Lake Baikal is unique in many ways. It stores about 20% of the world's fresh lake water, and its transparency is such that you can easily see objects located at a depth of 50 m.
In addition, absolutely incredible phenomena occur in the lake that defy logical explanation.
1. Ice hills
Baikal ice presents scientists with many mysteries. So, in the 1930s, specialists from the Baikal Limnological Station discovered unusual forms of ice cover, characteristic only of Baikal.
For example, the hills are cone-shaped ice hills up to 6 meters high, hollow inside. Outwardly, they resemble ice tents, "open" to the opposite side from the coast.
Hills can be located separately, and sometimes form miniature "mountain ranges".
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2. Baikal mirages
Locals have come across more than once in their lives, going out on boats to fish, with realistic pictures depicting something that should not have been here.
The most common mirages are castles, ancient ships and islands. Scientists explain this phenomenon simply: the deep waters of the lake never warm up, remaining cold even in hot summers, and the air above the surface is warm, which creates a resonance.
Air layers of different density refract the sun's rays, which is why pictures are formed. Locals call them "holomenitsa".
This is a phenomenon on Lake Baikal, in which it is possible to see objects on the horizon that are actually 40 kilometers away.
3. Devil's funnel
Here not only mirages appear, but also a terrible funnel, which forms spontaneously, regardless of meteorological conditions.
It got its name because of the strange phenomena that occur here 1-2 times a year. In good weather, with complete calm, a huge funnel suddenly forms here.
Locals believe that this is how the gates of hell are opened here, which suck the souls of sinners into the underworld. Scientists offer several versions of the reasons for the phenomenon. One of them is based on the assumption of local dips in the bottom of Lake Baikal with the formation of cavities quickly filled with water, which leads to the formation of a whirlpool on the surface.
According to another theory, it is in the place where the funnel is formed that two local counter currents collide, which move strictly towards each other. This interaction can lead to very powerful whirlpools.
4. Baikal triangle
Anomalous zone on the lake, named after the Bermuda Triangle. This is an area of abnormal turbulence in which all kinds of devices refuse to work.
In addition, very unusual phenomena are often observed here in the form of sparkling balls, circles and abruptly changing weather. Some of those who have been here also talk about a loss in time.
5. Huge rings on ice
These huge rings with a diameter of several kilometers, periodically appearing on the icy surface of Lake Baikal, can only be seen from the air.
According to the results of observations from space, it became known that the rings appeared only in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2009, and each time in a new place. Presumably, the formation of the circles is associated with the emissions of natural combustible gas (methane) from the many kilometers of sedimentary strata of the bottom of Baikal.
In summer, in such places, bubbles rise from the depths to the surface, and in winter, "proparins" with a diameter of half a meter to hundreds of meters are formed, where ice is very thin or even absent.
6. Witch's circles on Olkhon
According to the beliefs of local residents, perfectly even circles of grass, periodically appearing on one of the islands of Lake Baikal, appear here because of the round dances of witches.
Ufologists believe that the rings, reaching a diameter of several tens of meters, arise as a result of the landing of aliens. The circles appear by themselves in the fields that have never known arable land. There are no signs of trampling, on the contrary: along the border of a perfectly flat circle, a strip of more succulent and taller grass appears - it is especially noticeable on usually dry areas of land.
Researchers have so far determined that the intense growth of plants in the rings is not associated with the characteristics of the soil or underground water sources.
7. Glowing water
The glow of Baikal water was discovered by Viktor Dobrynin, a leading researcher at the Irkutsk Physics and Technology Institute, back in 1982.
Research shows that almost all water is a source of light. But, for example, distilled light glows weakly.
The one from the tap fades out quickly. And the most intense glow is in Baikal. Here it can last for a month. To catch the light beams invisible to the eye, highly sensitive devices are used.
Studies have also shown that the glow of the waters is heterogeneous and loses intensity at depth, and its brightness decreases from November to mid-January.