Interesting facts about the swamps of the world. Swamps - Interesting properties of swamps
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Interesting properties of swamps. Secrets of the swamps.
Glows in the swamps.
On a warm summer night, during especially dark hours, you can witness an amazing phenomenon - the glow of faintly flickering bluish lights. They do not stand still, but seem to be spinning and dancing, tracing a complex trajectory, now moving away from the observer, now approaching him again.
For a long time there have been many traditions and legends trying to explain the essence of this phenomenon. Basically, our superstitious ancestors associated their appearance with the souls of people who drowned in the swamp.
Nowadays, of course, no one believes in the otherworldly nature of this phenomenon. But, nevertheless, a clear answer regarding the origin of swamp lights has not yet been given. There are several theories: the ignition of methane released from the swamp, the light of rotting plants, phosphorescent organisms, radioactive mineral deposits, the result of the interaction of hydrogen phosphide and methane, etc.
However, attempts to recreate wandering lights under artificial conditions ended in complete failure. So, while scientists are struggling to unravel the mystery of the swamp glows, we, perhaps, will believe in the restless spirits of the swamps.
Mummifying effect of swamps.
Swamp water contains a high percentage of peat acids. In this environment, the growth of bacteria that contribute to the decomposition of organic bodies drowned in the swamp slows down. This fact, combined with a lack of oxygen and low temperatures, has a tanning effect on the leather, giving it a dark brown tint. Also, thanks to the acid of peat, which is a powerful preservative, and the lack of oxygen in the depths of the swamp, the bodies of people and animals caught in the bog are perfectly preserved.
Over the past 300 years, many bodies of ancient people dating back to the 1st century have been found in the swamps of Europe. BC e. - IV century n. e. The most famous and well-preserved mummy is the "Man of Tollund". His head is so well preserved that the smallest network of wrinkles on his face is visible.
Have you ever wondered about the answer to the question of what a swamp is? Or, perhaps, you were curious to find out in more detail about the nature of its occurrence and the main features? If yes, I note that you are far from the only ones who are so inquisitive.
For example, since childhood I wanted to understand why people associate so many secrets and legends with this area, what is so unusual about it and what plants and animals inhabit it.
Section 1. General definition of the concept
A swamp is a fairly complex natural formation, which is an area of varying area in which a huge amount of moisture is constantly concentrated, both low-flow and stagnant. It should also be noted that although the swamp ecosystem is in most cases stable and perfectly balanced, it is also fraught with many mysteries. For example, many do not know that a given body of water, such as a typhoon, is characterized by the presence of a so-called eye, which is a small absolutely clean lake.
Most swamps on our planet are located in the tropical and subtropical zones. It is difficult to imagine that their total area is millions of hectares.
Of course, every schoolchild will immediately answer that the area around South America is considered the most swampy. However, Russia can boast of having the largest reservoir of this type in the world - Lake Vasyugan can be seen in Western Siberia.
Section 2. What is a swamp and how is it formed?
At first glance, it may seem that all the current swamps were once lakes, but this is not entirely true. How then can we explain the fact of their emergence on land?
Let's imagine a small area that has been damaged by a forest fire. For greater clarity, let’s mentally draw before our eyes the black remains of trees, branches, ash and burnt stumps firmly seated in the soil.
Nature will try to heal its wounds at all costs, which means that some time will pass, and the first plants to appear in such a forest, for example, moss, called cuckoo flax in nature. Due to the lack of foliage on the branches, lower vegetation will receive more moisture. Gradually, the speed of its growth will gain more and more momentum. If the rampant growth continues for a long enough period of time, it will eventually change the character of the soil itself, making it wetter.
There is another way. According to experts, if for some reason a low-permeability layer is formed underground at a not too great depth, it will certainly retain moisture in the upper layers, as a result of which gradually appear which, as in the first case, will change the nature of the soil, turning it into swampy .
Section 3. What is a swamp, its flora and fauna
As a matter of fact, it does not matter how exactly this or that swamp was formed, in any case it will gradually grow.
Undoubtedly, at first these changes will be barely noticeable, but several years, or even decades, will pass, and the peat layer will strengthen. Let's put it this way: in about 1000 years, in place of the burnt forest, it will already be ten or even twelve meters high.
Trees will appear here. Wetlands are characterized by the presence of birch, pine, spruce or alder trees. If the humidity is high enough, then all plants, as a rule, take on an unusual shape.
Most of the inhabitants of these territories, say, insects and amphibians, are quite small or very tiny, but there are also large representatives.
