To the unexplored expanses of the deep sea. Secrets of the seas and oceans

While many people look into space in awe, they forget that incredible vistas of unexplored wonders may be much closer - in the earth's oceans. As technology improves, the ocean continues to reveal more and more secrets.

1. Large amorphous creature

Recently, a video was posted online showing a giant amorphous blob-like creature swimming near a deep sea drilling rig. The creature pulsed near the underwater cameras for long enough to draw attention to itself. Luminous from the inside, an incredibly huge being constantly fluctuated and changed its shape.

Some suggested that it was a completely unknown creature from the depths of the ocean. Others thought it might be evidence of some kind of alien presence at a depth where humans cannot reach. Most of the researchers said that this is a giant jellyfish that was disturbed by a drilling rig.

2. Crystal pyramid in the depths of the ocean

There are many stories about strange crystal pyramids that were found deep in the ocean, presumably not far from the Bermuda Triangle. Those who insist on the existence of such artifacts claim that most scientists know about them, but deny everything for conspiratorial reasons.

However, the vast majority of researchers insist that these tales of crystal pyramids under the ocean are misleading. Similar stories allegedly began to appear after the scammers announced that they had found a broken piece of crystal, which supposedly had magical properties, near the top of one of these pyramids.

3. The secret of immortality

"Benjamin Button's Medusa" has an incredible unique feature. If they face serious injury or simply reach a respectable age, then these jellyfish can reverse the aging process and turn back into a polyp, starting the life cycle again. This allows them to heal from injuries and live essentially forever, which is currently a great threat to the world's oceans.

Button's jellyfish begin to populate parts of the oceans, breaking the entire balance of marine life. Although many scientists doubt that people can find the reason for the true immortality of jellyfish today, others argue that in the future this will become possible for people. At the very least, this could be a cure for cancer.

4. Atlantis - reality or fiction

Many theories about lost city Atlantis is absolutely wild and fantastic. Some say that Atlantis is located in the Bermuda Triangle, although the legends never mention its presence in that area. Others believe that the domed cities of Atlantis are still preserved deep underwater.

A historian named Bettany Hughes studied ancient myth about Atlantis and realized that Plato, probably under the guise of Atlantis, allegorically described the island of Santorini, located not far from ancient greece. The people who lived in Thera, a city on this island, were very skilled merchants and merchants who benefited from a strategic position between three continents. This allowed them to become very wealthy and lead Feret to prosperity.

Unfortunately, the inhabitants of the island had no idea that they were actually living right on top of the volcano. In 1620 BC the volcano literally exploded with an eruption, and the explosion was so huge that it affected almost the entire world. Plato had almost certainly heard of him. The remains of Feret are perfectly preserved, like famous city Pompeii, also killed by a volcanic eruption.

5. Intelligent life could be much closer

The scientific explanation for the mermaid legend implies that sailors were often at sea for long periods of time without women and drinking frequently, so it is not surprising that they experienced visual hallucinations mistaking manatees for mermaids. However, the ocean is a very large place and mostly unexplored. Nobody knows what's going on in the depths. Humans are always looking for intelligent life that looks like humans, but it can look and behave very differently.

6. The main enemy is pressure

Many people are surprised at how incredible amount money is being spent on space exploration when the ocean is right next door and still largely unexplored. They cite for comparison the colossal costs of spacecraft and space stations, believing that the cost of studying the ocean could be ten times less.

In fact, in many ways the problem of studying the ocean is much larger. After all, at a depth of only a couple of kilometers, the pressure becomes simply unimaginable, which is why a completely scanty amount of the deep part of the ocean has been explored so far. If new technologies do not appear at the root, then people will not soon know what is hidden in the oceans of the Earth.

7. The largest earthly creature

Many people have speculated about what kind of sea monsters might be lurking at depths where humans can't reach. Giant squids, which were previously considered a myth, have already been found, which can really reach incredible sizes. In fact, even many normal fish can grow to nightmarishly large sizes under the right conditions in the deep ocean.

It is not surprising that people have been thinking for a long time, what is the biggest and most terrible thing that can live in the depths. Even if you remember the time of the dinosaurs, the largest creature did not exceed the size of the modern blue whale. Nevertheless, most of The ocean remains unexplored, especially in deeper areas, so no one knows what monstrously huge creatures are hiding almost next to people.

