Secret blue lake. The mystery of the "bottomless" lake in Kabardino-Balkaria, which hides many secrets (photo)
For fifty dives, they tested the unique equipment and came close to creating a three-dimensional model of the reservoir. Depth of almost a quarter of a kilometer - it is fraught with many mysteries.
The mini-submarine dives into the Blue Lake - one of the deepest karst lakes in the world - 258 meters.
The lake was surveyed for the first time in the 1920s, then in the 1980s, but then there was no question of using such deep-sea submersibles.
“I did not dare to dream of such an opportunity, when, in the most comfortable conditions and without any preparation, we can dive to the bottom of the lake and examine it. It makes it much easier for us to further interpret the results that we will get,” notes the geologist, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, deputy director for scientific work Natural Science Institute of the Perm State National research university Nikolay Maksimovich.
To study the lake, two more mini-submarines are used, with the help of which specialists from the Underwater Research Center of the Russian Geographical Society take soil and rock samples from the very bottom.
“The fact that we see this smooth surface is just a part of the total volume of the lake, since it has the shape of a bottle or a jug, that is, a rather narrow neck, after which it expands. We would gasp if we saw the entrance to a cave, a tunnel, or an entrance to some neighboring hall, ”says Sergey Fokin, executive director of the Underwater Research Center of the Russian Geographical Society, head of the manned submersibles group.
According to experts, it is through underground caves that water enters the lake. After all, there are no tributaries on the surface, but the river flows out of the lake. At the same time, the level of the reservoir does not change in any way. With the help of special measurements, it was possible to find out what the water consumption is.
“The depth and width here is such that 77,000 cubic meters of water flows here every day, it must come from somewhere,” said Artem Demenev, geologist, junior researcher at the Natural Science Institute of the Perm State National Research University.
Another goal of scientists is to establish exactly what the bottom of the lake looks like. And this small robot, using sound, can explore any areas under water that are inaccessible even to mini-submarines.
These pictures were taken with an underwater vehicle. Every five meters as you dive, the sonar sends out a signal that bounces off the walls of the lake. Here they are shown in separate colors. In the future, these images will be used to create a three-dimensional underwater map.
If underwater vehicles operate at great depths, then divers study the lake at a depth of no more than 120 meters. In addition to research, divers are testing new underwater equipment that records all diving parameters.
“Very stable conditions, it’s like an ideal training base, good visibility, again, stable temperature, no current, no waves, very convenient entry and exit from the water,” said Sumbat Alexandrov, head of the diving group.
Why does the lake have a constant temperature all year round - nine degrees above zero? Or where does the hydrogen sulfide come from? These are questions the expedition has yet to answer. It will last a month in total.
The lower blue lake in the Cherek region of the republic, which is also called Tserik-Kel, is located at an altitude of 809 meters above sea level. The water temperature all year round is +9 degrees. Researchers suggest that it was formed due to the collapse of an underground karst cave.
A river flows out of the lake - more than 70 thousand cubic meters of water per day. But what feeds the reservoir itself - for many years it was not clear, the flowing sources are not visible from the outside. Until recently, it was believed that the depth of the lake is 258 meters. But it has recently become clear that this is not the case.
“The Underwater Research Center of the Russian Geographical Society, professors and scientists from all over Russia (about 60 people in total) have carefully studied the Lower Lake,” says Chairman of the Kabardino-Balkarian branch of the Russian Geographical Society Mukhamed Kozhokov.- More than 90 deep-water descents were made in a couple of months. For the first time, underwater vehicles were used - controlled robots. With their help, scientists discovered three caves in the deep part of the lake. The most deep point, which managed to descend - 279 meters. It also turned out that underwater rivers feed Tserik-Kel. The water is incredibly clear, you can see every pebble, even at a depth of 25 meters. Further, the water becomes azure-turquoise due to hydrogen sulfide. There is no flora and fauna in the lake - hydrogen sulfide kills all life. But why the temperature of the water is constant and what is at the very bottom is still unknown.”