If we talk about the entire territory of the planet as a whole, then it is in the swamps that predators such as pythons or alligators live; crocodiles hunting smaller prey are also frequent guests. Of the herbivores, one cannot fail to mention nutria, tapirs, muskrats and beavers. Unfortunately, drainage of swamps leads to a significant reduction in their numbers.
Large ungulates also adapt to this semi-aquatic lifestyle. Nature made sure that the hooves of, for example, Asian buffaloes were widened. This significantly increases the area of support, and heavy animals, although they can wander through the swamp, plunging up to their chests, will never get completely bogged down.
Who doesn’t know, this is where it’s full of mosquitoes, leeches, there is a suffocating smell of poisonous gases and... They are afraid to go there, but they insist on going there anyway. This is not 100% water and not 100% land, but a kind of transitional state of the landscape. About the swamp...
Even during the Devonian period, about 400 million years ago, such landscape areas appeared on our planet. Excess moisture did not have time to go into the soil and evaporate. Precipitation and partially groundwater accumulated in low places and stagnated, constantly being fed by new precipitation.On such a surface, plants found favorable conditions for growth and reproduction, which, dying, turned into decomposed organic matter - peat and coal. Those plants that grew millions of years ago turned into coal and are now heating your home.
Due to the fact that there is absolutely no oxygen and high pressure at the bottom of the swamps, dead trees do not rot, but are compacted into layers over time. Therefore, coal is found on all continents of the world where wetlands are present.
The largest wetlands are in the Amazon River floodplain
What to compare with
To make it more clear, you can compare. In the human body, the filter function is performed by the kidneys, but in nature these are swamps. They are the ones who purify water from harmful impurities and potentially dangerous substances, and desalinate salt water.
You can make associations: imagine wetlands as a huge sponge. Ordinary soil is not able to absorb huge amounts of moisture from the atmosphere and rivers. This natural “loofah” can collect and retain liquid in the event of flooding or flooding. Dried and dehydrated soil loses this ability and turns into...Why does the swamp suck?
First, let's figure it out. It is not the swamp that sucks you in, but the quagmire. And it only attracts living bodies, but inanimate and very small objects, which behave like inanimate ones, do not. This happens for several reasons.Submerge an object or person in water. According to Archimedes' law, it will be pushed out and you can stay afloat for a long time without floundering too much. Experienced swimmers lie down on the water and rest like that.
And the quagmire, in its properties, belongs to the class of Bingham liquids. An example of this would be thick oil paint, resin, or varnish. And here this law does not work. With little effort, such liquids exhibit the properties of solids. And when the resistance threshold is crossed, they behave like viscous liquids.
A light animal with little pressure exerted can stand motionless in a swamp. Or even on special wide “swamp skis”.
On their surfaces, only large and, accordingly, living objects go under water. Humans and large ones are just like that. The quagmire is dangerous because you won’t be able to submerge just a little bit. Sucks in a living object below the normal level. Simply put, water will never push you up. An over-immersed state will occur.
Even without moving at all, a person will be dragged to the bottom of the swamp
In addition, when “floundering,” a person or animal moves and, accordingly, constantly changes and redistributes the weight of its body. The viscous and sticky quagmire responds to any movement by sucking deeper.
Another example: a mosquito standing on the surface of a swamp will not drown, but when it starts to “thrash” it will immediately get stuck for good.
For these reasons, even without moving at all, a person will be pulled to the bottom. Because just inhaling and exhaling is already a change in volume and weight.
Conclusion: do not travel through swamps alone. Take with you a large and strong stick, which in emergency cases, like a lever or support, can save a life.
Video
The deepest hole that can be dug in the Earth
Each of the swamps has its own and... The Manchac Swamp is no exception.
These lands are located near New Orleans in Louisiana. It is teeming with huge creatures and dangerous giant snakes hunt in its muddy waters.
The remains of abandoned settlements, in which residents practiced black magic and, left their mark on the reputation of the Manchac swamps.
According to legend, they are considered cursed by one of its residents, Julia Brown. The sorceress and healer turned into a witch and, because of the ungrateful and envious townspeople.
She often predicted bad events and was disliked for this. One of the most memorable prophecies was the date of her death to herself. Julia promised that all ill-wishers would go with her, and the settlement would turn into a swamp.
This happened in 1915 after a devastating hurricane. Almost all the inhabitants died along with the fortuneteller, the destroyed and buried houses were flooded and the town turned into a terrible swamp.
