Local residents are ambivalent about this attraction. Some consider the lake to be a devilish obsession, while others, on the contrary, try to benefit from it. That's why he has half a dozen names. Among the most famous are “Devil's Eye”, “ black lake” and “Inkwell”. And ink from it is sold in stationery stores not only in Algeria, but also in several other countries.

This asphalt lake is located on the island of Trinidad, located fifty kilometers from the northern part of Venezuela.

Swimming and swimming in it, of course, is impossible. The lake is located in the crater of the former mud volcano, its depth is 90 meters, and the area is 46 hectares. A few kilometers from it there is a settlement of La Brea. Coming out of the bowels of the earth through the mouth of a volcano, oil lying at great depths under the influence of evaporation loses volatile substances, as a result of which it turns into asphalt. All this takes place in the center of the lake basin. The place where more and more portions of asphalt are born has been called “Mother Lake” for many years. 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 the mined is exported to the USA, England and many other countries. During the development of the deposits, more than five million tons of asphalt were produced. At the same time, the level of the lake dropped by only half a meter.

On the surface of Lake Trinidad, except for its center, a person can safely move without the risk of getting stuck and going into the depths.

However, if, for example, someone dares to stay in one place for a long time and does not move at the same time, he will slowly begin to sink into the thickness of the asphalt. Almost any object left for a long time on the surface of the lake disappears into the black abyss some time later. Scientists involved in the study of the deep bowels of the “reservoir” discovered a whole cemetery of prehistoric animals, including the bones of mastodons that became extinct during the ice age and, apparently, once lived in the area. Probably, new amazing finds will be made in the miracle lake.

There are reserves of asphalt in the Dead Sea, famous for its healing salt reserves, located on the border of Israel and Jordan. Many people know about the extreme salinity and special composition of its waters, but not everyone has ever heard of asphalt deposits. Accumulations of asphalt, resembling resin in appearance, periodically float to the surface of the water, are given to the will of the waves and are often thrown ashore in large masses. Asphalt has been mined from the Dead Sea since ancient times. It is used in various industries: for building roads, tarring ships, obtaining all kinds of chemical products ... Until the middle of our century, it was believed that the Dead Sea region was practically the only supplier of asphalt in the whole world. And only in the 50s new deposits were developed.

And the most “dead” body of water on the entire planet is rightfully considered the Lake of Death, which is on the island of Sicily.

Not only are its shores and waters devoid of any vegetation and living creatures, it is also deadly to swim in it. Any living creature that falls into the waters of this terrible lake dies instantly. A person who puts an arm or leg into the water feels a strong burning sensation and then watches in horror as the skin becomes covered with burns and blisters. The chemists who analyzed the contents of the lake were quite surprised. The water contains a fairly large concentration ... sulfuric acid. On this occasion, scientists have put forward several versions - for example, that the lake dissolves some unknown rocks and is enriched with acids due to this. However, studies have confirmed another hypothesis. It turned out that concentrated sulfuric acid is thrown into the lake by two sources located at its bottom.

But the mystery of the Russian Empty Lake, located among many other lakes of the Kuznetsk Alatau, has not yet been solved. Around all the lakes are teeming with fish, and in the Empty - at least with a rolling ball, despite the fact that rivers flow from these fish lakes, flowing into a fishless lake.

Researchers have repeatedly tried to populate a strange body of water various types fish, giving preference to the most unpretentious. However, nothing came of it - all the fish fell asleep, and the Empty remained empty. But what is most surprising, chemists who analyzed the water for the possible content of toxic substances in it, proved that nothing of the kind was contained in it. The water of the Empty Lake turned out to be almost the same as in the neighboring lakes. And no one can still explain or even put forward a plausible hypothesis about the phenomenon of this strange reservoir. Whether it will be possible to solve a seemingly simple riddle, only time will tell.

When we hear the word "lake", a picture arises in our imagination - beautiful place for recreation, where you can swim and fish. However, this is not always the case. Some lakes inspire fear and horror. And there are reasons for this.

Lake Empty (Russia)

Its location is the area of ​​Kuznetsk Alatau located in Western Siberia. Lake Pustoye is a fresh and environmentally friendly reservoir of continental origin, because it is completely free of chemicals. Many scientists have repeatedly conducted studies of water from the lake, which have never confirmed the presence of any toxic components in it.

The lake has clean water that is suitable for drinking, and resembles champagne, as it is dominated by completely harmless natural gas bubbles. However, the researchers could not determine the reason why there is no fish in the lake.

There have never been ecological disasters and emergency technical accidents polluting the reservoir in the vicinity of Lake Pustoye. According to the 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 reservoirs in the vicinity; the fact that there are 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 banks of the reservoir, there are no fish or fry in the water, the lake guards 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 could put forward a sensible version explaining the absence of fish in the reservoir. Scientists are not yet able to answer the questions of the inhabitants, what is happening with the Kuznetsk reservoir.

However, scientists repeat attempts to explain the unusual phenomenon of the Empty Lake with enviable frequency. Stay on the coast unusual lake there are many who wish, tourists come here and stay for the night. Some of them dream of touching the mystery of nature and unraveling it.

