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The Baltic Sea Anomaly: UFO, Ancient Technology, or Just a Stone? · Lost Civilizations: Ancient Aliens & Forgotten History

0:01
It's the middle of the night in the
0:02
Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland.
0:05
On the bridge of the somewhat worn vessel
0:07
Ancylus, three tired men sit staring at
0:12
a flickering sonar screen. They have been out
0:14
for over a week.
0:15
The ship has been leaking, spent time in
0:18
dry dock in Finland and the hunt for
0:20
a shipwreck carrying champagne has so far been
0:23
a bust.
0:24
The sonar paints the same picture as always,
0:27
mud, small ridges and the occasional older wreck.
0:31
A ping, an echo, a grainy shadow and
0:34
so on.
0:34
The ship's course follows long, straight lines as
0:37
if they're plowing heaven and sea in neat
0:40
rows.
0:41
And then it happens.
0:42
On the screen, a shape emerges that brings
0:45
everything to a standstill.
0:47
A nearly perfect circle roughly 60 meters across
0:51
like a jumbo jet laid flat with a
0:53
long, straight runway trailing behind it, a
0:56
300-meter long scar on the seabed.
1:00
Peter Lindberg leans forward and says half amused,
1:03
half-serious, here's your UFO.
1:06
They laugh nervously, but no one walks away
1:09
from the screen, because in the middle of
1:11
a sea filled with perfectly ordinary shipwrecks,
1:15
they've found something they've never seen before.
1:18
Weeks later, when they return with divers, they
1:20
report that electronics die every time the ship
1:23
comes within about 200 meters of the object.
1:26
Satellite phones lose signal, GPS goes black,
1:30
cameras and sonar give up.
1:32
Ninety meters down, a diver hovers in pitch-black
1:35
water. He reaches out his hand and feels
1:36
a hard, dark surface that feels like burnt
1:39
concrete, yet simultaneously forms something that feels
1:43
like walls, corners, and steps.
1:48
walls, corners and steps.
1:50
This is the story of the Baltic Sea
1:52
I'm René, and you're listening to Lost
1:53
Civilizations: Ancient Aliens and Forgotten History.
1:55
Ancient Aliens and Forgotten History.
2:19
The Baltic Sea Anomaly has become an icon
2:22
in modern history culture, not because we found
2:25
little green men at the bottom of the
2:27
Baltic, but because the case is just open
2:31
enough for everyone to hang their own theory
2:35
on it.
2:36
When Ocean X goes public, the story explodes.
2:40
Swedish and international media run headlines like crashed
2:44
spaceship and Millennium Falcon on the seabed.
2:48
YouTube fills with documentaries: corpse of technology,
2:53
terrifying AI scan, scientists' stunts, and UFO communities
2:58
and alternative historians see physical proof for everything
3:01
from Atlantis to ancient spacecraft.
3:05
At the same time, the Baltic Sea is
3:07
something special.
3:09
Brackish water with low salinity, cold temperature and
3:13
oxygen-poor depths makes the sea a natural
3:16
museum.
3:17
Wrecks like the Vasa and Mars, lies nearly
3:21
untouched and newer wrecks like the Estonia are
3:26
so sensitive that the authorities have tried legally
3:29
to protect them and even considering encasing them
3:32
in concrete.
3:35
In that context, a 60-meter round object
3:37
with a one-way reported electromagnetic anomalies and
3:43
dark basalt samples naturally stands out.
3:47
So we are still talking about it because
3:49
the scientific explanation exists but feels unsatisfying.
3:55
The alternative theories are fascinating but weakly substantiated
3:59
and no one has taken the final expensive
4:02
step, a full independent open expedition with cord
4:06
-willing and systematic measurementss.
4:08
This is precisely in that gap that the
4:11
great podcast stories live.
4:17
Let's start with the chronology and the most
4:19
solid facts first.
4:21
In 2011, the Discovery, Ocean X is searching for
4:25
a champagne wreck in the Gulf of Bothnia.
4:29
The ship Antiklas has been leaking spent time
4:33
in dry dock in Finland and the mood
4:35
is tired and mightily frustrated.
4:38
On the way home, they leave the side
4:40
-scan sonar dangling in the water just to
4:43
take one last trip.
4:44
And then it happens.