8. The ocean is 95 percent unexplored

Some may have heard that the ocean is "95 percent unexplored". Marine biologists consider this to be a very gross oversimplification. Scientists today, using satellites, radar and mathematical calculations, have created a map of the ocean floor with a maximum resolution of 5 kilometers. While these are still very rough sketches, marine biologists have a pretty good idea of ​​where depressions and mountain ranges are in the ocean.

However, marine biologist John Copley, while pointing out the fallacy of the meme, also admitted to Scientific American that humans have actually explored far less than 5 percent of the ocean.

9. Methane hydrate - a new source of energy

Methane hydrate - strange crystalline structures of water and methane frozen together. Ever since the discovery of gas hydrate deposits decades ago, governments have begun to seriously explore hydrates as a form of alternative energy.

Methane hydrates are certainly very useful in case of a shortage of other natural gases, but there are certain problems. First, as with any subsea exploration, commercial production will be very expensive. And secondly, environmentalists fear that underwater drilling can lead to real disasters.

10. Unraveling the sound of "Bloop"

Back in 1997, people were baffled by a sound recorded underwater not far from South America. It was loud enough to be clearly picked up by two different stations a few kilometers apart, and many people thought it was the sound of a colossal deep sea creature.

Some people even suggested that this is the notorious Cthulhu, whose mythical place of imprisonment ( underwater city R'Lieh) is supposedly located a couple of thousand kilometers from the stations that picked up the sound. In the end, scientists came to the conclusion that the sounds were just the crackling of ice shelves cracking underwater.

Secrets of the Ocean updated: November 14, 2018 by: cross

Do you know that the water element has been studied by scientists almost as badly as the space expanses? We do not know what monsters can inhabit the depths of the seas and oceans. However, there are numerous ancient legends that claim that the sea element poses a considerable danger to humans!

For example, many legends tell about giant octopus krakens. These mysterious creatures are so large that the sailors at first mistook them for drifting islands! Kraken has not only powerful suction cups, but also a terrible "beak" that can break through the side of a wooden sailboat!

Another most curious phenomenon is the killer wave, which appears as if from nowhere, and disappears into nowhere. Such a shaft can reach a height of 30 meters (which is approximately the height of a nine-story building). But the water element can generate not only giant waves, but also dangerous infrasound, which causes hallucinations and vibration of internal organs in a person. Too strong infrasound is a rare phenomenon, but it can kill a person or drive him crazy.

Buildings and entire cities of ancient civilizations that lived on our planet and then went under water can be hidden under the water column. Some researchers even hope to find traces of the sunken Atlantis there. However, research is very difficult to conduct for several reasons. Firstly, at the bottom, the pressure of the aquatic environment becomes simply enormous. Secondly, many researchers disappear without a trace...

The ocean is a mysterious element that holds many inexplicable secrets. Only a small part of the researchers managed to find out and solve some of the mysteries of deep waters. But humanity still has many discoveries related to this water element. It is quite possible that people will find out where ships disappear in the Bermuda Triangle and see the world's largest animal living in the depths of the ocean.

Water covers 70% of the Earth's surface, and today there is still a lot unsolved mysteries ocean. This article presents three mysteries of the oceans of greatest interest.

Big Killer Wave

People living near the sea or ocean know how to determine that a wave is approaching the shore and manage to evacuate the inhabitants of nearby settlements in time or send fishing boats to the open sea. But in open waters you can meet something terrible - this is a big killer wave, also known as a rogue wave. It can reach from 20 to 30 meters in height, sometimes more, it appears unexpectedly and terrifies even experienced sailors. Experienced fishermen cannot predict its appearance, and all that remains is to pray that the ship does not capsize and drown, and that all who are on it can safely survive this disaster.

Rogue Wave Destructive Power

A big killer wave can easily sink not only fishing vessels, but also supertankers, which, it would seem, nothing can harm. The killer wave covers everything that comes in its path. Under such pressure, the hull of the vessel does not withstand, and it instantly disappears under the water column.

It is almost impossible to study the killer wave and the reasons for its sudden appearance. To learn the secrets of the oceans, scientists have to speculate and hypothesize based on the stories of eyewitnesses who miraculously survived a collision with a wave.