In these places, paranormal phenomena are still recorded today that simply cannot be explained. Screams and groans of dead people and ghosts who walk through the muddy pools in search of their shelter.
And nothing can scare curious tourists. So they sail back and forth on excursion boats in search of adventure and a dose of adrenaline.
Each of the swamps has its own ghosts and secrets...
Salty and fresh
It all depends on where they are located and what waters they feed on. Inland ones, as a rule, are freshwater, and along the coast of the seas and oceans they are salty.
It is impossible to classify by size, because there are swamps hundreds of thousands of kilometers long and some that are absolutely small - no more than a two-story house.
The biggest swamp
On our planet, the largest swamps, bogs, and wetlands are located in the floodplain.
Drainage of territories
There is such a practice - draining swamps. In order to “return” very fertile lands for further use in agriculture and increase the production of clean fuel. Soil moisture is reduced by lowering the groundwater level and planting trees. The Black Sea coast of the Caucasus was drained in the last century, and now it is a favorite resort for many.But draining wetlands also has another side to the coin. Coniferous trees and shrubs left without nutritious moisture suffer, animals accustomed to living in humid conditions die, and the nutrition of small rivers decreases.
In Russia, swamps occupy more than 10% of the territory.
The most amazing and little-studied ecosystem on the planet can prevent extinction Because this is where it originated many millennia ago. And all evolution moves in a circle.
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Editor's responseOn February 2, 1971, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar. AiF.ru has collected interesting facts about such lands.
The largest swamp in Russia and Europe
The largest swamp in Russia and Europe is Vasyugan. It occupies 53 thousand square meters. km between the major rivers of Siberia - the Irtysh and Ob, and is located on the territory of three regions - Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk. The Vasyugan swamp was formed approximately 10 thousand years ago. The process of swamping the territory continues and, perhaps, the land will soon become the largest in the world. In the meantime, the largest swamp on the planet is considered to be the Pantanal in the center of South America, the total area of which is 150 thousand square meters. km.
In total, there are currently 35 swamps in Russia - their total area is 10.7 million hectares. All of them, according to Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 13, 1994 No. 1050, are of international importance and are located on the territory of 21 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Swamps are reservoirs of clean water
Swamps are reservoirs of clean water. Contrary to popular belief, the water in swamps is not stagnant: if in lakes the water is completely renewed on average in 17 years, then in swamps it takes five years. Swamp moss (sphagnum) is an excellent antiseptic; it prevents the development of even those bacteria that can exist without oxygen. In addition, peat in the thickness of the swamp binds harmful substances into insoluble compounds, thanks to which the swamp system is a natural filter for fresh water. Today, in swamps around the world there is a reserve of 11.5 thousand km³ of fresh water - five times more than in all the rivers of the world.
Wetlands reduce the greenhouse effect
Wetlands are climate regulators. The only ecosystem on the planet that counteracts the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere and, accordingly, the greenhouse effect is swamps. One hectare of such land is 10 times more effective at removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than a forest of the same area. Swamps accumulate peat, which consists mainly of carbon, and swamps, by removing it from the atmosphere and accumulating it, are natural “traps” for this gas. Thus, bogs protect the atmosphere from overheating, reduce the greenhouse effect and cool the planet.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com Small bubbles constantly appear on the surface of the swamp. This is swamp gas that accumulates under the silt. It is formed as a result of the rotting of plants, which at the bottom of the swamp do not have access to oxygen. Swamp gas mainly consists of methane. The formation of methane is continuous and its presence can be proven if you touch the swamp silt with a stick - gas bubbles immediately float to the surface of the water.
Swamps may burn due to underground flames
Peat in wetlands is a flammable material. When water is replaced by air in its thickness, the peat layer after some time acquires the ability to burn throughout its entire depth. The depth can be two, 10 or even 20 meters. Therefore, it is useless to pour a flame from above - water stops the fire only on the surface, and in the depths the peat continues to smolder, burning out huge voids. Only nature itself can extinguish the underground fire, when after prolonged rains the groundwater level rises and the swamps are filled with moisture again.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Swamps prevent floods
Swamps maintain water balance. By storing water, they prevent floods and save money on the construction of expensive dams and reservoirs. Unlike mineral soils, peat deposits have greater moisture capacity and water-holding capacity.
Rivers disappear after swamps are drained
Draining swamps disrupts the nutrition of small rivers flowing from the swamp. As a result of the massive drainage of swamps, many rivers disappeared and dried up. One of the properties of the bog is the collection of rain and melt water. Consuming it gradually during the dry season, the swamps prevent the rivers flowing through them from becoming shallow, and also feed the streams through groundwater.
