User:Darwinerasmus/Baltic Anomaly

The Baltic Anomaly is an Unidentified Submerged Object (USO) that was first discovered at the bottom of the Baltic Sea by Peter Lindberg and his Swedish-based 'Ocean X Team' on June 19, 2011. The  Baltic Sea UFO  was the media nickname initially given to this phenomenon.

Some ufologists claimed the formation is an alien ship, though no evidence has been found for this conclusion.

More mundane explanations are that the "UFO" is really a rock cluster, or perhaps a damaged rotating gun turret from a naval ship.

The discovery
The discovery was made on June 19, 2011 during a dive in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland searching for an old shipwreck. Their sonar equipment detected what they described at the time as a "very unusual 197 foot diameter cylinder shaped object at the depth of approximately 275 feet". Soon after the discovery the media remarked at the object’s resemblance to the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.

Speculation on object(s)
There are many hypotheses on what the object is, but none have been proven. The majority viewpoint is in the following two camps.

Manmade Object
British tabloids have reported that the object is the remnants of a secret nazi anti-submarine device. The ocean X diving team have refuted that claim on the grounds that the object is too large against known schematics of such a device. There is some speculation that it may be a munitions dump .Peter Lindberg of the Ocean X team has commented :

"It might be left over from the World Wars - maybe mustard gas or something more horrible down there". In 2008, reuters reported that some 300,000 tonnes of munitions had been dumped in the baltic sea post WW2 and that the authorities will not reveal the locations.

Another theory is that it is the remnant of an old russian circular ship, such as Russian monitor Novgorod.

Popular mechanics have suggested that the trails shown in the ocean floor on the side scan sonar may be nothing more than a trail from a fish trawl.

Natural Geological formation
Martin Jakobsson, professor of marine geology and geophysics at Stockholm University examined images from the dive and concluded that the object looked like sandstone.

Other speculation is that the object may be a pillow Basalt, a moraine or the product of a hydrothermal vent

Exploration in 2012 - a possible scam?
In June 2012 Ocean X divers reported electrical interference from the object:" "Anything electric out there — and the satellite phone as well — stopped working when we were above the object". They described the object as looking like a "huge mushroom" or a UFO with an egg-shaped "portal" and what they said "could be described as runway" leading away from the site.

There is only one sonar image of the object and it has drawn criticism from various sources. Hanumant Singh of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has said that it cannot be trusted. Stating that a cheap inaccurate instrument was used for the image he added that it had been improperly wired and calibrated. Charles Paull of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute suggested that if there was something there it could be simply a rock outcrop, sediment dropped from a fishing trawl or even a school of fish. The claim that it looks like the Millennium Falcon was said to be the result of the team drawing the shape of the Millennium Falcon around the object.

Jonathan Hill of the Mars Space Flight Facility questioned the motives involved in Ocean X announcements, which included plans to take wealthy tourists in a submarine to visit it. He was quoted as saying "Whenever people make extraordinary claims, it's always a good idea to consider for a moment whether they are personally benefiting from the claim or if it's a truly objective observation." He also suggested that it would have been simple to break off a piece and have it geologically tested, which might have shown it to be simply rock, something that would not have benefited Peter Lindberg.

Peter Lindberg responded to charges of poor science and attempting to benefit from the publicity, saying "First we thought this was only stone, but this is something else. And since  no volcanic activity has ever been reported in the Baltic Sea the find  becomes even stranger.”

Further Investigations
The Ocean X team returned from a third investigation to the anomalies on 22 July 2012. However this for the most part failed due to bad weather conditions and the failure of technical equipment. Lindberg also noted on his facebook comments on that date that the divers had not recorded any magnetic interference. Additionally two enigmatic photos were posted to the facebook group around 22 July 2012 - one showing the anomaly to have right angled wall surfaces and another showing a mysterious old bottle near the anomaly. Lindberg has further promised a return to the site in approximately two weeks and further information to follow. On 24 July 2012, the Ocean X team confirmed on their website that they had take some samples from the object and would post results when they came back from analysis.