At all times, swamps have simultaneously frightened and attracted people. It is not surprising that many legends and tales about these mysterious places and their inhabitants have survived to this day.


The ancient Celts considered the swamp to be the gateway of spirits and brought sacrificial gifts to it, and the Khanty and Mansi were sure that the whole world emerged from the swamp slurry. What are swamps? Why are they dangerous and what benefits do they bring to people?

Swamps are areas of land where there is high humidity, high acidity and low soil fertility. They are part of the hydrosphere of our planet and are characterized by the presence of standing or flowing water that comes to the surface from the bowels of the Earth.

Word "swamp" comes from Balto-Slavic languages. The concept is believed to be related to the Lithuanian term baltas, which means "white" . Most wetlands are concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere, although some of the largest wetland landscapes are located in the Amazon and Congo River valleys.

Swamps are natural reservoirs of moisture. Their depths hold over 11.5 thousand cubic kilometers of water, which is 5 times the volume of liquid in all the rivers of the world. The reason for excess moisture lies in the low-lying location of wetlands and the lack of drains for running water.


Due to the peculiarities of the topography, swamps also absorb groundwater, which accumulates in lowlands and, in the appropriate climate, causes waterlogging of the soil.

As swamps develop and expand, the forests on their territory die, and in the place of trees, moisture-loving plants develop that can easily tolerate high humidity. Vegetation types in marshes vary depending on the type of wetland. Thus, in lowland bogs, mainly hygrophyte grasses, such as cinquefoil, reed, and sedge, are common. Sometimes you can find individual species of willow, spruce, and birch here.

In the raised bogs the vegetation is quite sparse, represented mainly by mosses and lichens. Occasionally, dwarf pines manage to develop in such areas. Many swamps are home to valuable berries - cloudberries, cranberries, blueberries, which provide beneficial influence on the human body.

Characteristic feature swamps are the accumulation on their territory of huge remains of moss, which, as it decomposes, is deposited on the surface of the soil and turns into a mineral - peat. According to various estimates, its volumes in the world range from 250 to 500 billion tons.


Peat extracted from swamps is used as fuel, fertilizer in gardening, and thermal insulation material. It is added to livestock feed, used in mud therapy, and is also widely used in the chemical industry.

Depending on the degree of moisture, swamps can be passable or impassable. The latter are considered the most dangerous, as they can lead to death. From time to time, swamps or swamps are found on their territories - bodies of water covered with grass and mosses. If a person ends up in such an area, the quagmire sucks him to the bottom.

Poisonous gases evaporating from swamps pose no less of a threat. In high concentrations they can lead to poisoning and even suffocation. Other dangers of swamps include the presence poisonous snakes, dominance of vileness and poor quality drinking water which can lead to various diseases gastrointestinal tract.

Wetlands provide invaluable benefits both locally and globally. They play an important role in the formation of rivers and act as a natural filter in agroecosystems.


Wetlands can rightfully be called the “lungs” of our planet, since thanks to them the rate of development is significantly reduced greenhouse effect. They largely prevent the decomposition of organic matter and thereby reduce the level of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, which can cause an increase in temperature in the troposphere.

It would seem that everyone understands the question - why does the swamp suck? In fact, this process is not as simple as it seems, and perhaps you will learn something new for yourself.

Firstly, a swamp that sucks in is called a bog. It can only pull in living objects. A bog is formed on the basis of lakes by overgrowing with a green carpet of moss and algae, not in all swamps.

The emergence of a swamp is promoted by 2 reasons: overgrowing of a reservoir or swamping of land. The swamp is characterized by excess moisture and constant deposition of incompletely decomposed organic matter - peat. Not all swamps are capable of sucking in objects, but only those in which a quagmire has formed. A bog is formed on the site of a lake. Lilies, water lilies and reeds on the surface of the lake grow over time into a dense carpet on the surface of the reservoir. At the same time, algae grows at the bottom of the lake. As it forms, a cloud of algae and moss rises from the bottom to the surface. Due to the lack of oxygen, rotting begins and organic waste is formed, dispersing in the water and forming a quagmire.

Now let's move on to the suction process itself...

The quagmire sucks in living objects. This is explained by its physical properties. The quagmire belongs to the class of Bingham fluids, physically described by the Bingham-Shvedov equation. When an object with a small weight hits the surface, they behave like solid bodies, so the object will not sink. When an object has enough heavy weight, he is drowning.