One day, scientists will be able to understand the reasons for its sudden appearance and, therefore, predict dangerous places where a killer wave rages. But when this will happen is still unknown, and sailors going out into the open waters pray not to meet a killer wave on their way and return home to their families.

Bermuda Triangle

For more than a hundred years, a place called the Bermuda Triangle or the Devil's Triangle scares and attracts people at the same time. In this zone, more than a hundred ships and aircraft disappeared without a trace, more than a thousand people disappeared. Their remains have never been found.

The territory of the Devil's Triangle is delineated by three points: Puerto Rico, Florida, and Bermuda, thanks to which it got its name, but disappearances are also noted outside the designated border.

Several documentaries and feature films have been made about the Bermuda Triangle. Every year this place grows big amount myths and legends, and therefore it is sometimes difficult for scientists to convey the discoveries made to mankind. It's easier for people to believe unexplained disappearances than in scientific evidence.

Unsolved mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle

Scientists have not unraveled all the secrets of the ocean, the Bermuda Triangle keeps many of them. Until now, most air and sea ​​vessels, which disappeared in the anomalous zone, were never found. And there are countless speculations about what happened to them.

• One of the versions is based on the fact that the Bermuda Triangle is located on the site of former volcanoes. And with small seismic vibrations, bubbles filled with methane rise from the bottom. They can reach large sizes and, falling between them, the ship ceases to float and goes to the bottom. And if it hits the bubble itself, the entire crew dies of gas poisoning. All that remains is an empty ship drifting in the open waters of the ocean.
• Another version of the mystery of the oceans is the presence in anomalous zone infrasonic waves. Falling under their influence, a person cannot concentrate, panic overcomes him, and hallucinations may even appear. Under such pressure, the crew members can not stand it and throw themselves overboard, which leads to their death.
• There is speculation that the Bermuda Triangle is a UFO base. Several cases have been recorded when eyewitnesses talk about the appearance of round flying objects. They either hid under the water, or, leaving it, disappeared over the horizon.

And these are far from all versions of the disappearance of people who fell into the Bermuda Triangle. The secret of the depths of the ocean will someday be revealed.

Pyramid underwater

Every year, scientists put forward more and more new assumptions about the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, and, quite possibly, humanity will soon find out where thousands of people have disappeared without a trace. The explanation for this may be another mysterious phenomenon that was discovered in the area of ​​the Devil's Triangle. Studying its bottom, scientists stumbled upon a pyramid that is several times larger than the pyramid of Cheops. Taking a closer look at it, the scientists found that the material from which the structure was made resembles polished ceramics or glass, but is not one of them.

The Bermuda Triangle holds many mysteries and secrets, and it is not known when scientists will open the veil and tell humanity the reasons for the disappearance of aircraft and ships. And this is not all the secrets of the depths of the oceans.

Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench is located in the waters Pacific Ocean, near the Mariana Islands. She is the most deep depression known to mankind. This is where the most hidden mysterious secrets Pacific Ocean.

For many years, only its approximate depth was known, but as a result of several measurements, scientists came to the conclusion that the Challenger Abyss (the most deep point Mariana Trench) is located at 10994 meters with an accuracy of ± 40 meters below sea level. These figures are amazing, because the bottom of the depression is further from sea level than the top of Mount Everest.

The Mariana Trench was formed due to the displacement of 2 lithospheric plates - the Pacific and the Philippine. The Pacific plate is older and heavier than the Philippine one, and therefore, when moving, it crawls under it, thus forming the deepest and most mysterious hollow in the world.

Discovery of the depths of the ocean

There were several dives to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and during these processes more and more new discoveries happen, the secrets of the oceans do not cease to interest people. For example, scientists assumed that life stops at a depth of more than 6,000 km, that under such conditions, in total darkness and under enormous pressure, not a single marine animal or fish could survive. But what was their surprise when a fish was found at the very bottom of the Mariana Trench. Outwardly, she looked like a flounder. When diving to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, scientists were able to make many discoveries, but much remains a mystery hidden under the water column.

monster from the abyss

people tell incredible stories, in which the sailors saw a large monster in the area of ​​​​the Challenger Abyss. It was not possible to examine it well, but the appearance of a marine inhabitant did not go unnoticed. According to eyewitnesses, the script for the documentary "Secrets of the Ocean" was created, the film turned out to be interesting and attracted a lot of attention to an unsolved phenomenon.

