The founder of the Knights Templar and theologian Saint Bernard of Clairvonnius, who lived in the XII century, in one of his writings stated that in all deep caves, including underwater ones, Satanic creatures must live - because, they say, the deeper the cave, the closer its bottom to the underworld. It would seem complete nonsense. But the information accumulated over the years of research makes one think …
Reservoirs shrouded in legends
Eerie legends about mysterious monsters are associated with many underground caves and deep-sea lakes. For example, the inhabitants of Mali and Cameroon do not doubt the existence of ogopogo - an animal unknown to science, according to descriptions similar to a prehistoric plesiosaur. The natives are convinced that ogopogos fly out of caves that have "no bottom."
The legendary monster Nessie belongs to such creatures. living in the Scottish Loch Ness.
In addition to Loch Ness, there are many other lakes and sea bays in the world, in which fantastic creatures are supposedly found. None of them has yet been found, but there is enough indirect evidence to support their existence. Some researchers are even inclined to believe that these creatures are elusive because they move here from a parallel world through gaps in space-time and, having been here for a short time, leave again.
Surprisingly, but some events associated with depressions at the bottom of the World Ocean also speak in favor of the theory of Bernard Clairvaux. Especially in this respect, the Mariana Trench is "famous". All attempts to get to its bottom turned out to be associated with very unusual circumstances …
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Whale-tossed ship
The first to discover the anomalously great depth in this area of the Pacific Ocean was the expedition of the ship Challenger in 1872, which, on the instructions of the US government, carried out systemic bottom measurements near the Mariana Islands, which had recently been annexed from Spain. The cable was unwound to its full length - 7500 meters, but did not reach the bottom!
The voyage of the Challenger was accompanied by an incident that still seems mysterious today. On a clear, windless night, 45 miles west of the island of Guam (from the Mariana group), the ship suddenly shuddered from a strong impact, rose above the water and again stood on an even keel, swinging from side to side several times. The officer of the watch raised the alarm. However, the sea remained calm, the ship was on the same course, there were no leaks in the holds. There could be no question that the ship ran into an underwater reef or a sand bank - the depth under the keel exceeded seven thousand meters. The frightened crew demanded an explanation from the captain - which made the 80,000-ton colossus jump on the water like a rubber ball. The captain dumped all the blame on a huge whale: such as he had heard. are found in these waters.
Needless to say, the giant whale was simply invented by the captain to calm anxious people.
The bathyscaphe was surrounded by giant creatures
A significant contribution to the study of the Mariana Trench was made by Soviet researchers. In 1958, the expedition of the Vityaz ship established the maximum depth of the depression: 11022 meters. For this, about a dozen measurements had to be made, and from time to time the cable broke. It is assumed that he fell into a deep-sea gorge and rubbed against stones.
The American-French expedition of 1960, which launched the Trieste bathyscaphe with US Navy officer Don Walsh and explorer Jacques Picard on board, was a success. The bathyscaphe reached the bottom at a depth of 10,915 meters. Picard later said that during the dive, at a depth of about 10,000 meters, the cabin began to shake. Through the thick windows of the window one could see some kind of phosphorescent formations, which could not be clearly discerned. According to Picard, he "did not leave the feeling that these are giant living beings."
NASA Takes In
Even more mysteries were brought by the study of the Mariana Trench in 1996, the sensational results of which were reported by the New York Times. American researchers sent a special unmanned platform made in NASA laboratories from ultra-strong titanium-cobalt steel to the bottom of the depression in its deepest place. The platform had a spherical shape with a diameter of about nine meters and outwardly resembled a sea urchin. Equipped with the most advanced technology, powerful floodlights, sensitive television and video systems and microphones, it was lowered on six steel cables, ten-inch (25.4 cm) in diameter.
Several hours after the dive. when the platform passed the 9.5 km mark, its instruments began to record events that disturbed the scientists on board the Glomar Challenger. Silhouettes of objects (no less than 16 meters) began to flicker on TV screens in the light of searchlights, and microphones transmitted harsh sounds similar to the grinding of iron and dull beats on metal. Fearing that the expensive construction could remain in the abyss forever, the scientists decided to stop diving and start climbing.
“Hedgehog. retrieved from the depths for more than eight hours. As soon as he appeared on the surface, he was placed on a special raft. The TV camera and echo sounder were lifted to the deck of the Glomar Challenger.
It turned out that the strongest steel beams of the structure were deformed, and on the steel cables on which it was lowered, there were damage similar to cuts. Who tried to leave the “hedgehog” at depth and why is a mystery.
Scientists and experts declined to comment clearly, but popular science magazines commented on the sensation unequivocally: someone lives at incredible depth! Someone who can saw through, or perhaps gnaw through, steel cables.
Very long tongue
Talking about the mysteries of the Mariana Trench. one cannot fail to mention two unusual events that have recently occurred in this region of the Pacific Ocean.
The radars of the fishing vessel Troza, 18 miles from one of the Mariana Islands, recorded a large underwater body that resembled a "very long tongue." This is how the 57-year-old boatswain Pietro Calboli describes the event: “The machines were choosing a deep-sea trawl, and suddenly at some point the compass became very agitated, the cables were taut, and the vessel rushed stern ahead at high speed. Another minute or two. and we would have turned over, but the cables, fortunately, burst, the trawl disappeared, and the ship, like a cork, swayed on the water. We were all terrified."
What kind of huge steel object, the presence of which was determined by the compass and radars, deprived the fishermen of the trawl? The answer to this question was never received. It is unlikely that these were some of the latest spy machines from the United States and Russia. To move under water at a speed of 100 or more miles per hour, according to technical experts, no modern mechanism can.
And here is the testimony of Neil Richardson, captain of the yacht "Felicia": “We were 15 miles south of Guam, when suddenly a hundred meters straight ahead, in a completely calm sea, a huge column of water rose. This could not have been an underwater rocket launch, since no object appeared on the radar monitors. The resulting wave almost turned us over."
So far, some questions
Before claiming that there is a monster in the Mariana Trench that can gnaw through steel cables. one must ask the question: can living beings live at such a gigantic depth at all? After all, a huge mass of oceanic waters should press on them.
The complexities associated with the study of animal species living in these unimaginable depths are enough, but human ingenuity knows no bounds. For a long time, oceanologists considered it madness to think that at depths of more than 6,000 meters, in impenetrable darkness, under monstrous pressure and at temperatures close to zero, at least some kind of life could exist. However, recent studies in the Pacific Ocean have shown that life exists at depths of more than 6,000 meters. First of all, this. of course, protozoa and bacteria. However, in addition to them, larger creatures also live there, for example, worms 1.5 meters long, unusual starfish, cephalopods. as well as some soft-bodied creatures two meters long, which have not yet been identified. Most of these animals phosphoresce the surface of the body or its partsand their very appearance is as terrible and incredible as the conditions. in which they live.
Therefore, it is still too early to reject the hypothesis of the existence of a huge animal at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Scientists are quite advanced in the study of the depression, but even part of its secrets is still far from being revealed. Will people in the near future be able to meet the mysterious that may be hiding in the ocean abyss? This question is still open.
Igor Voloznev. Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" No. 19 2010