There are 2 types of immersion: underimmersion and overimmersion. The behavior of a body caught in a liquid is governed by the relationship between the influence of gravity and the buoyant force of Archimedes. The body will sink into the quagmire until Archimedes' force equals its weight. If the buoyant force less weight, then the object will be underloaded; if more, then the object will be overloaded.

Why are only living objects subject to overload? This is because such objects are constantly moving. What if you freeze? Will the dive stop? Alas, this will only slow down the immersion, because living body always moves because it breathes. Inanimate objects remain motionless, so they are not completely immersed. Over-immersion into a quagmire is the suction of the swamp. Why does body movement accelerate immersion? Any movement is the application of force, increasing the pressure on the support. It is caused by the weight of the object and the force of gravity. Sudden movements are the cause of the formation of areas under the body low blood pressure. These areas will cause an increase in atmospheric pressure on the living object, further submerging it.

Therefore, the physical definition of the word “swamp suction” looks like this: a Bingham fluid (swamp) tries to transfer a living object caught in it to a level below the normal immersion at which the Archimedes force less body. The absorption process is irreversible. A drowned body will not float up even after the cessation of vital activity.

In addition to theoretical interest, the study physical processes, occurring in the swamp, has a practical significance: many people die in swamps who could have survived if they had been better aware of the insidious properties of the quagmire. And these properties are really very insidious. The quagmire is like a predator. She reacts differently to living and inanimate objects: does not touch the dead, but sucks in everything living. This property of the bog deserves special attention and will be of primary interest to us. First, let's describe it in more detail.

To a first approximation, a quagmire can be considered a liquid. Therefore, the Archimedean buoyant force must act on the bodies caught in it. This is true, and objects even of great density, exceeding the density of the human body, do not sink in a quagmire. But as soon as a person or other living creature gets into it, they will be “sucked in,” that is, they will be completely immersed in the quagmire, although their density is less than the density of objects that do not sink in the quagmire.

The question arises: why does the quagmire behave in such an unexpected way? How does it distinguish living objects from nonliving ones?

To answer these questions, we will have to take a closer look at physical properties bogs.

On the floating of bodies in Newtonian fluids

Let's consider how a body floats in Newtonian fluids, for example in water. Let us bring a body whose density is less than its density to the surface of the water and release it. After some time, a state of equilibrium will be established: the body will be immersed to a level at which the Archimedean buoyant force is exactly equal to the weight of the body. This state of equilibrium is stable - if the body is acted upon external force and sink it deeper (or vice versa, lift it up), then after the force stops it will return to its previous position. The level of immersion at which the Archimedean force is equal to the weight will be called the level of normal immersion.

Please note that the level of normal immersion is determined only by the density ratio and does not depend on the viscosity of the liquid. If the bog were just a Newtonian fluid with high viscosity, it would not be very dangerous. With reasonable behavior one could stay on its surface for quite a long time. Remember how tired swimmers behave if they want to relax right in the water? They roll over onto their backs, spread their arms and lie motionless as long as they want. Since the density of water is less than the density of the bog, then in the same way it would be possible to lie on the surface of the bog for a long time, and the viscosity would not particularly interfere with this. You could take your time to think about the situation, make the best decision, try to row carefully with your hands, trying to get to a solid place (this is where the viscosity would be a hindrance), and finally, just wait for help. The buoyant force would reliably hold a person on the surface of the swamp: if, as a result of careless movement, a person would sink below the level of normal immersion, the Archimedean force would still push him back.

Unfortunately, the reality is much worse. A person caught in a quagmire has no time to think, much less to wait. The quagmire is a non-Newtonian fluid and its Bingham properties radically change the situation.

On the floating of bodies in Bingham fluids

Let's bring the body to the surface of the Bingham fluid and lower it. If the body is light enough and the pressure it exerts is small, then it may happen that the stresses arising in the liquid will be less than the yield threshold and the liquid will behave like a solid body. That is, an object can stand on the surface of a liquid and not submerge.