During one of the scientific dives, scientists heard a sound resembling metal grinding, and the cameras recorded the appearance of an unusual shadow resembling a dragon from a fairy tale. After a little thought and deciding not to risk expensive equipment, the apparatus was raised to the surface. What was the surprise of all members of the team when they saw how the super-strong metal of the device was deformed, and the steel cable 20 cm wide was half sawn. Who or what wanted to leave the module forever at the bottom of the Mariana Trench remains a mystery, the answer to which humanity will not know when it will receive, and whether it will receive it at all.

The underwater world is striking in its size, it hides a lot of mysterious and inexplicable, but I want to believe that someday scientists will be able to unravel all the secrets and mysteries of the world's oceans.

Huge body of water from the shores of America to the shores of Eurasia, Oceania and Australia was discovered by Europeans only in the 16th century. The culprit of this greatest historical event was the Portuguese and spanish navigator Ferdinand Magellan(1480-1521). In the autumn of 1520, three sailing ships under his leadership rounded the southern tip of the South American continent and, having filled the sails with a fair wind, fearlessly rushed into the sea distance alluring with uncertainty.

Swimming continued for over three months. It was hard and difficult. Already by the middle of the journey, food and water supplies began to run out. The daily allowance was halved, then tripled; sickness began among the crew members. Soon the first dead appeared. Their bodies were sewn up in canvas and thrown overboard. Somehow, imperceptibly, death became a daily ordinary event, and the canvas was over.

Only in the spring of 1521, when miraculously the surviving sailors prayed to God that he would send them death, the observers on all three ships joyfully shouted the long-awaited word "Earth". These were the islands South-East Asia, which were later called Philippine.

The ocean respected the courage of people: all the time, while the ships plowed its expanses, there was excellent calm weather. As a token of gratitude to the mighty water element, Magellan named the Pacific Ocean. This name has stuck. Today, the world's largest ocean, which accounts for almost 50% of the entire water surface of the Earth, is called the Pacific or Great.

Its area with the seas is 179.68 million km², and average depth equals 4280 km. It occupies more than 30% of the planet's area and has about 10 thousand islands, most of which are concentrated in its southwestern waters. Here, on western outskirts, the seas that are part of the Great Ocean are also located, there are nine of them. Eastern waters This giant body of water is washed by the western coast of America and is a coastal zone for 12 states. In total, 45 state entities are located on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

Mighty warm and cold currents cross the ocean in all directions. This is Kuroshio, passing along the southern and eastern coasts of Japan. North Pacific current carrying cold waters to western coast North America. There are also California and Kuril currents. The southern part is dominated by the warm South Equatorial and East Australian currents.

Such a variety of movements of large water masses affects the spread of ocean surface temperatures. At the equator, it reaches 26-29 ° Celsius, and in cold southern regions drops to 0° Celsius. Temperature also decreases with depth. The farther from the surface, the lower it is. On great depths the temperature is close to the freezing point of salt water (minus 1.8° Celsius).

One of the attractions of the Pacific Ocean is 180 meridian- date line. It is a purely conditional border, dividing the planet into two diurnal zones. When moving from the Eastern Hemisphere to the Western Hemisphere, the calendar date moves back one number. If moving to reverse direction, then the number is added, and the traveler finds himself in tomorrow.

But it is not the sights that attract researchers, but secrets of the Pacific. Chief among them is his underwater environment. It is here, in the dark multi-kilometer layers of the water mass, that there is a completely different world, unlike the earthly one. It is also inaccessible to people, like the stars of the distant Cosmos. Enormous pressure reliably protects the underwater life full of mysterious events from prying prying eyes. A person can only study the topography of the bottom of a huge reservoir. It is impossible to look into the depths. Countless tons of water instantly destroy any daredevil.

The ocean floor is dotted with pits, crevices, trenches, the depth of which is much higher than the average. In the northern latitudes there are such trenches as the North Aleutian and Kuril-Kamchatsky. In the east: Peruvian and Central American. In the west, there are two huge trenches - the Mariana and the Philippine.