4:46
Roughly 60 meters in diameter, about 90 meters
4:51
depth and with a 300-meter long distinct
4:54
structure tailing behind it in the sonar image.
4:58
In 2012, we have the expedition.
5:02
After massive media interest, they manage to scrape
5:05
together funding for a larger expedition.
5:08
The budget is around 120,000 eurosss and
5:12
just the fuel and the ship operational cost,
5:15
according to them, over 20,000 euross per
5:18
day.
5:18
So they have only a few days to
5:20
get results.
5:22
And here we have a series of concrete
5:24
data points and episodes.
5:26
Side-scan sonar and multibeam are used to
5:29
relocate the object.
5:31
It takes over 40 hours to scan an
5:34
area of just over square nautical miles.
5:41
And they even lose the sonar fish on
5:44
the bottom and have to retrieve it with
5:46
an ROV in zero visibility.
5:50
And Swedish Navy vessel is observed nearby without
5:53
any clear reason, which later become fuel for
5:56
speculation about military interest.
5:59
We also have ROV footage that shows hard,
6:02
relatively smooth surface with sharp transitions and something
6:07
that in real time feels almost concrete.
6:12
Then we have the dives.
6:14
The dives are technically extreme.
6:16
The depth is 90 meters.
6:19
We have a trigas mix, helium, nitrogen and
6:22
oxygen.
6:24
We have 10 to 15 minutes of effective
6:27
bottom time.
6:28
And we have up to 90 meters of
6:30
decompletion stops on the way up.
6:33
Stefan Hockmoen describes it as seeing like an
6:38
ant on a football field, one or two
6:40
meters visibility, fisheye lenses, mud and sediment that
6:44
instantly turn the water milky white.
6:47
The divers' most important observations are that the
6:50
surface feels hard, dark and like burned plastic
6:55
or concrete.
6:57
There are abrupt transitions, step-like structures and
7:00
something that feels like 90 degrees corners.
7:04
There's a round hole about 20 meters, according
7:09
to one eyewitness accounts, where sediment appears to
7:14
move in and out like breathing.
7:16
We have samples.
7:18
We have small fragments that have been brought
7:20
up and sent to multiple laboratories.
7:23
Here the features diverge.
7:26
Early popular sources talk about metal and slag
7:30
-like materials.
7:32
Geologist Volker Bruegger at the University of Stockholm
7:37
analyzed the samples and identifies basalt, a volcanic
7:40
rock, as well as ferromanganese concretions and iron
7:44
oxide like limonite and goethite.
7:49
His interpretation is that basalt could have been
7:52
transported here by glaciers.
7:56
Ferromanganese and iron oxides form as precipitates on
8:03
the seabed over long periods, and the structure
8:05
is most likely connected to glacial and post-glacial geology.
8:10
The geologists' take is that geologists and
8:13
geomorphologists, including Jarmo Kortaniemi and others, point out
8:20
that that the area is full of drumlins,
8:24
elongated shapes created by glacial movement.
8:27
The runway visible in the sonar could be
8:30
the lee side of a drumlin or the
8:32
combination of erosion tracks.
8:35
90 degrees corners and steps can occur in
8:38
basalt through fissures and erosion.
8:42
And sonar artifacts that make natural rocks look
8:47
like technical and smooth.
8:50
In the established academic reading, the Baltic Sea
8:53
anomaly is therefore an unusual but natural geological
8:58
formation, basalt and hard rock with ferromanganese congregations
9:02
shaped by the ice age glaciers and later
9:05
erosion and made visually dramatically by sonar and
9:09
difficult visibility.
9:11
So that is the boring explanation.
9:14
But it is important as a reference point.
9:20
If we stuck to the geology reports, we
9:23
could honestly close this episode right here.
9:26
But there are some elements that keeps the
9:28
story alive.
9:29
We have the electronics and the dead zone.
9:33
Several independent sources, both UofI and X themselves,
9:37
and later interviews with, say, Dennis Ober, describes
9:42
that.
9:43
That satellite phones loses connections, GPS systems behave
9:47
absurdly, radar shows objects that aren't there, ROVs
9:52
and cameras shut down.
9:54
And this happens when the ship is within
9:56
200 meters of the object but disappears when
9:59
it sails away.
