Tunguska event - an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the PodkamennayaTunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk region, Russia, on June 30, 1908. A number of theories based on UFOs have claimed that theTunguska event was the result of the activities of extraterrestrial beings and the Tunguska event is often referred to as "the Russian Roswell". The area has become a centre of a number of Siberian anomalies, and there are dozens of hypotheses on the reason for the blast.
Officially, the blast is believed to have been caused by an air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5 - 10 km above the Earth's surface. The energy of the blast was about 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and about one-third the power of the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated.
The Tunguska event is the largest impact event over land in the Earth's recent history. Despite the large amount of devastation, there was no crater to be seen. There was instead around ground zero a vast zone (8 km across) of trees scorched and devoid of branches, but still standing upright. The zone of levelled forest occupies an area of some 2,150 km2.
Lake Pleshcheyevo is known for its thick milky fogs that tend to spring out abruptly. It is said that a fogbound person finds only one path and feels like someone is leading them up this path. While following it, the person sees weird things and after a while regains their senses to find themselves 15-20 km from the point where the fog caught them. Sometimes people who go missing in the milky fog are looked for by a search party with tracker dogs - but then the missing just walk out of another side of the forest with a beatific smile.
There is another mystery on the bank of the lake: Sin-Kamen, or the Blue Stone - a pagan sacred stone which is believed to make wishes come true. In early XVII century the church buried the stone in a deep hole to suppress the pagan custom. However, after a couple of years the Stone peeked out of the ground.
Cape Rytyi, Lake Baikal
Passengers alighting are formally prohibited at the cape, as it is a part the Baikal-Lena national reserve. Informally, trespassing is also a taboo - according to the local Buryat convictions, it is a sacred Shaman power place. Looks like the Shamans had things worth hiding: there is no proven scientific explanation of origin and purpose of a stone wall which is precisely 333 m long, all laden with stone cones and pyramids finely oriented according to cardinal points. As legend has it, it once was a sanctuary for propitiation of a mighty spirit; the tradition has been discontinued, so now the angered spirit avenges everyone who approaches the place. Locals tell numerous stories about machine and device derangement and anomalies.
Okunevo village and Shaitan Lake, Omsk region.
The village is known for its inhabitants of different faiths and beliefs, as well as its amazing history and nature.Okunevo stands on the Tara River that has the same name as the Goddess of Mercy in India and Tibet. According to archaeologists, the river bed was partly formed by a meteorite fragment impacting. Long ago this river was comparable to the Nile and the Ganges in terms of its aquatic and geological significance.
Explored near Okunevo are the ancient underground structures that are in some incomprehensible way connected to India. They are believed to be all that remains from an ancient temple. Satya-Sai-Baba, an Indian prophet, is convinced it was a temple of the great Indian healer, the monkey-god Hanuman. Also, the reason Omsk is called that name is because it was built by the OM River. OM is another word derived from Hinduism. The predominant religion of Siberia is Russian Orthodox, but the small village of Okunevo boasts the largest group of Hindus in all of Siberia.
Locals say there are days when it's better to avoid going to the forest. If in the morning contrasting dark purple clouds crawl at the sky, even hunters stay at home. Various sources on the Internet state that Okunevo is a hot-spot for inexplicable lights in the sky, UFOs, unexplained sounds, drones, hums, unknown sound sources, "music out of nowhere", geomagnetic anomalies, shafts of light, apparitions.
Shaitan lake is located at the intersection of two faults and four lakes: Shuchye, Linevo, Danilovo and Urmannoeare located along a deep fault line, that stretches along the right bank of the Tara for tens of kilometers. According to legend, it's necessary to find the fifth magical lake in this area, as water mixed from the five is a cure-all.
In the 19th century the Shaitan used to belong to the land owner Mosolov. As his bondmen sometimes cut trees without his permission, Mosolov ordered punishments for them of swimming in the sinister lake (instead of penalties). The guilty was taken to the middle of the lake by boat and then forced to swim back on their own. The wood-felling stopped immediately, as people had sheer terror of the lake.
Nowadays the locals tell plenty of ominous stories and legends, however, certain peculiarities are scientifically recognized. For example, the existence of floating islands that can support several men. Also, water sometimes spouts up, the height of the fountain is up to 10 m.
Medveditskaya ridge, a chain of hills in the Vologda region, is situated on a tectonic fault - this might be the reason it is one of the most powerful and unpredictable anomalous zones in Russia. Gigantic lightning is common and it is the second most fireball-intensive place in the world. Hundreds of witness statements report fireballs that appear regardless of the weather. Interestingly, they severely damage trees but don't hurt people.
