Everyone knows about unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, but with over 70 percent of the Earth’s surface covered by water, there is another category of mysterious objects to be explored: unidentified submerged objects, or USOs. However, as the occurrence of this phenomenon is usually in the vast oceans, there aren’t many witnesses and hence, little is known about USOs.
Japanese divers discover USO
In 1986, a Japanese diving enthusiast stumbled upon a massive rectangular rock formation while diving in waters off the coast of Yonaguni, south of the Ryuku Islands in Japan. This underwater structure had a total length of 150 meters, a width of 40 meters, and a depth of 30 meters with obvious signs of man-made cuts. You can clearly spot roads and a series of almost perfectly carved steps with straight edges. This unusual underwater site has become a popular diving location on Yonaguni Island, and is known as the “Yonaguni Island Submarine ruins.” However, the origin of this peculiar ruin is still debatable in the science community.
Some scholars believe that this is nature’s extraordinary craftsmanship, formed by the erosion of seabed rocks over millions of years. Some believe it is manmade. For eight years starting in 1996, Professor Kimura Masaaki of the University of Ryuku led a team to explore and conduct research on the Yonaguni ruins. He claims that since the structure has flat edges and corners, and there are no broken rocks around it, it must be a man-made monolith.
Other mysterious underwater structures
In June 2001, through sonar imaging, the professional salvage team “Ocean X” discovered a seafloor circular object around 60 meters in diameter and roughly eight meters in height near the Baltic Sea. This object has traces of carvings, and neither resembles a shipwreck nor a spaceship, nor is it like coral found under the sea. Driven by curiosity, the “Ocean X” team sent a diver, Peter Lindberg, to trace the object. Lindberg dived into the water twice and brought back small samples of the stone recovered at the site.
Many geologists initially believed that the object was volcanic rock formed by volcanic eruptions tens of thousands of years ago. However, it turned out that the samples contain a large amount of ferrotitanium and manganese. The composition is more like metal.
Through dating techniques, it was established that the object has a history of approximately 140,000 years. While everyone was debating about what the object is, the “Ocean X” team made new discoveries. They found a long drag mark behind the object. At the end of this drag mark, there was another drag mark. Here they found a second object. The two objects are about 200 meters apart and similar in size. The two drag marks extend to different angles.
The “Ocean X” team made a bold guess that this might be the wreckage of a crashed flying object. The two objects should be from one body. They were split into two fragments at the moment of the crash and slid out in different directions. Coincidentally, the Baltic Sea was where the Soviet Type 627 nuclear-powered attack submarine encountered six unidentified submerged objects in 1961. (See Part 1 for the details)
In 2014, scientists discovered an extremely unusual-looking structure sitting on the seabed floor more than 9.6 kilometers off the coast of Point Dume in Malibu, California. The structure is nearly 4.8 kilometers wide and located more than 600 meters underwater. It has a huge flat oval top with an area of about 8,300 square meters. Supported by pillars below the flat roof, it looks like an entrance to an inner place. The most incredible thing is that the structure continuously emits strong electric waves to the outside world. The discoveries of these mysterious deep-sea structures seem to tell us that there are still too many unsolved mysteries in the oceans.
The mysterious disappearance of submarines
On February 28, 1968, a Soviet ballistic missile submarine code-named K-129 left port to perform patrol missions in Hawaiian waters. According to the original plan, the submarine was to enter the scheduled sea area on March 22 and return to base on May 5. But eight days after departure from the port, K-129 lost contact with the Soviet Navy central command post.
The Soviet military then realized that K-129 might have suffered some kind of accident, and immediately launched a large-scale search and rescue operation. This urgent operation took place not only because the K-129 had a high-cost value and carried important military information, but the submarine was also equipped with two nuclear torpedoes and three nuclear missiles, with a total energy equivalent of more than 1 million tons. If the submarine were to explode, the entire Pacific Ocean could be devastated.