Mariana Trench

The deepest not only in the Pacific Ocean, but in all the waters of the world - Mariana Trench(depression). It originates at the southern tip of the Mariana Islands (11° 21′ N and 142° 12′ E) and stretches parallel to them to the north. The length of the trench is 1340 km. He has almost steep slopes and flat bottom. The width of the bottom varies from 1 to 5 km and takes on a water mass with a pressure of 108.6 MPa (814569.24 mmHg). This is 1071 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level.

The Mariana Trench has a topography typical of the ocean floor. There must be a presence on the one hand mountain range or island ridge, on the other - the deep-sea bottom. Between them, as a rule, gutters with steep slopes stretch. The latter are the result of the movement of underwater tectonic plates and have considerable depth. From the ocean floor of such a trench to the highest above-water peak, the distances range from 12 to 17 km.

For the first time, the depth of the Mariana Trench was measured by Soviet researchers in August 1957, on board the Vityaz ship. Readings were recorded based on echo sounder measurements. The water column turned out to be equal to 10220 meters and until January 1960 was considered official.

A significant event occurred on January 23, 1960. It was on this day that US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh, together with explorer Jacques Picard, sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the bathyscaphe Trieste. At one time it was created by the Swiss scientist Auguste Picard.

American military engineers have finalized this design, maximizing its strength. The walls of the gondola itself, where the people were, were made of titanium-cobalt steel, and their thickness was 127 mm. It had a spherical shape with a diameter of just over two meters. The gondola was attached to a large float, which was filled with gasoline to provide buoyancy to the bathyscaphe. The weight of the entire structure in the water was 8 tons.

The submersion of the bathyscaphe took five and a half hours, the time spent at the bottom of the ocean was 12 minutes. The climb was faster, it was completed in three hours and twenty minutes. The depth measured by the researchers was 10918 meters. Three layers of changes in temperature and density of water were discovered, deep-sea flat fish, the size of a large frying pan, were noticed at the bottom. Nothing unusual or mysterious was found.

Only in the second half of the 90s of the XX century, new attempts were made to measure the deepest trench in the world. This time the Japanese were the initiators. They lowered the Kaiko probe to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The robot stuffed with electronics gave a depth value of 10911.4 meters.

The latest in this line was the American automatic underwater vehicle "Nereus" (Nereus), developed by engineers at the Woodshall Oceanographic Institute. His dive was dated May 31, 2009. This advanced design took photographs of the ocean floor, filmed videos, took sediment samples for analysis, and made depth measurements. The water column turned out to be equal to 10902 meters.

All of the above measurements were taken at the southern end of the Mariana Trench, near the island of Guam, which is part of the Marianas. This small deep section of the ocean floor is called Abyss Challenger. As already mentioned, the length of the entire gutter is about one and a half thousand kilometers. It is possible that there are other sites somewhere in this distance; their depth may be more than that, which was determined by "Nereus".

deep sea fauna

Researchers involved in measurements of the Pacific waters were interested not only in exact numbers, but also, to a large extent, in the underwater fauna that can exist in such extreme conditions. It turned out that a column of water pressing from above is by no means an obstacle to the successful life of many living creatures, which are quite comfortably settled at depths of 6000 meters and below.

Deep sea inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean

In addition to single-celled organisms, which God himself ordered to settle wherever possible, there are deep-sea fish of the most bizarre and diverse forms. Many of them are luminous, have large sharp teeth, and do not have fins that replace them with palisades of thorns. Some of these creatures are blind, while others have large rotating eyes.

Today, more than a hundred species of deep-sea fish have been discovered. They feed various types bacteria, organic and mineralized remains (detritus), as well as a continuous stream of dead fish and marine mammals, "pouring" to the bottom from the upper water layers of the Pacific Ocean. These creatures do not disdain each other, once again proving the fact that natural selection is not at all alien to the oceanic depths.

In a word, the study of living organisms that inhabit the bottom of the Great Ocean is proceeding quite successfully, which cannot be said about the rich and diverse world that exists in the upper, six-kilometer water column. This is quite natural, since this world is inhabited by faster and more mobile marine animals, which are not at all characterized by phlegmatic lying on the seabed in anticipation of the gift of nature in the form of a whale or sperm whale corpse slowly sinking into the depths.