10:00
They repeat, according to their own account, that
10:04
they test multiple times over the coordinates, everything
10:08
dies 200 meters away and everything works.
10:12
This leads them to talk about an electronic
10:14
dead zone.
10:17
Scientifically speaking, this is an unresolved claim.
10:20
There is no public systematic measurements of electromagnetic
10:25
conditions at the site.
10:27
Some of the technical failures could possibly be
10:30
explained by cold condensation, poor connections, weak equipment,
10:35
and stress.
10:36
And Ocean X has later explained that certain cameras
10:40
failed due to condensation in sub-zero temperatures.
10:45
But here it remains a surgical experiment of
10:49
repeated interference that has not been satisfactorily explained.
10:55
Also, we have the temperature and the breathing
10:57
hole.
10:58
Diver Stefan Högeborn reports once a temperature
11:03
close to zero degrees Celsius at the object,
11:07
where one would normally expect four or five
11:10
degrees in that depth.
11:12
He describes a small hole where the sediment
11:15
appears to move in and out as it
11:17
were breathing.
11:19
This is a highly dramatic image, but they
11:22
are based on one dive.
11:25
Extreme cold and stress and very limited visual
11:28
documentation.
11:31
Geologically, a hole where sediment and water move
11:34
could, for example, be an outlet of a
11:38
minor gas or fluid seep, something we know
11:43
from mud volcanoes and pingu-like formations.
11:47
So this is a possible natural explanation, but
11:52
we have no hard data, only the experience.
11:57
If we look at the shape and the
11:58
runway across the sources I've seen, there are
12:02
two quite different interpretations.
12:06
Some geologists see drumlin with harder rock core
12:10
and softer metal around, which could produce a
12:14
top and a natural lee that resembles a
12:19
ski track on the sonar.
12:22
The other one is several on the Ocean X,
12:25
especially in the later interviews, described that the
12:27
object sits on top of the seabed like
12:31
a plate on the table and that the
12:33
runway looks like something heavy as a slit
12:38
across the mud and stopped abruptly.
12:41
This part is difficult to determine from public
12:44
data.
12:45
If the object really were completely detached and
12:48
resting on a narrow foot, that would be
12:53
harder to explain glacially.
12:57
Conversely, it's also possible that low visibility and
13:02
sonar perspective make the drumlin top look more
13:05
separated than it is.
13:08
Here we are in the category of real
13:10
anomalies in the description, but without sufficient data
13:14
to conclude anything extraordinary.
13:21
Now let's take the alternative theories more seriously
13:25
on their own terms and then go through
13:28
the supporters, should we say, best arguments.
13:32
If we look at the shape and the
13:33
architectures, supporters focus on a nearly perfect circle
13:37
about 60 meters, a seemingly 90 degrees corners,
13:42
walls and corridor-like passages, stair and terrace
13:46
-like structures, and a hatch, a circle within
13:50
a square frame on the top.
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The argument goes water and ice normally round
13:57
structures over time.
13:59
Pure shape, corners and repeatedly geometry suggest design.
14:05
And the combination of a disc shape and
14:07
runway resembles classical iconography of a crashed aircraft.
14:16
Second, we have the material and burning.
14:20
The alternative interpretations points to basalt with fine
14:23
crystals, suggest rapid cooling from a very high
14:27
temperature, dark burned surface and cracks that resemble
14:31
ceramic that has been too hot, and traces
14:34
of metal in some samples as remnants of
14:38
a technological structure.
14:41
In some dramatic scripts, the anomaly is described
14:47
as a corpse of technology, which is technology
14:51
so old and exposed to so violent energies
14:54
that the material has mineralized and now resembles
14:58
basalt but still carries the geometry of something
15:02
artificial.
15:04
Here parallels are drawn to fossils that the
15:07
original organic material is gone and the shape
15:11
is preserved in stone.
15:14
Applies to the Baltic, the original technical material
15:18
is gone, but the shape, the walls, the
15:21
hatches, the corners, that remains in stone.
15:25
Second, sorry, first, we have the electronics and
15:27
the active field.
15:29
The interpretation of the dead zones goes like
15:31
this.
15:32
A passive magnetic mountain might slightly disturb a
15:36
compass, but it wouldn't complete knock out the
15:40
satellite communication, sonar and digital electronics with a
15:47
shape radios.