On the one hand, this seems to be good. It is thanks to this property that all-terrain vehicles with low ground pressure can easily overcome swamps that are impassable for humans. And a person, with the help of special “swamp skis” or wet shoes, can reduce the pressure on the soil and feel relatively safe in the swamp. But there is another side to this phenomenon. The very fact that the immersion of the body stops in the presence of inequality of weight and Archimedean force is alarming - everything is not happening as usual. Let's imagine that the weight of our body is large enough and it will begin to sink. How long will this immersion last? It is clear that it is not until the Archimedean force becomes equal to the weight. When the body is immersed, the Archimedean force will partially compensate for the weight, the pressure on the soil will decrease, and a moment will come when the stresses will again become less than. In this case, the Bingham fluid will stop flowing and the body will stop before the Archimedean force becomes equal to the weight. This state, when the Archimedean force is less than the weight, but the body does not sink further, is called the state of underimmersion (see Fig.a).

And now - the most important thing. If states of underimmersion are possible in a liquid, then for the same reasons states of overimmersion are also possible, in which the Archimedean force more weight, but the body does not float up (Fig. c). Remember what happened to Newtonian fluid? If, as a result of any actions, a person fell below the level of normal immersion, then the Archimedean force became greater than the weight and returned it back. In a Bingham liquid, nothing similar (at sufficiently large m0) occurs. Having immersed yourself as a result of some careless actions, you will no longer float back up, but will be in an overloaded state. The process of “drowning” in the quagmire turns out to be irreversible. Now you can give more exact meaning the word "suction". It means the desire of the quagmire to drown living objects below the level of normal immersion - into an overloaded state.

There is very little left for us to figure out why the swamp bog sucks in, that is, drags only living objects into an overloaded state.

Causes of overload

Living objects are overloaded because, once in a quagmire, they move, that is, they change the relative position of parts of their body. This leads to overload for four reasons.

Reason one. Imagine that you have a heavy load in your hands and you begin to lift it. To impart upward acceleration to it, you must act on it with a force greater than the weight of this body. According to Newton's third law, the force exerted on your hands by the load will also be greater than its weight. Therefore, the force with which your legs press on the support will increase. If you are standing in a quagmire, trying to lift the load you are holding in your hands will cause your legs to sink deeper into the quagmire.

What if there is no load in your hands? This does not change the fundamental aspect of the matter - the hand has mass, and therefore is itself a load. If you are at a normal dive level, simply raising your arm will cause you to overdive. In this case, the overload will be very small, but it will be irreversible, and repeated movements can lead to overload by a large amount.

Reason two. The quagmire has a high stickiness and in order to tear off, for example, a hand from the surface of the quagmire, you need to apply force. In this case, the pressure on the support increases and overload will occur.

Reason three. A quagmire is a viscous medium and resists objects moving in it. If you try to pull out a stuck hand, then as you move it you will have to overcome viscous forces, and the pressure on the support increases. Overload will occur again.

Reason four. Everyone knows well that when you pull your foot out of the mud, a characteristic squelching sound is heard - this is atmospheric air filling the trace left by the foot. Why do you think such a sound is not heard when pulling a leg out of the water? The answer is quite obvious - water has low viscosity, flows quickly and manages to fill the space under the upward moving leg. Mud has a much higher viscosity and the forces that prevent the movement of some layers relative to others are greater for it. Therefore, the dirt flows slowly and does not have time to fill the space under the foot. A “void” is formed there - an area of ​​​​low pressure not occupied by soil. When you pull your foot out of the mud, this area communicates with the atmosphere, air rushes into it and as a result, the very sound that we talked about earlier is heard.

Thus, the presence of a squelching sound indicates that when trying to free a leg stuck in mud, one has to overcome not only the forces caused by stickiness and viscosity, but also the forces associated with atmospheric pressure.

With sudden movements of a person caught in a quagmire, areas of low pressure will appear under the parts of the body moving in the quagmire, and Atmosphere pressure will press down on a person with great force, pushing him into an overloaded state.

The combined action of all four causes leads to the following effect: a change in the shape of a body caught in a quagmire leads to its overload.

Now much has become clear. When inanimate bodies fall into a quagmire, they do not change their shape and there are no reasons for their overload. Such bodies are not sucked into the quagmire; once they get into the quagmire, they will remain in a state of undersubmergence. And living beings, having found themselves in a quagmire, begin to fight for their lives, flounder, which immediately leads to their overload. This is “suction”. The answer to the question posed at the very beginning has been received. However, this is not enough. How can one still be saved, how can one use the results of this examination to develop practical recommendations for those who find themselves in a quagmire.