Megalodon in the waters of the Pacific Ocean

In the expanses of the Pacific Ocean, which is the warmest of all the oceans of the planet, countless marine mammals, countless shoals of peaceful fish, as well as flocks of predators devouring everything and everything in their path, drift. Life is seething here in all its diversity, and the species and families of marine animals are many times greater than the species and families of animals that live on the earth's firmament.

Man, with his research, military and economic interests, has become not just a familiar, but an ordinary phenomenon in the waters of the world's greatest body of water. From the shores of Eurasia and Australia to the shores of America and back, a huge number of different-sized ships of all countries and peoples scurry about. IN underwater depths nuclear submarines are on combat duty, each of which is capable of easily destroying the entire living world of the planet. Without risking to move very far from their native shores, fishing vessels collect a rich catch.

Case off the coast of New Zealand

The surviving member of the crew of one of them witnessed an incredible event. It can be safely attributed to the secrets of the Pacific Ocean, and it happened in the seventies of the XX century not far from the island located north of New Zealand.

According to an eyewitness, the weather that day was amazing. The ocean behaved kindly, gently and helpfully with a small fishing boat, which was only 27 meters long. The working hours had already ended, and the fishermen hurried to their native shore in order to fully relax after an exhausting work shift.

Suddenly, right on the course, a large surf of water rose, and the head of a huge fish appeared. It was about the size of a small truck, and its open mouth could well pass for a wide entrance to a spacious cave. Everyone who saw her, the blood froze in the veins. It seemed that the sea devil himself emerged from the depths and appeared before the eyes of people in all its disgusting beauty.

The disgusting creature was on the surface of the water for only a few seconds, and then slowly plunged into the foaming abyss and disappeared from the eyes of the fishermen frozen in mute horror. It could be a mass hallucination, at first everyone thought so. But suddenly a terrible blow shook the trawler. The ship, with a displacement of 130 tons, tossed like an inflatable ball over the water surface. All 16 crew members were knocked down and rolled across the deck.

The second blow made the ship's hull groan plaintively. After the third, holes appeared in the hull, into which sea ​​water. A terrible creature surfaced near the sinking ship. The terrified people could now see him in full size.

In appearance, the monster looked like a white shark, which has lived in the waters of Polynesia since time immemorial. But unlike the latter, this creature was much larger: it was three times larger than the largest marine predator and was in no way inferior in length to a sinking fishing trawler. The color of her skin was not dark, but dirty white, rows of huge teeth were visible in her open mouth, cold empty fish eyes looked at the unfortunate fishermen without blinking.

Panic broke out among the people. Someone rushed about in horror along the tilted deck, someone fell into the water. The latter were immediately swallowed by a terrible sea monster. It was swallowed, because a horse could freely enter into the wide-open jaws.

A few minutes later it was all over: the ship lay on its side and quickly sank, everyone caught in a quiet ocean water The fishermen were devoured by a terrible fish. Only one unfortunate man managed to escape. He managed to pull on a life jacket, jumped into the water and, saying a prayer to himself, began to row away from the place of the terrible tragedy.

Not daring to turn his head, the fisherman measuredly worked his arms and legs, moving farther and farther away. At any moment, he expected that a terrible mouth would appear from the depths, and the foaming cycle of water would drag him to where all his comrades had already disappeared. But time passed, everything was quiet around.

The surviving member of the team looked around timidly. The ocean surface was serene. I was only reminded of what happened. lifeboat, which swayed alone on barely noticeable waves about one hundred and fifty meters from the sailor. The fisherman reached her and after a few hours told the people on the shore about the misfortune.

Panic arose among the crews of fishing vessels - no one wanted to go to sea. Several warships scoured square after square of the deadly waters. No traces of a terrible monster were found. Gradually everything calmed down; the rumors subsided; life has returned to normal.

This case did not receive wide publicity in the press, as everyone considered that the rescued person had dreamed of something. The tragedy was attributed to a Russian submarine, which unexpectedly surfaced from the depths, destroying a fragile ship that appeared in its path. But, as they say, not caught - not a thief. It soon began to seem to the eyewitness himself that all the horror he had seen was the result of a sick imagination of his psyche: the sun was burning unbearably that day, and you never know what could seem to an overheated consciousness.

