The View From Above: Mystery Circles at Lake Baikal, Siberia,

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Mystery Circles at Lake Baikal, Siberia,

51°40'10.01"N 103°51'22.94"E (These are not Google Earth photos)

In April of 2009, astronauts on the International Space Station shot these photos of Lake Baikal, in Russian Siberia. The photos showed two extremely odd molten circles in the ice of the lake. Lake Baikal is the largest and deepest freshwater lake in the world, containing more fresh water that all of the Great Lakes combined. In fact, it contains 20% of all the fresh water on earth! Five miles below the surface is the deepest continental rift on earth, which is still seismically active. There are also hot springs in the area, the thermal welling from which may be causing the mysterious circles in the ice. Another possible explanation could be rooted in the gas hydrates found in the lake-bottom sediments, since Lake Baikal is the only fresh water lake where evidence of gas hydrates exist.

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Why "View From Above"

I have an unquenchable thirst for exploration and mysteries. But that isn't the only reason for "View From Above." This blog exists primarily thanks to the despicable ignorance and laziness of the many, many people who will post a picture of some anomaly and simply make guesses about it, rather than do five minutes worth of research. I can't count the many times I've seen aerial pictures of "UFOs parked in a row on the beach" (They're beach umbrellas, you dork!) or questions like, "What's this aircraft doing sitting in the middle of the desert?" (It's a military firing range. They use junk aircraft as targets. Duh!) The unwillingness on the part of most people to do even a minimal amount of research just boggles the mind.

Another pet peeve of mine is the practice of posting an interesting site without a precise location. I don't know if it's laziness, oversight, or a desire to hoard information, but it's irritating as hell to me. That's why mosts of my posts will always include coordinates to the site.

I hope you'll enjoy perusing the sites I've listed. I can't take credit for being the first to "find" most of them, but I will do my best to let you know what I find out about them!

Michael Makai