Photo: www.globallookpress.com
The myth about fertile lands
At the beginning of the 20th century, swamps were considered completely unnecessary and, if possible, they sought to drain them in order to use the vacated lands for arable land, pastures and hayfields. However, it soon became clear that the drained swamps were completely unsuitable for agriculture without long-term tillage and the application of large amounts of mineral fertilizers.Swamps are an excellent preservative
The swamp environment slows down the growth of bacteria, which is why bodies of organic origin that drown in the swamp are not destroyed. Over hundreds of millions of years, layers of peat have preserved various strange animals and plants. If there were no swamps, people would hardly know that magnolias and palm trees once upon a time grew in Greenland and Spitsbergen. Over the past 300 years, well-preserved human bodies have been discovered in abandoned peat bogs in Britain and Ireland. Most of these mummies date back to the 1st century. BC e. - IV century n. e.
A relic of the Ice Age - the butterwort plant (Pinguicula vulgaris) Photo: www.globallookpress.com
Swamps preserved Ice Age plant
Thanks to the swamps, the only relic of the Ice Age still remains on earth - the butterwort plant (Pinguicula vulgaris). It grows in the Northern Hemisphere in tundra and forest zones on wet rocky slopes and swamps. In Russia it is found in Western Siberia, Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands.
Zhiryanka leaves prevent rotting, so the plants are widely used to make bactericidal agents that stop the growth of harmful microflora. Shepherds have long applied the plant to the wounds of cattle to prevent infections.
© / Shrek 2001 DreamWorks Animation
The Adventures of Pinocchio 1975
© / Flying ship 1979 Soyuzmultfilm
© Flickr.com/mafue
© / The Adventures of Pig Funtik 1986 TO "Ekran"
Marya the Mistress 1959 Gorky Studio
Over hundreds of millions of years, layers of peat turned into horizons of coal. And in them, in the form of imprints, skeletons of strange animals and bizarre species of plants appeared. If there were no swamps on Earth, we would hardly know that magnolias and palm trees once upon a time grew in Greenland and Spitsbergen.
However, people are in no hurry to develop this natural storehouse. People burst into space and sink to the bottom of the oceans, but still shun the swamps. Even the most desperate berry pickers and hunters who visit the swamps say that as soon as you find yourself in the middle of a swamp, a strange ringing in your ears suddenly appears, you feel dizzy, your legs become weak, and you have a serious desire to run. Inexplicable fear grips you from head to toe, you want to forget this place forever. Hunters gloomily joke that it is impossible to quickly drown in a swamp; there remains “time to eat the toffee.” A person who is not familiar with the “rules of behavior in the swamps” seems to be paralyzed. Shackled by horror and swamp ligature, he can no longer move and seems to be watching his death from the sidelines. This can last from several minutes to several days. Until the swamp water begins to fill your lungs...
It’s not for nothing that swamps in Rus' are called Adovo, Sukino, Chertovo... These names reflect the people’s fear of the mystery and enigma of swamps.
Spirit Kingdom
The swamp has its own guardian spirit, the owner. The Slavs called him the swamp. It is he who scares those walking through the swamp with sharp sounds, sighs, and loud smacking. It is he who lures the self-confident and careless into the quagmire and, on the contrary, shows a safe path to those who respect nature. The mire has many neighbors, including mermen, lords of water, goblins, and kikimoras. The swamp gives unprecedented strength to its original inhabitants, such as the giant Yar Mort, a character in Finno-Ugric mythology.
None of the natural treasures are shrouded in so many secrets, legends and mysticism as swamps. Their fame is not good, so people bypass the kingdom of kikimora on the tenth road. And she loves uninvited guests. He drags unwary travelers into his quagmire. True, she rarely shows herself to people - she prefers to be invisible and only screams from the swamp in a loud voice. But if he gets naughty, he might even take a ride on a scared-to-death traveler. According to legend, girls cursed by their mother in the womb or in infancy before baptism, as well as girls born to a woman from a fiery serpent, turn into kikimoras. It was believed that such children were kidnapped and carried away by evil spirits. Sometimes - straight from the mother's womb. After seven years, these children turn into kikimore. Children who died unbaptized could also turn into kikimoras. In most beliefs, kikimora is an evil spirit. If she marries a brownie, she takes up residence in the house and causes chaos. Sometimes even forcing the owners to leave their home. If a goblin took her fancy as her husband, then from now on her home is a swamp. Children are born to the kikimora and the goblin - lesavki. They play pranks, lead travelers off the road, and do their best to help their parents lure travelers into the swamps.