Case off the coast of South America

A similar incident happened many thousands of kilometers away, in another corner of the Pacific Ocean, in 1998. It happened in the waters washing West Coast South America, on the border of Colombia and Ecuador. Here, too, the day was drawing to a close, and the weather was calm and calm.

A Colombian police patrol boat was chasing a nimble motorboat carrying two drug couriers. They apparently had a large supply of heroin with them, which was worth a very decent amount in dollars. The criminals considered throwing such goods overboard as the height of madness, so they did not stop at the demand of the authorities, but decided to hide on sea ​​spaces Great Ocean.

Two powerful motors were installed on the boat, and the distance between the pursued and the pursuers, though slowly, but steadily increased. Soon the commander of the police boat realized that it would not be possible to detain the drug dealers. But his annoyance was unexpectedly corrected by unforeseen circumstances.

Suddenly, on the starboard side of the boat, the guardians of the law saw a giant fish. In all its outlines, it resembled a white shark, which, experienced in the maritime service, the policemen often saw in coastal waters. All the difference was in size. The predator now swimming next to the boat was three times larger than the usual representative of this species. It was both longer and wider. In addition, the color of his skin on his back was not dark, but off-white.

The giant fish walked side by side with the boat for some time, then sharply increased its speed and easily left the modern high-speed vessel behind. She got lost in the water surface, just in the direction of the motor boat of the “white death” merchants, which had already broken away from the pursuers.

The NCIS officer raised the binoculars to his eyes. He was young, ambitious, determined and did not like to lose to criminals. The mocking faces of the two scoundrels, who were already celebrating victory, were clearly visible through the eyepieces, and the bitterness of defeat seized the soul of the guardian of the law.

Everything changed in a split second. A motorboat stuffed with heroin was thrown into the air by some unknown force. Her body split in half like a nutshell. Two people floundered helplessly in the warm water. Near them appeared the dirty white back of a huge fish. Then a giant maw arose, which swallowed first one and then the second drug courier.

When the police boat was near the scene of the tragedy, it was all over. The surface of the ocean was quiet, smooth and pristine. Only not far away, on a light wave, several packages sealed in cellophane with "white death" swayed. There were no more traces reminiscent of a motor boat, people and an unknown giant fish in the foreseeable space.

The incident was reported to the authorities. In order not to attract journalists and not to sow panic, local authorities police forces secretly and carefully combed the coastal waters. A few white sharks were seen, but a huge monster that did not fit into any conceivable size, like "sank into the water." In the end, they came to the conclusion that the officer and his subordinates had messed up something. Most likely it was some kind of enraged white shark or another large, but ordinary marine predator.

It is true that earlier in these waters they did not notice the enraged sharks, but after all, something always happens for the first time. Bad ecology, harmful waste poisoning the marine environment, but you never know what factor could affect the nervous system of such a dangerous and aggressive fish. The police reports were shelved and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The above cases suggest that different people V different time and in different parts of the Pacific Ocean they encountered a little-known marine predator in our time. According to the description, it was megalodon- a fossil shark, the largest predatory fish in the world in the entire history of the existence of life on Earth, which died out about one and a half million years ago.

Its dimensions reached 30 meters, and its weight fluctuated within 60 tons. It was the most powerful biological killer machine. The teeth of the megalodon, which are occasionally lifted from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, are exactly the same shape as the teeth of the great white shark, but much larger. Their size reaches 15 cm in length, 10 cm in width and 2.5 cm in thickness. While in the modern great white shark they are respectively equal, 3.5-4; 2.5 and 0.6 cm. The difference is obvious and gives a rough idea of ​​the capabilities of this terrible predator.

How such a monster of oceanic waters managed to survive and go unnoticed by people for many thousands of years - this question hangs in the air. Maybe in the cases described there was not a megalodon at all, but what is interesting is that according to some foreign publications, over the past decade, the teeth of this terrible monster have been discovered at the bottom of the Great Ocean, the age of which was determined by experts to be 11,000 years and 26,000 years.

