Location: Lake Kronotskoye, Kamchatka, Russia

August 1970 Time: afternoon

The massive Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East of Russia separates the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. The largest body of water in the peninsula is Lake Kronotskoye, located within a mountain depression and surrounded by a chain of 16 volcanoes. The highest of these is Kronotskaya, standing at 3,528 meters (over 11,000 feet) above sea level. In 1970, a group of hydrologists were conducting research on this lake from a motor boat. Among them was Valentin Psalomschikov, who was studying at the Leningrad Hydrometeorological Institute. His colleague, Agarkov, was leading the expedition. They were studying the lake, which was known to be over a hundred meters deep. On a calm August day, about 1 kilometer away from where the group was working, they saw a dome of water rise and a gray oval object emerge from it. This object, estimated to be around 40 to 60 meters in size, rose to several hundred meters altitude and hovered silently. The sight left the hydrologists awestruck for about a minute and a half, during which their motor boat’s engine failed, forcing them start rowing. The UFO then moved rapidly and disappeared at high speed. After this, their boat’s engine started working again. Agarkov later reported that two of the four people who witnessed this object died under mysterious circumstances the following year.

HC addendum

Richard Dolan, “A History of USOs, Unidentified Submerged Objects: Volume 2: From 1970 to 1989 (A History of USOs: Unidentified Submerged Objects (p. 71). Kindle Edition. Type: X