7 BIGGEST Underwater Mysteries We Still Don't Understand

In our recent video on the top 7 underwater cities, we covered the litany of mysterious buildings and structures which have been reclaimed by Earth's oceans. But the constructs of man are pretty much the least fascinating thing you'll find lurking within the ocean, and over time a great many mysterious things have taken place beneath the waves which we still don't understand. Sightings of gigantic creatures, missing submarines, and unexplained sounds from oceans and lakes around the world are just some of the entries in our list of the top 7 underwater mysteries. Number 7. The Vile Vortices Ivan Terence Sanderson was a Scottish biologist who first coined the term vile vortex to describe areas of unusual phenomena found around the world. He claimed there were 12 such areas, and barring the few on land in Asia, Africa, and Antarctica, most of these areas can be found out at sea, with the most famous being the Bermuda Triangle. Others include the South Atlantic Anomaly, the Devil's Sea, and several parts of the Pacific, each responsible for the random disappearance of many ships and sea vessels. Strangely, five of these areas lie on the same latitude south of the equator, and five more on one latitude to the north, with the other two located at the north and south poles. This has led some to blame some kind of electromagnetic force, or perhaps even the ley line phenomena. But whether you believe there's a scientific explanation for these vortices, or you think it's all a bunch of pseudoscience made up to sell a few books, you can't deny that if you saw your plane's flight path heading through one of these zones, you might order up a few double whiskies just to calm your nerves. Number 6. The Missing Subs Right now, the only people playing hide the sub is Jared from Subway, and his cellmates. But in 1968, someone or something caused not one, not two, but four submarines to randomly disappear around the world. The first was INS Dakar, an Israeli sub which disappeared around January 25th, and whose wreckage wasn't discovered until 1999. Next up was the French sub Minerve, which sank two days later on the 27th. The wreckage of this sub was never found, but curiously, both were operating within the Mediterranean Sea at the time. The Soviet K-129 was the next to go down on March 8th, and when the USS Scorpion went missing three months later in a possible revenge attack, it led to the speculation that secret submarine battles between these nations were in danger of heating up the Cold War. Subs from all sides were known to trail each other, and occasionally, an incident would take place. This seems to be confirmed by a conversation between Russian Admiral Petr Novojisev and US Navy Captain Peter Hitchousten in 1987, where Novojisev remarked, Captain, you are young and inexperienced, but you will learn there were some matters that both nations have agreed to not discuss, and one of these is the reasons we lost K-129. At 5, Underwater Stonehenge Stonehenge is one of the most famous historical monuments in the world, but it is far from the only random arrangement of old-timey stones humanity has uncovered. We've seen similar sites across Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, but none of these were ever discovered underwater. In 2007, a sonar survey conducted at the bottom of Lake Michigan found a number of stones placed in a circle nearly 40 feet below sea level. Obviously, we're not suggesting cavemen frogmen did this, but when this area of Michigan was dry land thousands of years ago, it seems that the people of the time were pretty knowledgeable about extinct species, because carved on one of these 9,000-year-old stones was the image of a mastodon, the last of which died more than 10,000 years ago. Unless you count the robot mastodon the Black Power Ranger drives, which we don't. 4. Unexplained Sea Sounds The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration constantly monitor for unique sounds emanating from the ocean. They pick up all sorts of strange and weird noises every day, yet whilst most can be explained, the origin of some have never been determined. One such sound is this, the upsweep. Recorded in 1991, it can be heard throughout the Pacific Ocean. We know the coordinates of where it comes from, but we still don't know what causes it. Then there's the whistle, also heard in the Pacific, but whose coordinates we cannot determine. The most mysterious is the bloop, which was so loud it was detected by two different monitoring stations over 5,000 kilometers apart. Some believe it was caused by a glacier falling into the ocean, but others are convinced it came from an as-yet-unidentified colossal ocean creature. Perhaps our next entry is responsible. 3. Leptocephalus Gigantis With a name like that, you know this thing isn't going to be small. Leptocephalus Gigantis is an eel species of which only two have ever been observed, and on both occasions, they were undeveloped larvae. The first sighting was in 1930 off the coast of South Africa, when Danish scientist Anton Bruhn captured a six-foot specimen. He recognized it as the larvae of Leptocephalus, who are typically around one-thirtieth of the adult size, which means, if fully matured, it could have grown to over 180 feet. This discovery may go some way to explaining what the men of the Daedalus ship encountered in 1848. Whilst also traversing the waters around South Africa, the crew reported seeing a huge lizard-like sea serpent, an incident which followed a similar sighting off the coast of England 30 years earlier. Oh, and if any New Yorkers are sat here thinking, sucks to be English or South African right now, I got news for you, buddy. The second confirmed sighting was just off the coast of New York in 1963, and the researcher who saw it, Dr. Lionel Walford, described it as a transparent sea monster. It looked so much like jelly, I could see no bones and no eyes, nose, or mouth. But there it was, undulating along, looking as if it almost was made of fluid glass. That doesn't sound like something you want to meet while wearing a pair of Speedos, but trust me, it's got nothing on the creatures in our next entry. Number 2. The Giant Everything There are countless examples of marine biologists estimating the size of an ocean-dwelling creature only to encounter one far larger than anyone thought possible. One such event occurred in Japan's Tsuruga Bay, where Japanese scientists detected a huge 30-foot shark, leading some to wonder whether the prehistoric megalodon, which measured up to 59 feet, could still be lurking somewhere at the bottom of the ocean today. So, we've got ourselves a mega shark. Now, where's our giant octopus? Here you go! This colossal squid, captured in 2007, measured 13 feet and weighed nearly half a ton. Not big enough? Okay, try this one on for size. In July 2012, whilst submerged at a depth of over 2,000 feet, three Japanese scientists filmed this 26-foot monster, which also had two tentacles missing. What kind of creature messes with a 26-foot squid? Probably a 40-foot squid, like the one Russian sailors tried to capture in 2015. But the real mystery doesn't concern the creatures we've already witnessed, it's those which we have yet to meet. By examining the beaks of digested squid found inside sperm whales and also measuring the sucker scars on whales which have been attacked, it is estimated that the largest colossal squid out there could be anything up to 70 feet in length. Number 1. Lake Baikal Southern Siberia's Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world. And not only is it incredibly ancient, clocking in at 25 to 30 million years old, but the lake and surrounding area also contains a rich biodiversity of over 1,000 plant species and 2,500 animal species, of which 80% exist nowhere else in the world. Furthermore, in Russian folklore, Baikal is known as a mysterious site of many strange occurrences, including disappearing boats, random flashing lights in the sky, and unexplained lights from the deep. In 1977, two men named Alexandrov and Soliverstov travelled inside a submersible to a depth of 1,200 metres inside Lake Baikal, and after turning off their spotlights, they were suddenly bathed in an unusual glow. The lights lasted for two minutes before extinguishing, with nobody able to explain where they came from. And if that wasn't enough, there are many ancient petroglyphs found around the area from between the 3rd and 9th centuries BC, which depict strange lizard creatures with forked tongues and armour, along with mysterious human-like beings wearing what seem to be helmets. Add that to the fact that the as-yet-unexplained magnetic anomaly which has been detected within tectonic plates beneath the lake, and that this anomaly has doubled in size over the last half-century, and you've got to wonder why Lake Baikal doesn't market itself as the world's number one hotspot for paranormal tourism. I'd certainly pay it a visit. Would you? So those were our top seven underwater mysteries. If you're still wearing your swimming shorts, why not stay in the water and watch our video on the seven secret underwater structures in cities.