The conclusion suggests itself: megalodon exists, but it appears in humans so rarely that it gives reason to many sober-minded skeptics to deny its existence. Only those who want to see can see, but if another, for a number of reasons, does not seek to see the obvious, then he will attribute this rare phenomenon on the surface of the ocean to completely different factors, which, if desired, can be found in the greatest variety.

Mysterious monsters of the deep sea

But the secrets of the Pacific Ocean do not end with the megalodon. And without it, there are enough mysterious and mysterious creatures in the depths of the planet's greatest body of water, which, although very rarely, still appear dangerously close to sailors.

First case

In 1988, a pipeline was laid between the Nampo Islands and the island of Kyushu (Japan) along the ocean floor. In one place there was a rocky ridge that interfered with the work. It was located at a depth of more than 5 km, and experts considered it more rational to blow it up than bypass it. They supervised the entire process from a ship located a kilometer from the calculated epicenter of the explosion.

After the detonator worked, the captain and two observers standing on the upper deck saw an incredible picture. From the depths, about three hundred meters from the ship, a huge body appeared. It was at least a hundred meters across and had smooth black skin that shone in the sun. The mysterious creature lifted a long and thick serpentine tail into the air. He described a huge arc and fell into the water. In a stream of splashes and waves, an unknown creature plunged into the depths and disappeared from the eyes of shocked people.

Second case

Not less than mysterious case occurred in waters close to the equator, in the area of ​​the Gilbert Islands. They are part of the Republic of Kiribati, whose independence was proclaimed in 1979. The population here mainly consists of local aborigines, but there are also Europeans who are attracted by a free life away from the delights of civilization.

Here is one such European paired with the original inhabitant of these gods forgotten islands and ended up in a canoe, far from the shore. Their occupation was fishing. The catch on this warm day in 1992 was surprisingly good. The men were so carried away that they came to their senses only when the solar disk began to sink below the horizon.

The first twilight reminded people that it was time to return. They unfolded the sail, hoping to quickly reach the shore lost behind the smooth surface of the ocean. But suddenly a strange noise caught their attention. It was like a loud slap on the water. The fishermen turned their heads towards the incomprehensible sounds and clearly felt the hairs on their heads stand on end in horror.

Against the background of a bloody sunset, the dark silhouette of an ancient foot-and-mouth disease was visible, which was rushing towards the canoe on the water surface. He pushed off the ocean with membranous wings and did not make a sound. Suddenly, another creature appeared behind him. It was three times larger and resembled a dragon, as if materialized from the legends of distant ancestors.

The pursuer was repelled from the water by some flat, wide ends resembling fins. He very quickly caught up with the foot-and-mouth disease, grabbed his neck with his huge mouth and plunged into the water with his victim. All this was done in complete silence: neither the pursuer nor the pursued made a sound.

What he saw could be mistaken for a mirage: for the play of light and shadows against the backdrop of sunset, but the three-meter wave that arose at the site of the dive of strange creatures was quite material, and it fell on the fragile canoe quite noticeably. People miraculously managed to level the boat, which was already ready to capsize. With full sail they hastened to leave scary place, but having reached the shore, they decided to remain silent and not tell anyone about the horror experienced.

Only a few years later, when the European ended up in Australia, he shared this story with a group of ichthyologists. Believed those him, did not believe - it is unclear. Probably not, because they conveyed this story as a funny sea ​​bike, familiar to the journalist, and he published it in the newspaper with the appropriate comments.

Conclusion

Such cases occur daily in the vastness of the great reservoir, stretching from west to east for 17,200 km, and from north to south for 15,450 km. Unfortunately, only pitiful bits of such information reach the public. How many, in truth, sensational and invaluable events for science forever remain a mystery? Probably there are countless of them, and eyewitnesses would be quite enough to populate a small city.

Witnesses of such phenomena, which can be safely attributed to the secrets of the Pacific Ocean, for a number of reasons, are not very willing to talk about what they saw, and listeners are almost always full of skepticism and distrust of the stories they hear. Most people live with the idea that there are no miracles in this world, although, in fact, the very birth of each of us on this earth is already greatest miracle. Well, if it happened, then why not be other miracles, which, although not as great as the birth of a person, are nevertheless also interesting and mysterious.

The article was written by ridar-shakin

Based on materials from foreign and Russian publications