Let's go to the bottom
“I went down to the Lower Lake several thousand times,” says the head of the KBR Underwater Research Center, president of the Kabardino-Balkarian Underwater Sports Federation, Eduard Khuazhev. - The task of the last expedition was to determine a more accurate depth. And understand where the water comes from. In the bowl of the lake, we found several cracks from different sides, three of them are 0.5 meters wide, powerful streams come from there.”
At the bottom of the lake, not far from the shore, there are several sunken cars. Empty, without people. Old-timers say that in the 30s of the last century, a truck loaded to the top with boxes of port wine fell into the water. The researchers debunked this myth: there really is a “Lawn” at the bottom, but there is only a box of port wine in it. They got one bottle, tried it, evaluated the endurance.
locals the lake is bypassed due to superstition. It is believed that in Tserik-Kel one cannot even wet one's feet.
By the way, swimming there is really impossible even in summer. From cold water, an unprepared person cramps muscles, and at a depth it is very dangerous.
four lakes
“There are four lakes in the Cherek Gorge - Lower, Dry, Secret and Upper,” says local historian Khadis Tetuev.- For the first time, the "bottomless" lakes of the Caucasus are mentioned in 1864 in the notes of the Russian officer Fyodor Tornau.
The first special observations of the Blue Lakes group were made in 1892-1895 by geologist Konstantin Rosikov. Scientists have established that all lakes are of karst origin. But they are all completely different. If you rise from the Lower Lake to the northeast, then on the mountain plateau 187 m above it there is a huge, now dry, Kel-Kechkhen sinkhole. Translated from Balkar - "the lake has flowed away." The depth of the failure is 177 meters. Below you can see the lake, which from above seems very small - the size of a saucer. They call him Dry. According to legend, once its waters reached the upper edge of the failure, but the mountains shuddered, and the water flowed into the Lower Lake.
Modern researchers suggest that the Lower and Dry lakes are indeed connected. The secret lake seemed to be hidden in dense thickets of shrubs and trees. On opposite side from it stretched the Upper Blue Lake. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were three small reservoirs in its place, which eventually merged into one big lake. The water in the Secret and Upper lakes freezes in winter, and in summer you can swim and fish in them - there are a lot of living creatures in them.
There are many legends about the origin of the lake. One of them is associated with a dragon, which, according to legend, once lived in those places. He was slain by a mighty hero, the dragon fell to the ground, broke it. The gap was filled with the dragon's tears. Another legend ascribes tears not to the dragon, but to the beauty. They say that a beautiful princess lived here a long time ago. She met a shepherd. And they loved each other. When a rich prince - a contender for the heart of a young maiden found out that he had a rival, he ordered the shepherd to be caught and thrown into the abyss. Upon learning of the death of her lover, the princess ran to this abyss and began to cry over it. Tears filled the void. The girl's love was pure, and her eyes were blue, so the lake turned out to be transparent and blue.
The mystery of the Blue Lake in Kabardino-Balkaria - one of the deepest in Europe - has remained unsolved. An expedition led by a British diver was to find out if a cave system existed at depth. But the research was stopped after the death of one of the team members under water.
NTV correspondent Maxim Berezin clarified the circumstances.
Former English commando Martin Robson cannot live without thrills even in civilian life. The titled diving instructor dived in all kinds of extreme places on the planet: from the Arctic Circle to the underwater caves of Mexico. Martin's new goal was an inconspicuous lake in the mountains of Kabardino-Balkaria. The locals believe that it is bottomless. And this is not far from the truth. There really is no exact data on the depth of the lake. To begin with, Robson planned a dive to 160 meters.
Martin Robson: “I noticed what the scientists were paying attention to. They helped us and suggested what, in fact, we need to explore in this lake. They themselves still do not fully understand how it was formed and what is down there. That's why it's interesting to me."
The last time Blue Lake was explored was in the 1920s. It is known that its level can change several times a day. For what reason - scientists still do not know. Somewhere very deep, there is probably a cave from which water enters the lake. No one has been able to find the cave yet. Martin Robson hoped to become a pioneer, thus helping Russian science.
Day "x" for divers did not work out from the very beginning. Fog fell over the lake. The dive time for various reasons shifted. In the end, the Englishman nevertheless put on a wetsuit and went to the depths. The beginning of the operation was filmed by Andrei Rodionov, a volunteer videographer of the expedition. He joined Robson's support group.