Alas, much less can be done in this direction than we would like. If we do not consider fantastic and semi-fatastic projects (“instantly inflating balloon, pulling a person out of a bog,” “a substance that causes the swamp to harden,” etc.), then the situation looks bleak.

How can you get out of the quagmire?

The main rule that everyone needs to know is not to make any sudden movements when in a swamp. If you are slowly sucked into the swamp, there is every chance of escape. Firstly, when you find yourself in a swampy area, you need to get a stick, preferably one that is wide and strong, that is, a real block. This stick can be your salvation, so you need to choose it carefully, and not take the first twig that comes to hand. If you find yourself in a swamp, sliding off a hummock, then you will most likely be quickly sucked in, since by inertia you will continue to move, thereby helping the quagmire, so it is better to fall on your stomach or back, as you will be sucked in much more slowly.

If you don’t go under water too quickly and you have a stick, then you should carefully place it in front of you, well, if the nearest stronghold is no more than half a meter, then the end of the stick will fall to the ground and it will be easier for you to get out. But even if the stick lies completely in the swamp, you need to grab onto it and try to transfer your center of gravity to this stick, this way you will have some kind of bridge and you can get out onto land or wait for help without risking completely sinking into the mud.

If you have absolutely nothing at hand that could serve as leverage, try to take a horizontal position. Do this as carefully as possible, carefully moving your center of gravity from your legs to your torso; if you manage to do this, your body weight will decrease significantly and you will no longer be pulled into the swamp. In this position you can wait for help. But while in a swamp, under no circumstances should you make sudden movements, wave your arms or try to jerk your legs, as this will cause you to be sucked even further into the abyss.

Those in this position cannot even shout loudly, calling for help, much less swing their free limbs. If the top of your body is still free, then you need to take off your jacket or raincoat and throw it on the surface of the swamp, you can also get out along it, it will not allow the swamp to suck you in.

If it gets sucked into a swamp very quickly, then only an outsider can help; he must throw a rope or a stick so that the person caught in the swamp can get out onto a solid surface. Sometimes, in order to pull one person out of the swamp, it takes at least three people on land, since the suction force of the swamp is very high. It should also be remembered that if a person is pulled out of a swamp, then under no circumstances should he be released to take a break; a slightly released person will immediately go into the quagmire, receiving additional energy from the land during repulsion. The rescue operation must proceed actively and without delay. Then success will be guaranteed.

What else can the swamps tell us?

There is such a thing as peat tanning - a peculiar condition of a corpse that occurs when a corpse gets into peat bogs and soils containing humic acids. Peat “tanning” can also be called one of the types of natural preservation of a dead body. A corpse that is in a state of peat “tanning” has dense dark brown skin, as if tanned. Internal organs decrease in volume. Under the influence of humic acids, mineral salts in the bones dissolve and are completely washed out of the corpse. Bones in this state resemble cartilage in consistency. Corpses in peat bogs are well preserved indefinitely, and by examining them, forensic doctors can determine injuries received during life. Although such cases are quite rare, sometimes finds in peat bogs can present various surprises to researchers.

There are terrible swamps on our planet, famous for their creepy, but historically priceless finds. It's about about the “human organ swamps” of Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Probably the most famous of the bog mummies is the Tollund Man, whom two brothers, peat collectors, stumbled upon in May 1950 near the village of Tollund in Denmark.

They were cutting peat into briquettes when they suddenly saw a face looking straight at them and, thinking that it was the victim of a recent murder, immediately contacted the local police.

Radiocarbon dating of Tollund Man's hair soon showed that he died around 350 BC. e.

Another ancient Dane with perfectly preserved hair was found in 1952 in a swamp near the town of Groboll. Judging by the cut throat, the poor fellow was killed and the corpse was thrown into the swamp.

Well, the severed skull of the so-called man from Osterby, found in a swamp in the area of ​​the German village of the same name, gives an idea of ​​what kind of hairstyles were worn by elderly men in the ancient Germanic tribes that lived on the territory of Germany in the first millennium BC. This hairstyle is called a “Swabian knot”. The deceased's hair was originally gray, but became red due to oxidation in the dark peat abyss.

acid water, low temperature, lack of oxygen are all necessary conditions for preservation. Internal organs, hairline, the skin is so perfectly preserved that you can use it to accurately determine what hairstyle a person wore, what he ate before death, and even what he was wearing 2000-2500 years ago.