The Celts called swamps “the gates of spirits” - where the seemingly solid soil instantly disappears from under one’s feet, the gates open to the world of mysterious nature spirits and deities. Therefore, the Celts revered the swamps and came there with sacrificial gifts. The Khanty and Mansi believed that the whole world was born from “liquid earth,” that is, from a swamp. The Egyptian goddess Isis hid her son there - the god Horus... It turns out that this place is not such a disastrous place?
Again the dead man lit a candle
The swamp beckons. The sounds that the swamp makes are similar to the speech of a giant living creature. And lonely travelers often mistake the will-o'-the-wisps in the swamps for the lights of their homes and come straight into the swamps. Because of the characteristic location of the lights - at the height of a human hand - they were called "dead man's candles." It was believed that the one who saw them received a warning about imminent death, and they were carried by aliens from the other world. In Germany they said that the lights in the swamp are the ghosts of those who stole the land from their neighbors. The Finns called them "lecchio" and believed that they were the souls of children buried in the forest. In Northern Europe, it was believed that the lights in the swamp were the spirits of ancient warriors guarding treasures.
In fact, lights in the swamps are not fantasies or inventions of dense grannies. On warm, dark nights, pale bluish, faintly flickering lights can actually be seen in swamps or fresh graves. They seem to be dancing in the air, tracing a complex trajectory. It is hydrogen phosphide that “burns.” At the bottom of the swamps, in damp areas, many remains of dead animals and plants rot. In this case, various gases are formed, including swamp gas. Phosphorus compounds, which are part of animal and human corpses, decompose under the influence of groundwater to form hydrogen phosphide. When there is a loose embankment over a grave or a small layer of water in a swamp, the gas, coming to the surface, is ignited by the vapor of liquid hydrogen phosphide.
Not all swamp mysteries can be explained by the results of a chemical reaction. And then the terrible swamp mysticism bursts into real life.
...The Tikhvin district of the Leningrad region has a reputation as a bear corner. The places here are remote, swampy and sparsely populated, which makes them attractive to hunters and fishermen. One autumn, the leading engineer of the Elektrosila plant, Yakov Aizeman, came to hunt. He stayed with a friend in the village of Volozhba.
In the morning Eiseman went into the forest. And I didn’t notice how lost I was. This did not frighten him; the engineer considered himself a good expert on the Tikhvin forests. All day he wandered through completely unfamiliar places, and towards evening he came out onto a barely noticeable forest road. The road led him to an abandoned farm on the edge of a large swamp.
Apparently, the farm was abandoned quite a long time ago. Eiseman climbed onto the porch and pushed open the front door of the hut. It opened with a creak. There was nothing remarkable inside the house, except for the traces of someone's long-ago overnight stay: several empty cans, a vodka bottle and an armful of firewood thrown near the bed.
It was getting dark quickly. A whitish fog was creeping in from the swamp in wisps, and there was a chilly dampness. “I’ll spend the night in the house, and in the morning I’ll find out where the devil has taken me,” Eiseman decided and began to settle down for the night.
At night he suddenly woke up from wild horror. Someone shuffled past him. The engineer lay motionless for several seconds, but then stood up in fear on his bed. Nothing was visible in the pitch darkness, but Eiseman sensitively sensed someone’s presence in the hut and realized that the one hidden in the darkness was mortally dangerous. He hastily flicked his lighter. A flickering tongue of flame snatched out of the darkness the corner of the couch and the stooped figure of an old woman standing a few steps away from it.
Eiseman screamed in surprise. The old woman slowly, as if blind, moved towards him, spreading both her arms. A sweetish smell of decomposition flowed through the hut, and Eiseman clearly saw that... a corpse was approaching him! In desperation, he threw a Neva lighter at the deceased, still Soviet-made, hefty and weighty, like a chair. She hit the old woman hard on the rotten forehead and, rebounding, instantly went out. A scream was heard in the darkness. Eiseman rushed into the hallway. Fear gave him strength, and with one jerk he tore the hook out of the closed front door and jumped out onto the porch.
The rest of the night he ran over some unsteady hummocks, every now and then falling into the peat slurry. At dawn I felt solid ground under my feet and collapsed exhausted. Having caught my breath, I looked around and realized that I was not far from Volozhba.
When Eiseman appeared in the village, he caused a stir among the local residents - his appearance was so wild. However, everything he told did not surprise the villagers at all, since there had been bad rumors about the farm on the swamp for a long time. It was rumored that the old woman was a witch and kept an old book on witchcraft in her house.