The trees appear to be burnt up from the roots, as if the electric discharge was coming from under the ground. The lightning tends to have the same route which matches the trajectory of underground tunnels (purpose and origin unknown). The tunnels are kilometers long and 7-20 m in diameter. Historical records prove that these caverns have been there for at least several centuries. Natural origin is doubtful due to their form - the tunnels are parallel, each straight as an arrow.
The local springlets are also unusual: there are ones with regular, distilled, or radioactive water. After the water from the latter was sent to Moscow for examination, an expert team swiftly arrived on site, as the compositional analysis indicated that the area had plentiful uranium ore deposits. However, no trace of the ore was found anywhere close.
Geophysical measurements detected a consistent pattern: the lightning mostly hit the areas above the underground tunnels and the larger the cavity, the stronger the electric discharge. According to one of the theories, the soil has reduced electrical resistance due to a hidden underground water source or metallic ore deposits. However, the graphs of magnetic field intensity present a consequence of regular, symmetrical lines. This means that the intensity increases several times and then rapidly falls back to the initial level, and the fluctuations are as orderly as if the area had invisible electricity transmission lines.
The Dyatlov Pass incident resulted in the deaths of 9 ski hikers on the night of February 2, 1959. It happened on the east shoulder of the mountain Kholat Syakhl (a Mansi name, meaning Mountain of the Dead). All members were experienced in long ski tours and mountain expeditions. The mountain pass has since been named after the group's leader, Igor Dyatlov.
Investigators at the time determined that the hikers tore open their tent from within, departing barefoot in heavy snow. Though the corpses showed no signs of struggle, two victims had fractured skulls, two had broken ribs and one was missing her tongue.The force required to cause such damage would have been extremely high - like a car crash, and could not have been caused by another human being. Notably, the bodies had no external wounds, as if they were crippled by a high level of pressure. There were no indications of other people nearby apart from the nine travellers on Kholat Syakhl, nor anyone in the surrounding areas.
According to sources, four of the victims' clothing contained substantial levels of radiation. There is no mention of this in contemporary documentation; it only appears in later documents.Soviet investigators determined only that "a compelling unknown force" had caused their deaths. Access to the area was barred to skiers and other adventurers for three years after the incident.The chronology of the incident remains unclear due to the lack of survivors.
There was evidence that the team was forced to leave the camp during the night, as they were sleeping. Though the temperature was very cold (around −25°C) with a storm blowing, the dead were dressed only partially. Some of them had only one shoe, while others had no shoes or wore only socks. Also, the tent was ripped open from within, so it looks like the people left the tent in a panic. Some reports state that they were found grey-haired, with a weird chestnut brown tan and terror depicted on their faces.
There is still much controversy surrounding the investigation. Some reports suggest that there was a lot of scrap metal in the area, leading to speculation that the military had utilized the area secretly and might be engaged in a cover-up.
The aboriginal legend says that once 9 Mansi people were killed there then the place would be cursed. 10 years after the Dyatlov pass incident, 3 planes crashed there and several more groups of ski hikers have died. All these groups counted 9 members.
The Valley of Death is situated at the bottom of Kikhpinych Volcano. There is a version saying that local hunters were first to find the Valley in the early 1930's. The hunters' dogs got lost in the area and later their dead bodies were found upstream in the Geysernaya River at the bottom of the Kikhpinych Volcano along with multiple corpses of other animals: gluttons, wolves, hares, etc. Although the hunters tried to leave the Valley as soon as possible, they experienced a sudden deterioration of health.
Multiple expeditions stampeded into the Kamchatka and tens of research-enthusiasts died trying to solve the mystery of the Valley of Death.
In 1975 two scientists - V. Kalyaev (zoologist) and V. Leonov (volcanist) - officially registered mass mortality of birds and animals there. Their research showed that in windless weather part of the valley was filled with a mixture of volcanic gases that consisted mainly of hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide. At the same time the scientists found an almost complete absence of oxygen within a 1-metre height from the ground's surface. This formed a kind of gas trap which killed the animals that happened to be there. In addition, only in 1982 the scientists ascertained that the volcanic gases also contained highly toxic cyanic compounds.
Apart from monitoring the area the scientists also examined the brook and removed the dead animal bodies as they attract predators and scavengers and therefore increase the chain of victims. The sanctuary staff undertake all work at the Valley using the tought chemical protection measures.
It is known that there are similar valleys on other continents but they mainly cause deaths by carbon dioxide, while "hydrogen sulphide deaths" have only be found at Kamchatka.
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