Thursday 18 March 2021

Mysterious Lake Baikal

 

Lake Baikal

Siberia's Lake Baikal is 49 miles (78.8 kilometers) wide and 395 miles (635 kilometers) long, it's the world's largest freshwater lake.It  dates back 25 million years. Lake Baikal is home to more than 3,700 different species, many of the which are only found in the Baikal region. Its unique biodiversity and its array of hydrothermal vents are normally only  found in oceans. Gigantism( larger than normal lake creatures) in the lake is thought to be due to high levels of dissolved oxygen in the water. Scientists recently placed a huge telescope under the ice to measure neutrinos.Read about it here

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202103/1218433.shtml

However there is said to be a large creature living in the lake. What will it make of the telescope?The local  Buryats call the monster “Lusud Khan” - “The Master Water Dragon” Fishermen state that they have seen a huge, black creature visible through the clear water of the lake.The creature looks like a giant sturgeon with a huge snout and an armored fin along its entire giant back.There is a large stone located on the bank of Yenisei, it has an image of a huge lizard with a forked tongue, big claws and plate armour along its back. Some say it resembles an ancient crocodile or ichthyosaur.

In the early 1900s a merchant bringing cattle to the Olkhon Island across the Mukhorsky Bay by boat ,lost a  horse as it  fell overboard into the water. All attempts to  save it failed. A few minutes later people saw blood-stains in the water  and its head floated to  the surface.

People have been said to have disappeared .The Local residents  have always considered the territory of the Mukhorsky Bay to be sacred land .An annual ceremony of offering sacrifices has been held there since ancient times: meat and fish were placed rafts and  released into the water.One presumes for the monster. They say the monster swims to the surface at night, and makes  a kind of “gurgling” harsh sound.Cattle going down to drink often disappear.

A ship’s crew was said to have heard hissing and gurgling.. The lake was calm, but the ship suddenly began to sway back and forth. There was an impression that something had  swum under the bottom of the vessel and scratched its back on it.

In the late 1980s a survey of the lake bottom involving echolocation equipment was carried out. The devices recorded a moving object with a length more than 30 metres (90 feet), but the research was not continued.

So will the telescope pick up anything more than neutrinos ,like a monster? We shall wait and see .

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