Eiseman left Volozhba for St. Petersburg, not even remembering the backpack, bandolier and double-barreled gun abandoned on the farm. Upon arrival in the city, he underwent a medical examination for a mental disorder, which could be attributed to everything that happened to him on the farm. But the engineer’s health was like that of an astronaut; doctors did not find any hints of mental instability. Then Yakov turned to St. Petersburg researcher of anomalous phenomena Andron Friedman for clarification. The expert's opinion was:
- In the northern regions of Russia, according to an ancient witchcraft ritual, a sorcerer or witch needed to find a successor in order to transfer to him all his forbidden knowledge before death, usually in the form of a handwritten code. Otherwise, their black souls could not find peace and were doomed to eternal torment. The sudden death of Korenikha (she was killed by a shell fragment during the shelling of the village by the Germans) violated this ritual and became the reason for the appearance of the ghost of a witch.
In addition, Andron Friedman put forward the version that the farm most likely contains a rare handwritten code of witchcraft - the Russian version of the terrible Necronomicon, known since the 13th century. The researcher intends to go in search of him, although such an undertaking will be incredibly dangerous. After all, a witch won’t just give up a witchcraft book...
A secret covered in peat
For us, swamps are an undiscovered treasury from which we can draw information not only about past landscapes, but also learn about our history. This historical book can be read endlessly, page after page, making new discoveries. But peat bogs indicate not only changes in bog vegetation. Often they also store tools of labor and wars of the past buried in them. And even the remains of the owners of these guns. Sphagnum moss and its decomposition products, including humic acid, react with calcium and nitrogen to make human flesh incorruptible.
...In May 1950, two Danish peasants were digging in the bogs of Bjeldskovdal, Jutland, and came across a corpse. They decided that they had found a schoolboy from Copenhagen who had disappeared in the swamps the year before. The police were called. Could they have imagined that they had found the corpse of a man who died in the 4th century BC?.. The eyelids of the “man from Tollund” were tiredly lowered, he seemed to be sleeping. The swamps even preserved his mustache and beard, and cuts from walking on sharp stones were clearly visible on his feet. The cause of death of the “man from Tollund” is shrouded in darkness (more precisely, peat), but forensic research has revealed many interesting details. For example, the last thing he ate before his death was a porridge made from barley, wild oats, buckwheat, flaxseed and mari - about thirty different herbs in total. Two English archaeologists tried the dish prepared according to this recipe and found its taste disgusting. Botanists have established the conditions in which he lived, and archaeologists have clarified his age.
In total, about 2,000 mummies have been discovered in the swamps of Europe over the past hundred years. These unfortunate people were able to tell us something about the customs of ancient Northern Europe, which until today remained a sealed secret for historians and archaeologists.
In 1984, an excavator digging for peat in the Lindow bog, south of Manchester, dug up a human leg, and then the whole body was found. This discovery is associated with the most thorough study of swamp mummies carried out so far. A team of fifty experts - from pathologists to paleobiologists - studied the "Lindov Man", whose age is estimated at two thousand years. It was determined that this man's last food was a flat loaf of wheat and barley. They even found out that the bread was briefly heated before eating at a temperature of 200 to 250 degrees. The “Man from Lindov” was no older than thirty and suffered from arthritis of the lower thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. And perhaps the skin of this ancient Briton was colored blue or green. What was that - war paint? Julius Caesar in his War with Gaul writes: “All the Britons rub themselves with vitrum, which colors their skin so that they look even more fearsome in battle.” The only thing researchers are missing is the DNA formula. Humic acids in the swamps destroyed this hereditary material as thoroughly as they helped preserve hair and skin. Presenting to descendants a man made of flesh, but without blood.
And yet, the main question that scientists will have to wrestle with for a long time is: why did contemporaries treat these people so cruelly, why were they drowned in the black mud of swamps?.. Traces of blows were found on the body of the “man from Lindov”; the skull was pierced with an ax. The executioners tightened the animal's veins around the neck, after which they cut the throat - this increased the flow of gushing blood.
Under the long braids of the young "Elling woman" an inverted V was found deeply impressed on the back of her head. A teenager of 10-14 years old, who was exhumed from a grave in a bog near Kayhausen in Lower Saxony, was bound so tightly that he could not even move. He was stabbed in the throat several times. The "Woman from Huldremose" had her hand cut off. There were several puncture wounds on the thigh and foot. After death, the killers mutilated the face of another Jutland woman beyond recognition and, apparently, scalped her...