On this moment About 2,000 swamp people are known. Of these, the most famous are the Man from Tollund, the Woman from Boathouse, the Girl from Ide, the Bogbody from Windeby and the Man from Lindow.

According to radiocarbon dating, the age of most swamp people is 2000-2500 years, but there are also much older finds.

Thus, the woman from Kölbjerg died about 10,000 years ago during the era of the Maglemose archaeological culture.

Some bodies retained clothing or fragments of it, which made it possible to supplement the data on the historical costume of those years. The best-preserved items are: a leather peaked cap of a man from Tollund; a woolen dress discovered near the burial site of a woman from Hüldremose; woolen windings from legs separated from the body from a bog in Denmark.

In addition, thanks to finds on the heads of which hair was preserved, it was possible to reconstruct the hairstyles of the ancients. Thus, a man from Clonykavan styled his hair using a mixture of resin and vegetable oil, and the hair on the skull of the man from Osterby was laid over the right temple and tied with the so-called “Swabian knot”, which confirmed the hairstyles of the Sueves described by Tacitus.

The Windeby bog body (German: Moorleiche von Windeby) is the name given to the well-preserved body of a teenager discovered in a peat bog in northern Germany.

The body was found in 1952 by workers working in peat mining near the village of Windeby in Schleswig-Holstein. Scientists were notified of the discovery, who removed the corpse from the bog and began research.

Using spore-pollen analysis, it was established that the teenager died in the Iron Age at the age of 14 years. In 2002, using radiocarbon dating, the time of his death was more precisely dated - between 41 and 118 AD. e. X-rays showed the presence of defects on the bones of the lower leg (Harris lines), which indicates wasting and, as a consequence, impaired growth. Accordingly, death could have occurred from hunger.

No matter how smooth and bright it may seem to you, go around it to distant lands

The swamp is a scary place. It is extremely difficult to get out of its quagmire on your own, and help does not always arrive and not so quickly. Just the other day in France, in the province of Champagne, a car that was stolen 38 years ago was discovered in a dried-out swamp, and then in a neighboring town they found the owner of the car, who was very surprised by the find.

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The most dangerous

The most fraught with consequences is falling into bogs; terrible stories have been told about them since ancient times. They are the ones who “suck in” people and large animals. Bogs emerge from lakes where growing water lilies and reeds gradually form an even layer on the surface. Mosses and other plants rise from the bottom, smoldering and rotting due to lack of oxygen. Smoldering moss and plants constitute a swamp bog that sucks in a traveler who involuntarily wanders into it. The water in swamps can be fresh, brackish or sea.


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The main thing is not to fuss

A boggy swamp does not suck in everything that gets into it, since it is a Bingham liquid (these also include varnishes, resins, paint): when a body with a small weight, for example, a stick, hits the surface, the swamp will behave like solid matter - and the stick will sink will not be.

A person or animal that has a lot of weight begins to drown due to overload - a force pushing out of the swamp (force Archimedes) more than a person’s weight, so the quagmire begins to suck. Plus, a person breathes, sometimes moves, that is, he applies force, and the application of force means pressure on the support, and pressure on the support means further immersion.


Still from the film “The Hound of the Baskervilles”

Fleeing, as we usually do when encountering something terrible, will not work, since every movement we make in the swamp leads to greater immersion into it.


Do not make sudden movements;

Look around and try to find a stick or board lying on the surface of the bog - it can be used as a support that will protect you from being sucked in;

Move towards the chosen support very slowly;

Try to move your legs slightly while moving towards the support;

If there is no support, then very slowly try to take a horizontal position.

By the way: There is a concept called “swamp people”. This is the state of a human corpse that undergoes natural preservation when placed in a peat bog. The term “tanning” is also used for this concept. The most famous “swamp man” is the Tollund man, whose body was found in 1950 in the village of Tollund in Denmark by two brothers. As the examination showed, the swamp sucked a man in 350 BC.


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The largest in the world

On the territory of the Vasyugan Plain in Western Siberia there are the largest swamps in the world - the Vasyugan swamps. Animals and birds there are not afraid of people simply because they have never met them. The area of ​​the swamp is 20% larger than the area of ​​Switzerland and amounts to 53 thousand square meters. km. There are up to 800 lakes within the swamps. Rivers and tributaries originate from here. Over 2% of the world's peat can be found right here - in the Vasyugan swamps.