Lake of Death (Italy)

Our world is amazing and beautiful, its nature can be admired and enjoyed endlessly. But besides this, there are places on our Earth that sometimes lead us into bewilderment. Among such places is the Lake of Death on the island of Sicily. This lake can be attributed to the number of phenomena and unique natural phenomena. The name itself suggests that this lake is deadly for all living things. Any living organism that gets 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 revealed its secrets with great difficulty. The conducted water analyzes showed that the water environment of the lake contains a large amount of concentrated sulfuric acid. Scientists were not immediately able to figure out where sulfuric acid comes from in the lake. Scientists have put forward several hypotheses about this.

The first hypothesis was that there are rocks at the bottom of the lake, which, when eroded by water, are enriched with acid. But further study of the lake showed that there are two springs at the bottom of the lake, which emit concentrated sulfuric acid into the aquatic environment of the lake. This explains why any organic matter dissolves in the lake.

Dead Lake (Kazakhstan)

In Kazakhstan, there is an anomalous lake 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. They call this reservoir Dead. The fact is that nothing is found in the lake, neither algae nor fish. The water is unusually cold.

Low temperature water remains even when the strongest sun is 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 it anomalous place.

Blue Lake (Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia)

Blue karst abyss in Kabardino-Balkaria. Not a single river or stream flows into this lake, although it loses up to 70 million liters of water every day, 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 creepiness of this lake is given by the fact that no one has been able to figure out its depth. The fact is that the bottom consists of an extensive system of caves. Researchers have not yet been able to figure out what the lowest point of this karst lake is. It is believed that under blue lake the largest underwater cave system in the world.

Boiling Lake (Dominican Republic)

The name speaks for itself. Located in Dominica, the beautiful Caribbean, this lake is actually the second largest natural hot spring on the ground. The water temperature in the boiling lake reaches 90 degrees Celsius and there are hardly any people who want to check the temperature of the source on their own skin. Just look at the photos and it becomes clear that the water is almost boiling here. The temperature cannot be controlled because it is the result of a crack in the bottom of the lake through which red-hot lava erupts.

Lake Powell (USA)

Despite its common name (Horse Shoe), near the town of Mammoth Lakes, Lake Powell is a fearsome killer. The city of Mammoth Lakes was built on top active volcano and it's not the best location. However, for many years the lake was considered safe. But about 20 years ago, the trees around the Horseshoe began to dry up and die abruptly.

After ruling out all possible diseases, the scientists determined that the trees were suffocating from excessive levels of carbon dioxide slowly seeping through the ground from underground chambers of cooling magma. In 2006, three hikers took refuge in a cave near a lake and suffocated from carbon dioxide.

Lake Karachay (Russia)

Situated 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 over an hour is guaranteed to be fatal. During a drought in 1961, the wind carried toxic dust that killed 500,000 people - a tragedy comparable to the 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 Democratic Republic 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 on the border between Canada and the United States, Lake Michigan is the deadliest. Warm, inviting lake - popular place recreation of numerous tourists, despite its most dangerous undercurrents, claiming at least a few lives every year.

The shape of Lake Michigan makes it particularly prone to dangerous currents that come on spontaneously and abruptly. The lake becomes more dangerous in autumn, in October and November, when there are sudden and significant changes in water and air temperature. Wave heights can reach several meters.

Mono Lake (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. Up until 1941 it's 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 continued for nearly 50 years and when it was shut down in 1990, Mono Lake had already lost half its volume and its salinity had doubled. Mono has become a toxic alkaline lake overflowing with carbonates, chlorides and sulfates. Los Angeles has decided to correct its mistake, but the restoration project will take decades.

Lake Manun (Cameroon)

Located in the Oku Volcanic Field in Cameroon, Lake Monoun appears to be a completely normal body of water. But its appearance is deceiving, as it is one of the three explosive lakes on earth. In 1984, Monun exploded without warning, releasing a cloud of carbon dioxide and killing 37 people. Twelve of the dead were riding in a truck and stopped to look at the aftermath of the explosion. Just at that moment, lethal gas did its job.

Lake Nyos (Cameroon)

In 1986, Lake Nyos, located just 100 kilometers from Lake Monoun, exploded after a magma eruption and released carbon dioxide, converting the water into carbonic acid. As a result of a powerful landslide, the lake abruptly emitted a giant cloud of carbon dioxide, killing thousands of people and animals in local cities and villages. The tragedy was the first known major suffocation caused by a natural event. The lake continues to pose a threat because its natural wall is fragile and even the slightest earthquake can destroy it.

Natron (Tanzania)

Lake Natron in Tanzania not only kills its inhabitants, but also mummifies their bodies. On the shores of the lake there are mummified flamingos, small birds, bats. The most terrible thing is that the victims freeze in their natural poses with their heads up. It was like they froze for a moment and stayed that way forever. The water in the lake is bright red because of the microorganisms living in it, closer to the shore it is already orange, and in some places it is of a normal color.

Evaporation of the lake scares away large predators, and the absence of natural enemies attracts a huge number of birds and small animals. They live on the banks of the Natron, multiply, and after death they are mummified. A large number of hydrogen contained in water and increased alkalinity contribute to the release of soda, salt and lime. They do not allow the remains of the inhabitants of the lake to decompose.