Were they victims to the gods, criminals, or worthy members of society who, following some mysterious rituals, were sent to the other world? Since ancient times, the swamp was considered a transitional place from the real world to the afterlife, which is why it was chosen as a place of sacrifice. After delving into folklore, researchers proposed a version: these people were drowned in a swamp so that they could not rise from the dead and begin to take revenge on the living. In their assumptions, scientists rely on the same shaky ground as the one in which these unfortunates were found. Scientists have yet to unravel the mysteries of the ancient swamp mummies.
Where did Susanin lead his enemies?
And in Russia in this century, the legend about the brave Russian peasant Ivan Susanin, who led the Polish army into a swamp and thereby saved Russia from ruin, was confirmed. Near the village of Isupovo, Susaninsky district, Kostroma region, where a century ago there was a swamp, archaeologists discovered hundreds of human remains and 40 pectoral crosses, presumably belonging to soldiers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. One of the crosses is made in the tradition of the Orthodox Church and, most likely, adorned the chest of a heroic villager. Such crosses were made in the 16th - 17th centuries. In addition, the cross is not whole, but consists of fragments. It was possible to establish that it was chopped down - probably by the sabers of Polish soldiers. It is known that none of the Polish detachment survived. The only documentary evidence of Susanin's feat was the tsar's letter. In it, Mikhail Fedorovich gave Susanin’s son-in-law Bogdan Sabinin half of the village of Dereveshchi: “Knowing about us, Susanin endured unbearable torture, did not tell about us, and for that he was tortured to death by Polish and Lithuanian people.” So, after several centuries, the swamp revealed another secret to people.
Myth
According to the legend of the creation of the world, at first there was continuous water on the earth. God walked along it like on dry land and one day noticed a cloudy bubble. Having caught up with God, the bubble burst. And the Devil jumped out of it. God ordered the Devil to go down to the bottom and get earth from there. The devil obediently carried out the order. I couldn’t resist and hid some earth behind my cheeks. Meanwhile, God scattered the earth, and where it fell, dry land appeared, and on it were trees, bushes and grass of extraordinary beauty. But plants began to sprout in the Devil’s mouth. And the unclean one began to spit out the earth. This is how swamps appeared on the earth - liquefied earth with stunted, ugly trees and coarse grass.
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In the south of the Tomsk region, on its very border with Novosibirsk, is the Vasyugan swamp. Stretching over 500 kilometers in length and from 15 to 120 in width, it is the largest swamp on the globe.
The bogs hold 11,500 km3 of fresh water. This is five times more than all the rivers in the world (2,100 km3), and almost half the volume of Baikal’s water (23,000 km?)!
Stagnant swamps regulate the flow of rivers and streams and even feed large rivers. The Dnieper and Volga, for example, originate from swamps. But, contrary to popular belief, the water in swamps is not stagnant at all. Let's compare: in lakes the water is completely renewed in 17 years, in swamps - every five years!
Large swamps can stop forest fires.
Every year, one hectare of swamps absorbs 550–1800 kg of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and releases 260–700 kg of oxygen. This is 7–15 times more than one hectare of forest or meadow can process.
But that’s not all: swamps attract and absorb dust particles, which, as is known, in calm weather move towards lower temperatures (and the temperature above the surface of swamps is always lower than around it). One hectare of swamps can “swallow” up to three tons of dust! (By the way, it contains minerals that plants feed on.)
Although the unique complexes of Russian swamps have suffered greatly from human intervention, they have still been preserved. And even in well-developed regions they remain the least disturbed ecosystems. Therefore, they often become a refuge for many Red Book plants and animals that cannot withstand anthropogenic stress.
In 1971, the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance as Waterfowl Habitat was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar; it is now commonly known as the Ramsar Convention. Its goal is to preserve the most valuable territories in this regard: sea bays, lakes, river deltas, swamps. Today, 60 countries participate in the convention, including Russia, where 35 Ramsar sites have been designated. Many of them are also of international importance because they are a refuge for migratory birds.
The first swamps on our planet appeared about 400 million years ago. Modern swamps are young, they are “only” 12,000 years old. They are distributed throughout the Earth, their total area is approximately 2,682,000 km2. Russia accounts for 73% of this territory, which is the area of five Frances!
In order for a swamp to form, a combination of a number of conditions is necessary: climate humidity, proximity to groundwater, landscape features, water-resistant soil layers.