15:48
It looks more like an active field, something
15:51
that is emitting energy or a residual field
15:54
from advanced technology.
15:57
Some goes further and see parallels to classic
16:00
UFO reports where a car stalls, radio dies
16:03
and aircraft experience instruments failure near objects.
16:08
Then we have the AI scans.
16:10
Some of my textbook builds on a modern
16:13
layer on top.
16:14
Stories about AI algorithmss that had analyzed sonar
16:19
data and cannot classify the object as natural.
16:23
The claims goes something like that.
16:27
AI has recognized pattern that does not match
16:30
known geological formations.
16:33
Radical symmetry, grooves and the hatch resemble designs
16:38
in databases of ships and underwater infrastructure more
16:42
than rocks.
16:44
And AI, therefore, flagged the anomaly as something
16:47
unknown.
16:48
The problem is that there is no publicly
16:52
documented AI analysis with data, modelss and error
16:56
margins.
16:57
So its coverage in popular sources is not
17:02
verified research.
17:04
Then we have the historical and mythical connections.
17:08
Some of the alternative researchers I've seen connect
17:11
the anomaly to ancient texts about flying cities,
17:15
skyballs, vimanas in Indian scripturess, imagined crashed craft
17:21
from a very distant past.
17:23
We also see prehistoric civilization that could have
17:27
built underwater monuments skinned to Yonaguni in Japan
17:32
or roads like the Bimini Road but in
17:34
the Baltic when the area was land and
17:38
or shallow lakes at the end of the
17:41
Ice Age.
17:44
And then we have the corpse of technology
17:46
as a framework.
17:47
The most sophisticated alternative models I've seen does
17:51
not necessarily say a crashed spaceship yesterday, but
17:55
rather that the anomaly could be the remains
17:58
of a very ancient technology, perhaps terrestrials, perhaps
18:02
not, that has been heated, compressed and then
18:05
mineralized.
18:07
That basalt and ferromanganese are not original rock,
18:11
but the results of something entirely different being
18:14
transformed under extreme heat and pressure.
18:17
And that is the preserved geology and possibility
18:21
that the magnetic field points to a technical
18:25
origin.
18:29
This requires us to accept that our current
18:32
geology could be fundamentally wrong about deformation and
18:38
we are dealing with an unknown category.
18:41
As a source, a critical host, it is
18:43
important to say these are hypotheses, these are
18:46
not evidence, they are based on eyewitness accountss,
18:50
incomplete data and secondary retellingss.
18:55
But they constitute the most coherent alternative narrative.
19:00
If we look at the rabbit hole, military,
19:03
climate and this kind of things, once you
19:05
accepted that the possibility that something could be
19:08
artificial, the connection begins to spread.
19:12
If you look at the other underwater mysteries,
19:16
some of the sources I've seen specifically draw
19:20
parallels to Yonaguni, the massive stair and wall
19:26
-like structures out of Japan in the sea
19:28
where geologists say natural and alternative researchers
19:31
say sunken city.
19:34
If you look at the Bimini Road, the
19:36
stone blocks in the Bahamas that look like a
19:39
paved road but are explained by mainstream geology
19:42
as a natural beach rock.
19:45
The point for the supporters is that the
19:47
earth has already delivered a number of formations
19:50
that lies in the gray zone between geology
19:53
and architecture.
19:55
The Baltic Sea Anomaly becomes the Nordic version
19:58
just with an extra twist, electronics.
20:02
And then there is the Baltic Sea as
20:04
strategic as geological hotspot.
20:07
At the same time here we have the
20:09
Baltic Sea that has become kind of a
20:11
double anomaly.
20:13
We have climate scientists documented record of low
20:16
water levels, dead zones with oxygen depletion and
20:21
complex current changess affected by the jet stream
20:26
shift and arctic warming.
20:29
Then we have large ships' turbulence and that
20:33
is directly reshaping the seabed in places propellers
20:37
steer up the sediment and create thousands of
20:39
small scars in the bottom.
20:42
That is, while the world debate one mystery
20:45
object, the entire Baltic Sea is undergoing dramatic
20:49
well-measured changes and has already contained violent
20:52
stories like the Estonia where conspiracies, secrecy and
20:57
contradictory investigations still haunt.