Vadim Andrianov / wikimedia

Swamp in South Sudan in the dry season it is only 14 million acres. When the rainy season arrives, its area becomes equal to half the area of ​​France. At this moment, half of the total volume of the White Nile (one of the two main tributaries of the Nile) is concentrated in this swamp.


The name of the Pantanal swamp in southern Brazil comes from the Portuguese "pântano" - "swamp". During rains, the area of ​​the swamp becomes more than 100 thousand square meters. m. From December to May, 80% of the swamp area is flooded and is almost 10 times its size national park Everglades in Florida. Interestingly, the Pantanal swamp appears in computer game Civilization series in 2016.

The word "swamp" has ancient Balto-Slavic origins. This root is found in all ancient and modern Baltic Slavic languages. It is no coincidence that the marshy area between Belarusian Polesie and the Baltic Sea is considered the ancestral home of the Slavs. The name Baltika itself is also derived from this root. In Slavic languages ​​with full consonance (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, etc.) it sounds like a swamp, in other Slavic and Baltic languages, including in Old Church Slavonic as “blato”, “balto”. It is noteworthy that as a result of long linguistic contacts of the Slavs with the East Roman population, the word balte/baltă “swamp” entered the Romanian and Moldavian languages, including place names. Along with them, other vocabulary related to water was also borrowed (lúncă, zăvoi, smârc “swamp” from the word “dusk”, island/ostrov, lotke/lótcă, etc.).

Swamp formation

swampy lake

Swamps arise in two main ways: due to waterlogging of the soil or due to overgrowing of water bodies. Waterlogging can occur due to human causes, for example during the construction of dams and dams for ponds and reservoirs. Waterlogging is sometimes caused by the activity of beavers.

A prerequisite for the formation of swamps is constant excess moisture. One of the reasons for excess moisture and the formation of a swamp is the peculiarities of the relief - the presence of lowlands where precipitation and groundwater flow; in flat areas there is a lack of drainage - all these conditions lead to the formation of peat.

The role of swamps

Wetlands play an important role in the formation of rivers.

Swamps prevent the development of the greenhouse effect. They, no less than forests, can be called “the lungs of the planet.” The fact is that the reaction of the formation of organic substances from carbon dioxide and water during photosynthesis, in its overall equation, is opposite to the reaction of oxidation of organic substances during respiration, and therefore, during the decomposition of organic matter, carbon dioxide, previously bound by plants, is released back into the atmosphere (mainly due to respiration of bacteria). One of the main processes that can reduce the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere is the burial of undecomposed organic matter, which occurs in swamps that form peat deposits, which are then transformed into coal. (Other similar processes are the deposition of carbonates (CaCO 3) at the bottom of reservoirs and chemical reactions occurring in the earth’s crust and mantle). Therefore, the practice of draining swamps, carried out in XIX-XX centuries, from an environmental point of view, destructive.

On the other hand, swamps are one of the sources of bacterial methane (one of the greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere. In the near future, an increase in the volume of swamp methane in the atmosphere is expected due to the melting of swamps in the permafrost region.

Swamps are natural water filters and orderlies for agroecosystems.

Peat is used in medicine (mud therapy), as fuel, fertilizer in agriculture, feed for farm animals, raw materials for the chemical industry.

Peat bogs serve as a source of finds for paleobiology and archeology - well-preserved plant remains, pollen, seeds, and bodies of ancient people are found in them.

For the latter, swamp ore was a source for the manufacture of iron products.

Previously, the swamp was considered a disastrous place for humans. Cattle that strayed from the herd died in the swamps. Because of the bites malaria mosquitoes Entire villages died out. The vegetation in the swamps is sparse: light green moss, small wild rosemary shrubs, sedge, heather. The trees in the swamps are stunted. Gnarled lonely pines, birches and alder thickets.

People sought to drain the “dead places” and use the land for fields and pastures.

Classification of swamps

Vegetation

Nikolai Yakovlevich Kats divides the raised bogs of Central Russia by type of vegetation:

Related terms

Illustrations

Animals of temperate swamps

  • European marsh turtle ( Emys orbicularis).
  • Various types of toads, frogs.
  • Mosquitoes, ticks and other insects.
  • Moose, raccoons, otters, minks, muskrats.
  • Birds (cranes, partridges, herons, waders, lapwings, ducks, moorhens, etc.)

