Wednesday Weird: Potamsky Crater

In 1945, in Irkutsk Siberia, a geological discovery was made that still baffles scientists today: te Potamsky Crater, also sometimes called The Eagles Nest because of it's convex shape and round mound in the center

 

 

 

The current theory of the crater's strange shape is a meteorite strike, but if so, it's shape is unlike any other meteorite strike and no evidence has been found to otherwise support the theory.

The crater's edge stands 80 meters tall and 150 meters wide. The depth around the mound in the center is 10 meters.

The crater was discovered by Vadim Kolpaknov and since then many expeditions have been made to sample the site, including one in 2013 but because of the remoteness of the area, there weren't enough people living in the area to remember how the crater could have come about.

Some other theories include that the crater was a gulag (though there were never any in the area) or that it was a slag heap (though, again, not enough people living nearby to create one.)

Which pretty much just leaves two thoughts: meteorite strike or volcano.

But the area is not a volcanic region which pretty much rules that out. Plus, scientists think the crater is relatively young: formed between 100 and 500 years ago.

It's possible the crater could have been a result of the Tunguska meteorite, which fell in the region in 1908 and whose crater was never found. But of all the numerous samples collected, none have been meteoric.
On top of that, scientists suspect there is something buried with a high iron content and ferromagnetic materials about 100-150 meters below the surface. Possibly a meteorite or another dense object.
And if all that isn't weird enough, let's put the cherry on top. The crater is considered to be "alive". That is, it's shape constantly changes by rising and falling. And, apparently nearby trees tend to grow abnormally fast.

Thoughts or theories?

Wednesday Weird: The Sweating Sickness

It's been, like, forever since I've had a Wednesday Weird, so I'm glad today we're back at it.

It's also been forever since we've done a weird disease so it seems like today is the day!

The sweating sickness.

So, it sounds kind of harmless, right? I mean, sweat.

But here's the thing. The sweating sickness will kill you deader than dead within a few hours. Prepare to be kind of creeped out in the way that all deadly diseases are creepy.

The Sweating Sickness begins with, awesomely, "a sense of apprehension" (great, right?) and from there it's followed by cold shivers, severe neck, shoulder and limb pain, headaches, and then giddiness.

All of that is considered the cold stage, which can last from 30 mins to 3 hours.

Then, you're into the sweating stage, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Sweating. Profuse sweating.

And then you die.

Well, sometime the sweating stage isn't immediately fatal, but when it isn't, it leads to additional sweating stages, and one of those WILL end you.

The Sweating Sickness first appeared in England in1485 and killed thousands of people within a year. Mostly because by the time anyone realized they had it, everyone else around them was already infected.

And, because it's not terrible enough, no one knows what causes it. Is it a bacteria? A virus? Who knows! Some people think that perhaps its an illness related to the hanta virus (which is terrible enough, as all hemorrhagic fevers are) but we really don't have enough information to know one way or another. All we really know is that it's popped up 6 times so far. Which, okay, that's not so bad.

Except, yeah it is. Because those six times it showed up were epidemics. So, yeah, we really don't want it showing up again.

Wednesday Weird: The Hessdalen Lights

Let's talk about lights in the sky.

Specifically the Hessdalen Lights, found in the (naturally) Hessdalen Valley in Norway.

For decades now, lights appear in the sky over the Hessdalen Valley. And no one knows what they are.

This has been happening since at least the 1940s. The lights start floating at or above ground level and they're often yellow or white but occasionally flash different colors. Sometimes the light will last in the air for longer than an hour. During the time span of 1981-1984 the lights were seen around 20 times a week, though now they've dropped off to about 20 times a year.

And it's not just regular people seeing these light. Science has straight up said they're real, they just don't know what they are.

There are plenty of theories, though, regarding the source of the lights.

Some scientists think the valley itself could be one giant battery. One wall of the valley is full of copper deposits and the other wall is full of zinc. The river a running through the valley contains sulfuric acid, which leaches into the water from a nearby sulfur mine. That's pretty much a battery right there. But no one's been able to prove it.

Another theory, and this one quite a bit scarier, is that the valley is actually highly radioactive with radon particles. These particles ride on dust until it's up in the atmosphere. Then the radon decays which produces the lights. There have been some tests that support this theory.

There are others as well, but really, no one knows what is causing the lights.

Thoughts or theories?

Wednesday Weird: Mississppi Howl

Is this my first Wednesday Weird of 2014? I think it is!

Well then, time to start the year off with something fun! And something local (for me).

On February 13th, at about 4 in the morning, residents of St. Paul neighborhoods were awoken to a weird sound.

A kind of eerie howling. Some people said it sounded a lot like whale song, or possibly a bad horn player, but louder than any horn can blow.

At first people thought it was from a construction site, but officers checked it out and realized that it may have been coming from the Mississippi.

Both the Army Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service have jurisdiction over the river and both said they weren't initially sure what the sound was and that they're still investigating.

It's most likely ice shifting on the river. Some people in Duluth, which is situated on Lake Superior, have said they've heard the same sound from the lake which makes it seem likely. But also, there are cases of this type of sound being heard elsewhere around the world in the last few years, and some of these places don't sink to freezing temperatures.

 

Compilation video, so some of the clips are better than others. Check out the one around the 8 min mark at the FL Baseball game, though. That's one of my favs

 

 

 

So, what are your thoughts?