What happened
Labynkyr is a deep lake in the Oymyakon area of eastern Yakutia, one of the coldest inhabited places on Earth; in winter the air temperature here falls to minus 60 degrees, yet the lake does not freeze to the bottom. Local reindeer herders told of a “devil” living in its waters and in nearby Lake Vorota. In 1953, geologist Viktor Tverdokhlebov, working on the Sordonnokh Plateau, described in his notes a large, dark animal observed in the water and considered what it might be. His account reached the Soviet popular-science press and attracted further searchers. Researchers used echo sounders, and in March 2013 divers from the Russian Geographical Society went under the ice and reached the bottom of the lake.
Witnesses
Viktor Tverdokhlebov, a Soviet geologist, together with a fellow expedition member; the legend also rests on stories told by local herders.
Explanations and hypotheses
Tverdokhlebov wrote that various possibilities had been considered – from a giant pike to a relict reptile or amphibian – and that none could be either confirmed or ruled out. Skeptics point to swimming moose or reindeer, large fish and illusions on the vast expanse of water. Echo sounders detected individual large echoes in the depths, but the divers saw only fish. Geologist Sergei Karpukhin, who spent 35 days at the lake, emphasized that its food-poor water could not sustain a population of large animals.
Unexplained There is no convincing explanation.
More: Wikipedia (en)