Swamp plants

  • Cowberry
  • Cranberry grows in raised and transitional bogs.
  • Cloudberry, grows in peat bogs.
  • Sundew, due to lack minerals in the soil it passively catches insects.
  • Swamp cypress, common in North America and acclimatized in the Danube Delta.

Protection of swamps, specially protected natural areas (SPNA)

The following organizations are involved in the problem of wetland conservation:

Botanical natural monuments

  • The Big Tavatuy swamp, Malinovskoye, Kukushkinskoye are located next to Lake Tavatuy.
  • Sestroretsk swamp - specially protected natural area(SPNA).
  • Mshinskoe swamp is a state nature reserve of federal subordination.
  • Staroselsky moss is a state complex reserve of regional significance.
  • The Vasyugan swamps are one of the largest swamps in the world. The area of ​​the swamps is 53 thousand km² (for comparison: the area of ​​Switzerland is 41 thousand km².

Properties of swamps

Glows in the swamps

In warm weather dark nights in the swamps there is a glow of pale bluish, faintly flickering lights, tracing a complex trajectory. Their occurrence is explained by the spontaneous combustion of methane (swamp gas) released from the swamp, the light of rotten plants (rotting plants), phosphorescent organisms, radioactive mineral deposits, and other reasons.

Attempts to imitate the typical characteristics of will-o'-the-wisps by creating artificial swamps and igniting the released methane have failed. There is a version that these will-o-the-wisps are the result of the interaction of hydrogen phosphide and methane. 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.

There is also a belief that the glow in the swamps is caused by certain entities (dead people, swamp spirits).

Mummifying effect of swamps

The swamp is 90% water with a high content of peat acids (decomposed plant matter). Such an environment slows down the growth of bacteria, which is why bodies of organic origin that drown in the swamp are not destroyed. The presence of acids in the swamp, combined with low water temperatures and a lack of oxygen, has a tanning effect on the skin, which explains the dark brown color of the bodies found, thus, due to the lack of oxygen and the antibacterial properties of sphagnum, which is a powerful preservative, the bodies are perfectly preserved.

Over the past 300 years, well-preserved human bodies have been discovered in abandoned peat bogs in Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. Most of these mummies date back to the 1st century. BC e. - IV century n. e.

One of the most famous mummies is the Man of Tollund.

Swamp in cultural images (in cinema, literature, mythology, folklore)

Mythology

In the mythology of many cultures, a swamp is associated with a bad, disastrous, unclean place.

According to East Slavic mythology, a marsh man lives in the swamps, who can lead a traveler astray.

Since ancient times, people have been frightened by the night glow in the swamps. Due to the characteristic location of the lights - at the height of a human hand - they are called “dead man’s candles”. It is believed that whoever 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 land from their neighbors - as punishment, their souls wander through the swamps in search of solid ground. 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.

According to English beliefs, these so-called will-o'-the-wisps try to lure a person into a swamp or other dangerous place. This element of folklore is well illustrated in the film The Lord of the Rings when the hobbits walk through the moors.

In one of the myths about the creation of the world, swamps arose from a devil spit out of the mouth, hidden from the God of the earth.

Poetry

The mysterious beauty of swamps is sung by Alexander Blok in the poems “Love this eternity of swamps...”, “A swamp is a deep depression of the huge eye of the earth...”, “Swamp priest”, “ White horse steps slightly with a tired foot..." and others (cycle "Bubbles of the Earth", 1904-05)

see also

  • World Wetlands Day (2 February)