A few hours later, rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations noticed the motionless body of a diver on the surface. Andrew was no longer breathing. Attempts to bring him back to life were in vain.
Rodionov's computer showed that in the last minutes of his life the diver was at a depth of 16 meters. What happened next remains to be seen. According to one version, Andrey's breathing apparatus could break. He lost consciousness, which under water is tantamount to death. It was dangerous to stop the operation, it remained to wait for the return of the English diver.
Martin Robson spent almost eight hours under water and during this time he could not find mysterious cave. Not having time to reveal the secrets of the Blue Lake, the researchers decided to terminate the expedition ahead of schedule.
Deep-sea research of the famous Blue Lake in Kabardino-Balkaria makes it possible to make valuable scientific discoveries and confirm the version of the existence of a system of caves in the water column. However, the repeated death of divers while diving into the lake forces researchers to resort to the help of equipment for which they do not have the funds. The authorities are only interested in the development of lakeside infrastructure.
So far, no serious deep-sea studies of the lakes have been carried out. The first dives showed that the lake is a karst sinkhole, while not a single river flows into it, but one small river flows out of it.
For science, the study of this reservoir is of great importance. Based on the results of the study, it will be possible to understand how groundwater moves, how the caves are located, what is their length. Thanks to these studies, scientists will be able to obtain objective knowledge about minerals in the entire Central Caucasus.
In January of this year, the first large-scale research expedition to study Blue Lake was completed. At a press conference on the results of the project Blue lake Awareness, director of research center Igor Galayda announced the official resumption research work to study the unique Blue Lake and its composition. To begin with, scientists want to prove the existence of a cave system at the bottom of the lake.
We have already discovered that the river flowing out of the lake takes out 35-50 cubic meters. m of gypsum per day, and this proves the presence of a significant cave system in its depths. However, work on the study of the lake has not yet been completed, since this moment more questions than answers.
SMARTNEWS HELP
Blue Lake in the Cherek region of the republic is the second deepest lake in Russia after Lake Baikal. Its depth is 258 m. It never freezes, and its temperature remains unchanged - 9 degrees above zero. Exploration of Blue Lake this year has not been without casualties. On January 13, a scuba diver from Moscow died from barotrauma of the lungs. Andrey Rodionov, who was part of the UK diver support team Martin Robson. Six days later, misfortune happened to Robson himself: during a risky dive to a depth of 209 m at a depth of 50 m, he became ill. He was taken to the hospital and has now fully recovered. In the summer, on August 30, a 42-year-old diver from Israel died Dmitry Sapozhnikov, who tried to conquer a depth of 120 m. At the appointed time, he did not come out of the depth. His body was lifted from 210 m.
In order not to torment people, we planned to acquire a special robot that is capable of descending to great depths and scanning space. The Falcon robot is expensive, about 7–8 million rubles, and works according to several parameters. Thus, it is possible to explore the lake and its underwater part without immersing a person.
SMARTNEWS HELP
"Falcon"- a new generation underwater vehicle designed to perform search and survey work in coastal marine or inland waters. "Falcon-1000" is designed to perform work at working depths up to 1000 m, both in narrow tunnel passages and in the open sea.
Blue Lake is part of a group of five karst lakes in the Cherek region of Kabardino-Balkaria, together with the Lower Blue Lakes (Tserik-Kel and Cherek-Kel) and the Upper Blue Lakes (Dry and Secret). Tourist routes near the lake it is supposed to make ring-shaped.
- Most big route will be about 8 km. This is the bottom Blue Lakes, Upper Blue Lakes - Secret Lake, Dry Lake. We want to build more points for health checks and cafes without alcoholic beverages,” he added in an interview. smartnews Makhti Temirzhanov. “We also want to combine this tourist zone with the Cherek gorge and develop its infrastructure. Do cable car from where you can see Kazbek, Elbrus, and the whole Caucasian Range. We are interested in this, because these are additional jobs.
SMARTNEWS HELP
According to one of the legends, at the bottom of the Blue Lake is the cavalry of Tamerlane, and possibly Alexander the Great himself, in full combat gear. There is a version that deposits of German and Romanian military equipment, which was abandoned during the retreat.
