Imagine that you are sailing on a motor ship along Lake Ladoga towards Valaam Island. Evening. The height of the white nights. The skies overhead are filled with a radiance of such gentle tones that you can't take your eyes off. The disc of fire is approaching the horizon.
Silence all around. Only the ship's engine works quietly and rhythmically, and the squeak of seagulls flying behind the stern is heard. And suddenly, quite unexpectedly, a low and mighty trumpet sound rolls over the water!
The strange sound lasts for a minute, but impresses with its mystery and suddenness. You carefully examine the sky, hoping to find somewhere signs of a thunderstorm front - the source, as you think, of such a sound. But there are no clouds at all.
So what was it? You heard, as the inhabitants of this lake region would say, Ladoga brontida. Do not rush to look at the encyclopedia. There is no such word. But there is an explanation in the dictionary of foreign languages. The word "brontida" (in another interpretation of "barontida") is a low thunderous sound, especially often heard in areas of seismic activity.
It would seem, what seismic activity could be in our quiet lacustrine northwest? But everything is not so simple here.
DUMA, MONKS AND OBSERVATORY
Traveling across Russia in the middle of the 19th century, the famous French writer A. Dumas did not forget to visit St. Petersburg and Lake Ladoga. He was very lucky, in 1858 he observed brontids on Ladoga:
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“… Everything was covered with such a fog that it was impossible to see each other. Thunder rumbled through the fog, and the lake seethed like water in a cauldron. It seemed that the thunderstorm had originated not in the air, but in the depths of a bottomless lake. The fog was deepening, the rolling thunder rumbled deafeningly, extinguishing in dense clots of steam, lightning gleamed with some deathly brilliance, the lake water rose higher and higher and not because of the riot of waves, but from some latent bubbling …"
And here are the testimonies of hieromonk Polycarp and monk Yuvenaly - inhabitants of the Valaam monastery, located on the island archipelago in the northeastern part of Lake Ladoga. They had an assignment from the scientists of St. Petersburg to report on various kinds of mysterious phenomena, known from a very long time.
In particular, the monks carried out meteorological observations, conducted hydrological and hydrogeological studies, took readings of instruments and recorded them at the request of the scientists of the Pulkovo Observatory.
Here is an entry dated March 5, 1917:
“The Chancellery of the monastery is in a hurry to report that today, at 2:17 am, a very strong underground impact was observed, the central force of which was heard on the main island where the monastery is located. The blow was lonely, lasting up to 30 seconds. The impression from this blow was obtained as if after the bursting underground sound near the monastery. The echo of this phenomenon rolled to the east, gradually fading in its strength and sound."
The text message was confirmed by data taken from the barograph, tide gauge and other instruments installed by scientists in the basements of the monastery.
ACCIDENT IN THE TOUR
In July 1963, I made a three-day hiking tour along the western coast of Ladoga. The tourist group, which, besides me, consisted of 6 girls, was led by an experienced instructor Vladimir, who knew the coast well. He was ten years older than us, 23-25 years old.
As if wishing to show what he was capable of, Volodya took everyone through some unthinkable forest wilderness and swamps. In one place, we had to walk for more than a kilometer waist-deep in the water along with all our backpacks, tents and other camping equipment!
Finally we came out to a fabulous heavenly place. Luxurious sandy beach. Mighty century-old pines on the shore and endless expanses of Ladoga. After setting up tents, they lit a fire, grilled kebabs, sang songs.
The morning of the next day was excellent. Well-warmed clear water called to swim. The girls splashed along the shore, and Volodya, cutting through the water with his strong hands, swam to the depths. I hurried after him too. We were already at a distance of about 300 meters from the shore when something inexplicable happened to the lake. From somewhere in the distance a hum rolled through the water, as if someone had touched the bass string of a double bass.
Soon the sound subsided, and waves began to appear on the flat surface of the lake, at first small, and then almost a meter high! These were not ordinary waves, but splash waves coming from the depths! They were so strong that at times the body was thrown up. Worried, I decided to return.
But as soon as I made a few waves of my hands, I heard Volodya's hushed, hoarse voice behind me: "Hold me, I'm choking!" Turning around, I saw the instructor's face among the waves. It was as greenish as the Ladoga water at depth. There was fear in his eyes. Grasping Volodya's waist with one hand, I tried to keep his head as high as possible above the water.
With his free hand, he began to row to the shore. I rowed and rowed, and the waves, the splashes of the ball, sewed around like from a machine gun. To my horror, the shore was barely approaching. When it was about 100 meters to the land, I realized that if I didn't leave Volodya, I would die. “I can’t hold it any longer,” I said to the instructor and immediately let him go free swimming. Coming to his senses, Vladimir cheerfully spanked his hands to the shore.
I, having used up almost all my reserve of strength, swam quite a bit, after which I began to sink. A greenish haze began to cloud her eyes. The legs were pulled down, as if weights were tied to them. The head disappeared under the water. And literally at the same second I felt a soft sandy bottom under my feet.
Instantly I realized that very little effort was required to reach the shallow. Rushing forward with my last strength, I reached shallow water. Having hardly got out of the water, Vladimir and I lay exhausted on the shore for several hours.
"And the splash waves?" - you ask. They stopped as suddenly as they appeared as soon as we reached dry land.