21:00
And this leads to a much larger narrative.
21:04
Perhaps the anomaly is just one piece in
21:08
the sea where we don't understand half what's
21:10
going on, geological, climate, climatically or politically.
21:18
And then we have the military and intelligence
21:20
threat.
21:21
If we look at the material I have
21:24
collected, we see that the Swedish Navy ships
21:27
has observed near the expeditions without explanations.
21:32
We see stories of cigar shapes craft near
21:35
the Swedish plutonium plantss.
21:38
We see NATO exercises and Russians presence in
21:41
the area.
21:42
And we see a general sensitivity around underwater
21:45
cables, gas pipelines and military installations in the
21:49
Baltics.
21:50
This opened up a more down-to-earth
21:54
but still dark scenarios.
21:57
The anomaly could be an advanced but terrestrial
22:00
cold war technology, for example a sonar array
22:04
or surveillance system that no one wants to
22:09
have poked into too much.
22:11
Electronic interference could then be intentional,
22:14
a still-active field designed to confuse enemy
22:18
sensors.
22:20
We could also have the lack of willingness
22:22
to fund further investigations, could be because of
22:26
someone knows more than they are saying.
22:32
We must hold fast, however, there is no
22:34
open, verifiable documents linking NATO or others directly
22:38
to the anomaly as a secret installation.
22:42
But in a region where every passenger, or
22:47
should I say, where even a passenger ferry
22:49
wreck like Estonia has spawned theories about secret
22:53
military cargo, the suspicion is understandable.
23:01
If you look at the criticism, then we
23:04
could say where is the alternative theories stumbling?
23:10
And there we can see that the basalt
23:13
in the Baltic is not itself mysterious when
23:16
you consider ice's glacial transport.
23:19
Glaciers can move large boulders over very long
23:23
distances.
23:24
Ferro-Manganese concretions and iron oxidized produce dark,
23:30
sooty surfacess that can look burnt, but without
23:35
actually being so.
23:37
And nature can create the right angles and
23:40
steps through fissures and erosion, especially in basalt
23:44
and sandstone.
23:45
If you see Coloma's basalt and in a
23:49
coastal cliff worldwide, when comparing to Jonaguni and
23:56
Bimini, we see that the nature has repeatedly
23:59
fooled us with architecture that looks like to
24:02
be geology.
24:04
If we look at the electronic interference, there
24:08
is, should we say, more down-to-earth
24:10
explanations.
24:11
Critics point to equipment is out of specification.
24:15
Cold near or below freezing and moisture can
24:18
produce plenty of errors.
24:19
Camera tapes and electronics can behave very strangely
24:23
under such conditions.
24:25
Antenna and fuses can be misinstalled, especially on
24:28
a ship already struggling with leaks and technical
24:31
problems.
24:33
We also have subjective filters.
24:37
If you expect mystery, you remember the errors
24:40
that fix the story and downplay the trivial
24:43
ones.
24:44
There is no reproducible instrument-based measurements series
24:49
that has been published clearly about a 200
24:54
-meter electromagnetic zone over the object.
24:58
Without that, the dead zone is an interesting
25:01
but it's a weakly substantiated claim.
25:05
Then we have the AI argument.
25:07
Without access to the raw sonar data, knowledge
25:10
of which AI model is used and the
25:13
insight of training data and error rates, we
25:17
can't use the AI stories to anything more
25:20
than modern folklore.
25:22
If you look at the corpse of the
25:23
technology, the hypothesis is that we are seeing
25:27
mineralized technology is creative, but it suffers from
25:31
no unambiguous technical components has been observed.
25:36
All analyzed samples we know of fit neatly
25:41
into geological categories and the entire mechanism requires
25:46
constellation or additional assumptions, unknown energies, unknown glow,
25:52
unknown technology origin, etc.
25:55
That makes it a speculative explanation that is
25:59
not a scientific theory.
26:04
So what actually holds up?
26:06
If we pull the threads together and stick
26:09
this to source question, we can now create
26:11
a kind of a status list.
26:13
It is well documented that roughly a 60
26:16
-meter wide object at roughly 90 meters the
26:20
death has been found in the Gulf of
26:22
Bothnia.