Swamps can appear on land - due to a constant excess of moisture in the soil and on its surface and weak water flow. It becomes difficult for air to penetrate into the pores of the soil, which is why dying plant debris is not completely oxidized, and as a result, organic materials are preserved. Sometimes swamps appear in places where there is little or no moisture, for example in desert areas. A lake can also become swampy if, thanks to the abundance of sunlight, it is quickly filled with aquatic plants.
Peat accumulates in the swamp very slowly. For example, in the north-west of Russia, the peat deposit increases its thickness by 0.5–1 mm per year. This is the growth rate of the main peat-forming agent - sphagnum moss.
Swamps are an integral natural complex, where its three main components - excess moisture, organic deposits in the form of peat and specific vegetation - determine the existence of each other and the ecosystem as a whole. Peat retains moisture, and swamp vegetation in waterlogged conditions forms peat.
Swamps of the Russian Federation (with a peat depth of more than 30 cm) as a % of the territory area (from: Vompersky et al., 1999)
It’s worth getting to know the swamps better - and they will surprise you with the variety of their colors and smells. Most of all there are mosses here. In summer they are emerald green and pale light green, in dry summer they are white, and in autumn they are yellow, wine red, brown and even purple! And against the backdrop of a moss carpet - light lilac heathers, white wild rosemary caps, pale pinkish bells, red cobs of marsh whitewing, bluish-blue blueberries, inky purple blueberries, orange cloudberries... And dark red cranberries! And burgundy lingonberries!
On hot summer days, the swamps are filled with the smells of herbs and shrubs, emitting a unique aroma rich in essential oils not only during flowering, but also in “ordinary life.”
Myrtle Marsh.
Applied swamp science (for lovers of hunting, cranberries, etc.)
At different times (winter, summer, autumn) swamps can be passable or, conversely, completely inaccessible. The very surface of the swamps is very deceptive; sometimes it seems solid, but in fact the swamp sinks down under the weight of a person. Some seemingly strong green areas are actually fireboxes, and you can suddenly fall into them.
The most dangerous are rafting swamps, or swamps. Here the vegetation has a slightly whitish color. When moving through a swamp, you should never rush or rush, and if you fall through, you should not give in to panic. It is better to have a long pole with you and, before taking the next step, use it to check where you can rest your foot. Hidden lakes, overgrown with swamp vegetation, under which the water is not visible, pose a great danger to people. Under this vegetation cover there may be a bottomless reservoir (charusa). You can easily fall into the peculiar crevices on such a hidden lake if you neglect precautions.
When moving through the swamp, you need to step on hummocks or rhizomes of plants and small shrubs, which provide strong support for your feet, and overcome dangerous areas very carefully, having first probed with a pole.
If you fall into a swamp, under no circumstances should you make sudden movements. It is necessary to carefully, leaning on a pole lying across (the presence of which is mandatory here), pull yourself up, take a horizontal position, throw off your backpack, free yourself from the gun, reach out with your hands to the strong marsh grass and, pulling yourself up, crawl away from the dangerous place.
When you get into a swamp, it happens that your legs and boots cannot be pulled out of the quagmire. All your attempts to pull out one or two legs at once do not lead to a positive result. The quagmire has a death grip. You feel like you are being slowly sucked in. In this case, you need to, without losing your composure, try, leaning on the same pole, to get out of your boots. This is possible - the legs are released with difficulty, but they are freed.
When overcoming a swamp, it is necessary to outline the azimuth of movement, otherwise, when going around swampy places, you can easily get lost, lose your way and wander along it forever. Moving through the swamp, it is very difficult to navigate - only a monotonous swamp landscape is visible around. In these cases, the sun helps. When starting to move, you need to look around carefully and try to find possible landmarks for yourself.
Sometimes you can determine the degree of passability of a swamp by its appearance.
A continuous moss cover, on which there are no trees or they are rarely found (a single pine tree), the water is above the surface or at its level, there are many hollows - such a raised (moss) bog is very difficult to pass.
In lowland (peat) swamps: there is a continuous cover of grass, there are no trees, bushes are very rare, and the water is on the surface - such a swamp will be very difficult to overcome. In peat bogs: peat is liquid, flowing, and when taken into a fist, the mass is completely pressed through the fingers - such bogs are absolutely impassable for pedestrians.
And if the peat is very loose, highly moistened and when squeezed in a fist, the water flows out in a stream, and the mass is pressed through the fingers, then such terrain is considered “conditionally passable” - on bog shoes, the permissible pressure on it is only about 0.25 kg/cm2.