INTERRUPTED FLIGHT
My second meeting with the Brontids took place in the summer of 1977, when I was sailing in a high-speed "meteor" from Leningrad to Valaam. The Leningrad City Excursion Bureau (GEB) prepared and handed over to the authorities a trial one-day excursion to Valaam Island that day. By the way, the idea of this trip belonged to me, and it was prepared and conducted by a large creative team of methodologists and guides.
We left Leningrad at 8 am, intending to arrive at the place by noon. Several hours were allotted for acquaintance with the famous Valaam monastery and rest. The return was planned to be carried out by 8-9 pm. A large group of journalists accompanied us on the way. How! A new and well-publicized trip to a distant exotic island archipelago - all in one day! This have not happened before!
While the “meteor” glided smoothly up the Neva, everything was wonderful. An experienced guide enthusiastically talked about the small towns and villages that flickered on the right and left, the bloody battles with the Nazis to break the Leningrad blockade during the Great Patriotic War.
But now we went to Ladoga. In less than half an hour, our "meteor" sharply slowed down due to a strange excitement on the lake, which was still a minute ago. Out of nowhere, the waves that had come out pounded the bottom of the "meteor" so that it trembled and vibrated all over.
Suddenly, everyone felt two or three powerful shocks, and in the bow of the ship something creaked ominously. Our ship stopped at once. It is clear that everyone in the spacious and comfortable salon was curious about what was the matter? The information came in a few minutes.
Descending from his wheelhouse, the captain stunned the passengers with the words: "We apologize, but the flight is canceled." "But this is a responsible trip!" - there were indignant voices. The seasoned sailor briefly explained: "Both front wings are damaged."
"Have you stumbled upon a log or something?" - asked one of the journalists. "No, the reason is more serious," replied the captain. - Strong spontaneous waves - seiches. Presumably from the action of the brontids."
There were quite erudite and knowledgeable people in the salon. Therefore, there were no more questions.
The adventure did not end there. As soon as our "meteor" turned around, the quietest move went on the opposite course, another trouble happened. In a matter of minutes, such a fog thickened over the lake that there was no way to see what was ahead.
We immediately anchored to a floating anchor. Mournfully and loudly siren "meteor" howled, warning everyone about our location. From all sides there were the same warning signals of other vessels, which were impossible to see. About an hour later, the fog cleared as suddenly as it appeared.
To our deep regret, this one of the most interesting water excursions of the GEB did not go. And one of the reasons for this was the brontids.
SEISMIC ZONE
Some speak of the brontids with sacred trepidation. It's so wonderful, standing on the shore, listening to the mysterious hum of the trumpets and admiring the strange waves! It's another matter when you are in contact with them.
Scientists are still racking their brains: what are Ladoga brontids?
So far, there is only one hypothesis that scientifically explains the reasons for such an amazing and relatively
a rare occurrence. The appearance and operation of the brontids, apparently, has geological prerequisites, or more precisely, the latest tectonic ones. Both on the surface of the Earth and in its depths there is nothing unchanged, everything is in motion and development.
This is how the world works. It only seems to us that everything is frozen under the ground. The science of the movement of the earth's crust - tectonics explains how huge blocks-plates move in space and time, how they contact each other. Moscow and other cities of the European part of Russia are located, as is known, within the East European, or Russian, plain.
But this is a geographical concept. For geologists, the same area, but from the surface to the depth, is called the Russian Platform - a large tectonic megastructure. It is a seismically stable area. But Petersburg and Lake Ladoga are located at the very edge of this platform. To the north and north-west of them there is a tectonic structure of a completely different kind - the Baltic crystalline shield. It includes the Khibiny of the Kola Peninsula, the mountains of Scandinavia and others.
According to the observations of geologists, seismic activity is precisely manifested at the border of dissimilar tectonic plates. This border junction runs somewhere under the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Now let's turn our gaze to the northwest. Both Lake Ladoga and the Neva are the latest natural formations. The Neva is a very young river. It appeared not later than 3,000-3,500 years ago, before the eyes of man. For example, the age of the Volga is 25-30 million years!
How did the Neva appear?
Lake Ladoga, which is somewhat older than the Neva, arose after a giant depression was filled with melt water from the last glacier that came to us from Scandinavia. The lake itself lies on the surface of a large tectonic structure. About 4,000 years ago, this plate began to slowly rise with its northern part. Valaam and a number of other islands are small fragments of that Ladoga plate.
Naturally, its southern part began to sink. The moment came when the waters of Ladoga rushed in a stormy stream towards the Gulf of Finland. The width of the Neva river at that time was 10 kilometers! On its way, it formed waterfalls, not such, of course, as Niagara, but powerful enough!
The Ladoga plate “does not sleep” even today. Its seismic activity is expressed in the fact that during its movement it perturbs the waters of Lake Ladoga, influencing it through zones of deep faults. On tectonic maps of the lake bottom, cracks-faults are clearly marked. Through them, from the depths of the Earth, the products of the activity of the earth's interior come out - fluids.
The pressure in the water column changes, exerting a barometric effect on the near-surface part of the atmosphere. This is expressed in sound vibrations of the air (pipe hum), the appearance of strange "standing" wave-bursts, or seiches. A sudden drop in atmospheric pressure at certain air temperatures and humidity can cause heavy fog for a short time.
Ladoga brontids were studied by many geographers, geologists, physicists, climatologists. However, there is still no single point of view on their education. They still remain a mystery to science, like the same moving fireballs in Kazakhstan's Turgai or the night mirages of Lake Baikal.
Yuri Tuisk