26:24
Sonar and multi-beam data showing a prominent
26:26
structure and a complex surrounding terrain, including a
26:30
possible reach to another anomaly.
26:32
We have physical samples that is analyzed as
26:36
basalt, ferromanganese concretions and common mineral consists of
26:41
with ice age and post ice age geologically.
26:47
We also know that diverse has actually been
26:49
down there with extremely limited time and visibility
26:52
and that descriptions are consistent with each other,
26:56
but not necessarily with artificial origin.
27:00
If you look at the probable one, then
27:04
at least part of the mystery is due
27:06
to paradolia, hard to say.
27:12
Our tendency is to see patterns, stairs and
27:15
hatches in complex unclear image.
27:19
That several technical problems are due to environmental
27:23
condition and equipment rather than object protecting itself.
27:28
That is, and the opium is a dumpling
27:31
core similar or similar formation, partially exposed and
27:36
visually dramatic on sonar.
27:39
If you look at the unresolved one, where
27:44
there is a consistent, strong electromagnetic anomaly over
27:49
the object, this requires some dedicated measurement campaign.
27:55
The precise geological history: where the basalt and
28:00
the concretion materials come from, and whether
28:03
the object is partially detached or firmly
28:05
anchored.
28:07
And if you look at the weakly substantiated
28:10
or should I say speculative one, that is
28:13
that the anomaly is a crashed spaceship, Vienna
28:17
or intergalactic craft.
28:19
There is no technical component or metals has
28:22
been identified.
28:24
No internal structures has been documented.
28:28
The AI has proven that the object cannot
28:30
be natural, no public reproducible results.
28:35
That is, that there is an organized cover
28:39
up where the military suppressed research.
28:42
There are indications, but there is no hard
28:45
evidence.
28:47
And if you look at the cold, should
28:50
we say the secret Cold War installation, that
28:52
is possible, but samples point to rock and
28:54
not composite and electronicss.
29:01
So if I should sum it up, I
29:03
could say, what do I say to the
29:05
listeners?
29:06
If you're going to be honest in a
29:08
podcast format, but also preserve the mystery, I
29:12
might phrase it like this.
29:13
With the data that is publicly available, the
29:17
most robust explanation is that the Baltic Sea
29:21
anomaly is a natural formation.
29:23
Hard rock, basalt and ferromanganese shaped and moved
29:27
by ice and sea and made grammatical by
29:30
the sonar's way of drawing image.
29:33
The ocean team's experience, the excitement, the technical
29:37
problem, the feeling of something, not just a
29:40
rock, are just as real as a human
29:43
experiences.
29:45
But that doesn't automatically make them evidence for
29:48
anything unusual or unnatural.
29:52
The alternative theories, the UFO, the prehistoric construction,
29:56
corpse of technology, et cetera, are creative attempt
29:59
to make all the puzzles fit.
30:03
They work well as stories, but stumble when
30:06
held against the laboratory results and known geology.
30:09
So what are we left with?
30:12
An object that is very likely natural, but
30:19
in context of strains that we keep projecting
30:24
stories on it.
30:26
Some experience, especially the electronic anomalies, they deserve
30:31
more systematic investigation if someone ever wants to
30:36
pay for a serious open expedition.
30:38
And a reminder that we still know surprisingly
30:42
little about our own seabeds at the same
30:45
time as we send robots to Mars.
30:49
As a host, I can't tell you what
30:51
to believe.
30:52
I can only draw the line between what
30:54
we can reasonably call facts, what are plausible,
30:57
down-to-earth explanations, and what is pure
31:00
speculation.
31:01
But perhaps still worth dreaming about when
31:03
you're lying looking out over a black Baltic
31:07
night.
31:07
My name is René, and next time you
31:09
see a grainy sonar image online that looks
31:12
like the Millennium Falcon, you are welcome to
31:14
remember one thing.
31:16
It could be a spaceship, it could be
31:17
a rock.
31:18
Or if you want to be really Swedish
31:20
pragmatic, it could be a rock that really,
31:23
really wants to look like a spaceship.
31:26
And the names of the people up there:
31:28
Högeborn, Kortaniemi, Brüchert. I can just say
31:34
they are not made for my Danish tongues.
31:36
But the mysteries they work with, they are
31:39
pretty perfect for it.
31:41
See you next time.