Notes

  1. Blinova K. F. et al. Botanical-pharmacognostic dictionary: Reference. allowance / Ed. K. F. Blinova, G. P. Yakovleva. - M.: Higher. school, 1990. - P. 33. - ISBN 5-06-000085-0
  2. Vyacheslav Shtepa. What secrets do the swamps hide? (Russian) . Ufolog.ru - Educational magazine about the unknown and unusual. Ufolog.ru(July 11, 2008). Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved April 3, 2011.
  3. Miracles in the swamp
  4. Definition: balta | DEX online
  5. Vasmer's Dictionary
  6. Innovation for business. The use of peat in feeding pigs
  7. Geographical encyclopedic dictionary / Ch. editor A.F. Treshnikov. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia, 1988. - 432 p. - 100,000 copies.
  8. Four-language encyclopedic dictionary of terms in physical geography / Compiled by I.S. Shchukin. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1980. - 703 p. - 55,000 copies.
  9. "Swamp as an ecosystem"
  10. Kats N.Ya.
  11. http://www.wetlands.ru/
  12. International World Conservation Group
  13. Shlionskaya Irina_Encyclopedia evil spirits. - Geleos Publishing House, 2006. - 320 pp. Circulation 5000 ISBN 5-8189-0527-6, ISBN 978-5-8189-0527-3 pp.
  14. Horrors of the Swamps @ National Geographic - Russia
  15. Bog bodies of northern Europe "Myrta Reading Room
  16. Gazeta 2.0 - The largest swamp on the globe
  17. 7dnei.com
  18. The Great Vasyugan Swamp - natural attractions of Russia
  19. Great Vasyugan swamp
  20. Wonders of Russia: Vasyugan swamp
  21. Tolstoy N.I., Agapkina T.A. Slavic antiquities: ethnolinguistic dictionary. In 5 volumes (T.1). - International relationships, 1995. - 577 p., ISBN 5-7133-0703-4, ISBN 978-5-7133-0703-5 p.
  22. Min-min lights
  23. Grushko Elena_Dictionary of Russian superstitions, spells, signs and beliefs. - Russian merchant, 1996. - 559 c ISBN 5-88204-047-7, ISBN 978-5-88204-047-4 p.

Literature

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  • Boch Marina Sergeevna, Mazing Viktor Viktorovich Ecosystems of marshes of the USSR. - Science, Leningrad branch, 1979. - 186 p.
  • Vasyugan swamp (natural conditions, structure and functioning) (edited by L. I. Inisheva). - Tomsk: CNTI, 2000. - 136 p.
  • Wetlands European Russia- guidebook (compiled by E. Yu. Pogozhev). - 2008.
  • Wetlands of Russia. Volume 1. Wetlands of international importance (under the general editorship of V. G. Krivenko). - M., Publisher: Wetlands International Publication No. 49. - 1998. - 256 pp., ISBN 1-900442-16-7
  • Wetlands of Russia. Volume 2. Valuable swamps (under the general editorship of M. S. Boch). - Publisher: Wetlands International Publication No. 49. - 1999. - 88 pp., ISBN 1-900442-17-5
  • Wetlands of Russia. Volume 3. Wetlands included in the Perspective List of the Ramsar Convention (under the general editorship of V. G. Krivenko). - Publisher: Wetlands International Publication No. 49. - 2000. - 490 pp., ISBN 90-5882-003-3
  • Wetlands of Russia. Volume 4. Wetlands of North-East Russia
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The largest swamp in the world is Bolshoye Vasyuganskoe, which is located in the center of the Siberian Federal District and has an area of ​​53 thousand square kilometers. The size of the Siberian giant is 21% larger than the area of ​​Switzerland and stretches for 570 and 320 kilometers from west to east and from north to south, respectively.

Research by scientists has shown that the Vasyugan swamp arose more than 10,000 years ago and still continues to grow, taking over the surrounding lands like deserts.

Huge areas of the Vasyugan swamp are located on the territory of the Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions, between largest rivers Siberia - Irtysh and Ob. There are about 800 lakes, as well as many streams and rivers. Cloudberries, cranberries and blueberries grow in the completely deserted spaces of the unique swamp, where you can also find rare and endangered life forms - partridge, reindeer, otter, mink, wolverine and so on. In addition, in the depths of the Vasyugan giant there is a colossal amount of peat - almost 2% of all its world reserves.

The benefits of the Vasyugan phenomenon

The Vasyugan swamp is not only unique natural phenomenon– it also brings invaluable benefits environment. Its most important function is considered to be the purification of the atmosphere, which is performed by this giant natural filter. Toxic substances are absorbed by bog peat, which sequesters carbon and thus prevents the development of the greenhouse effect.

Thanks to its phenomenal characteristics, the Vasyugan swamp saturates the air with oxygen and is an environmentally safe place.

In addition, the record-breaking bog is also of economic interest - the number of proven peat reserves in it is more than one billion tons. However, with the development of the mining industry, animals and vegetable world swamps were under serious threat. The Vasyugan swamp is also polluted by the second stages of Baikonur launch vehicles, which are dumped into this area and disrupt the ecology of the territory with rocket fuel components.

Today, through the efforts of the administration of the Tomsk region, the unique swamp has been declared, and in the future they plan to assign it the status of an object that is part of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.