The Soviet Union dispatched 36 vessels and 286 aircraft, searching all the way along the route of K-129, but without success. Moreover, the water depth was more than 5,000 meters with rough sea conditions that made the search and rescue efforts even more difficult. Eventually, after two months, the Soviet Navy announced its decision to abandon the search and rescue operation.
K-129 mysteriously disappeared into the vast Pacific Ocean. Six years after the Soviet Union ended its search operation, the CIA created “Project Azorian” at a huge cost of US$500 million. The purpose was to recover the sunken K-129 from the Pacific Ocean floor. This matter had to be carried out quietly without the knowledge of the Soviet Union.
In fact, the Americans were actually interested in the nuclear torpedoes and missiles on board the submarine, as well as the Soviet Army’s codebooks, ciphers, and encrypted radio communication equipment. If these could be retrieved, the most important military secrets of the Soviet Union would be discovered, and it would undoubtedly give more advantages to the U.S. in the U.S.-Soviet confrontation.
Soon after a series of complex calculations, the CIA found the missing K-129 submarine on the seabed 750 nautical miles northwest of the Hawaiian Islands. At the same time, in order not to arouse the suspicion of the Soviets, the CIA used a commercial company as a cover-up to construct the giant salvage ship Glomar Explorer that took two years to complete. It utilized the most advanced technology and included an attached mechanical claw to ensure that the 2,800-ton nuclear submarine could be plucked and lifted up from the seabed in one go. The Soviet army carried out surveillances on the CIA’s “Project Azorian,” but they thought that the Americans were mining for manganese nodules.
At 2:48 a.m. on August 1, 1974, K-129, which had been lying underwater for more than six years, was slowly lifted off the seabed using the mechanical claw of the salvage ship. At this very moment, an accident occurred. A mechanical failure in the claw made it unable to bear the weight of the submarine and caused it to break into two parts. This accident almost detonated a nuclear bomb.
The portion of the submarine recovered by the U.S. was of little value. Initially, the CIA was preparing to launch a second salvage, but the commercial company responsible for the salvage operation was broken into and the “Project Azorian” information was also stolen. Although the thief was later caught by the police, news of “Project Azorian” spread like wildfire. After the Soviet Union learned about this plan, how could it still sit idly by? Thus, the U.S. aborted the second salvage operation.
What actually happened to K-129 has remained an unsolved mystery. The two most widely circulated theories were that either the submarine malfunctioned, or it was actually hit and sunk by an American submarine. However, some people think otherwise. K-129 might have been “taken away” by mysterious forces in the deep sea. Moreover, during the Cold War, it was not just the K-129, but there were other submarines that disappeared mysteriously in the deep sea.
In 1968, the USS Scorpion, carrying two nuclear torpedoes, disappeared near the Azores in the North Atlantic Ocean with 99 U.S. Navy men on board. In the same year, the French submarine Minerve, with 52 crew on board, and the Israeli Navy’s Dakar submarine with 69 crew onboard also disappeared mysteriously. It took almost 50 years for the Minerve to be found, even though it only disappeared an hour away from its home port.
During this tense period, Soviet and U.S. nuclear submarines were sailing in the sea, and nuclear-armed fighter jets were flying overhead. According to statistics, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the U.S. lost a total of 42 nuclear bombs that have never been recovered. Altogether, their total explosive energy is equivalent to 30 million tons, which could detonate at any time. Perhaps forces of an unknown civilization in the deep sea are using their power to control these nuclear bombs to protect this planet.
Mysterious phenomena such as USOs and unexplained disappearances of submarines in our oceans have puzzled scientists and military intelligence for years:
When film director James Cameron dived deep into the Mariana Trench, he saw a scene that shocked him. In the dark ocean depths, there is no sunlight, no source of energy, and not many traces of creatures, yet you can see plastic waste discarded by humans. When we are feeling that there may be some unknown civilization threatening the survival of human beings in the deep sea, perhaps for them, we are the source of their fear.
Maybe one day, these unknown civilizations in the deep sea will detonate the nuclear bombs hidden on the seafloor as described in the movie The Abyss, launching an act of complete revenge against mankind. At that time, will we be as lucky as we were in the movie?
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