In fact, Aquarians and Scorpions have a lot in common. Where Scorpio is the Zodiac’s investigator, Aquarius tends to take the detached, bird’s-eye view of the scholar.

Anyways, we digress, let’s get back to mysteries! We recently read a story about the Baltic Sea anomaly and had to share.

In 2011, Swedish divers apparently discovered a curious shape at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The sight sent imaginations running WILD but, as far as we can tell, it’s difficult to know if any of the images of the anomaly that you can find online are real… Regardless, people have spent a LOT of time talking about it. There’s even an episode about it in a kid’s TV show. It seems most likely the Baltic Sea anomaly is a glacial deposit, but that hasn’t stopped speculation that it might be man-made, the remains of a lost civilization, or even a sunken UFO. 

In the age of fake news, misinformation and denialism, it’s more important than ever to be clear about what is fact and what is, well, not. At the end of the day, nobody knows whatever the Baltic sea anomaly is or how it got there but its story might be a helpful conversation starter for upcoming family holiday meals on Zoom!

Almost everyone has heard some version of the story about the lost city of Atlantis. But outside of the philosophy classroom, less is said about the man who wrote it.

That’s right. The legend of Atlantis is actually a fable, a fiction, written by the Greek philosopher Plato, whose work has endured for thousands of years to become synonymous with every story about a lost civilization ever.

Pisces, as a dreamer and an artist, you don’t need us to tell you about the magic words have to create palaces in the mind. While Atlantis may have only ever existed in our imaginations, sunken sites and cities DO exist. In fact, researchers found an underwater Greek city in 2019. Pavlopetri, the 5,000-year-old Mycenaean settlement, may have inspired Plato to imagine Atlantis.

 That’s exactly what happened in 2017, when dozens of curled octopuses crawled up onto the coast of a little seaside town in Wales three nights in a row. Ummmmm....

Locals, who’d never seen anything like this before, found the octopuses 30 feet inland. They used plastic containers they had on hand to return as many of the octopuses to the ocean as they could, but some bodies were still discovered on land the next morning. Theories include the possibility that the octopuses left the ocean in search of shelter—perhaps, as fishermen plucked more of their natural predators out of the sea, the octopus population had grown to the point of overcrowding. There is also the possibility that the octopuses were affected, somehow, by storms Ophelia and Brian, which had recently pummeled the UK coastline. This raises important questions about how an increase in the intensity and frequency of ocean storms, a consequence of climate change fueled by our overconsumption, might affect the behavior of marine wildlife around the world. 

This year, we’ve all been a little like a lost octopus looking for a place to rest (I mean have you seen My Octopus Teacher?!) and we get it, the future has felt harder to predict and protect than in years past. But, as the leaders of the Zodiac, it's important to learn how to forgive yourself. This uncertainty might be taking a toll on you but it’s okay Aries, remember that we're all activists-in-progress.

The Yonaguni Monument is a rock formation off the coast of Yonaguni—an island in Japan—that has attracted scores of free-diving tourists since its discovery in 1986. What’s the big deal? Take a look!! 👇

IMAGE VIA BCC

Some scientists believe the Yonaguni Monument is a natural formation; *possibly* the result of thousands of years of earthquakes creating fractures in the sandstone, which breaks off and disappears into the ocean depths, leaving behind the block formations the Yonaguni Monument is famous for. But there are some other theories about how this underwater structure came to be.

Was it made by human hands? When you explore the rocky plateaus of this ocean mystery, it's easy to imagine yourself diving into the remains of an ancient city, lost to the currents of time.

Taurus, as an earth sign, you are one of the Zodiac’s architects. When people need something done, they come to you because they know you’re reliable and capable of standing up under immense pressure. That is EXACTLY the kind of energy we need as we look to build a better, healthier future—for people and the planet.

This month the sun is hanging out in Scorpio, the investigator of the Zodiac, and we’re celebrating with stories about some of our favorite ocean mysteries and phenomena. Ready to dive in?

Close your eyes and imagine you are on a beach in Denmark where you can feel the sand between your toes, look out at the water and actually see a visible line where the Skaggerak strait and the Kattegat sea crash into one another. Like out of a movie, Grenen Beach marks the point where they meet, the waves of one body of water folding into and over the waves of another, again and again and again...

So, what exactly did you just imagine? Well, these two bodies of water, the Skaggerak and the Kattegat, have a meeting point close to shore. Because of their different salinities they cannot mix!

That means that the dense, salty water of the Kattegat sea can't mix with the lighter water of the Skaggerak strait. A place where two waters meet and where it's possible to stand with your feet in both of them? That’s peak Gemini energy. How awesome is that?!

ExxonMobil was laying pipe at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico in 2001 when the oil company came across something they did not expect:  a two-hundred-year-old sailing ship. 

Marine archaeologists quickly descended on the wreck, determined to uncover the identity of the ship, as well as how it had ended up in the Gulf of Mexico at all. Details of the structure—like the hull made of copper, and evidence that the holes in the metals sheets were nailed by hand—indicated the ship was probably built around 1810. But researchers couldn’t get close enough to identify the wreck. Every time they got close, their equipment failed.

In the end, the only thing they learned conclusively was that the ship had two masts. But, if you ask us, we’d also guess this ship was likely captained by an activist who, even in the afterlife, was fighting against Big Oil’s expansion. In any event, this ship has a private, self-protective nature that creates a sense of mystery—just like you, Cancer.

While the sun hangs out with Scorpio this month, we’re exploring stories about our favorite ocean mysteries to celebrate a sign that always wants to probe deeper. Are you ready to dive into the mystery we’ve selected just for you, Leo?! Let's go.

“Bloop” is the name given to a mysterious, low-frequency sound recorded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1997. Early theories about the origin of “Bloop” revolved around the possibility that it belonged to an animal—an animal louder and, therefore, probably larger than any whale ever recorded. The NOAA seems pretty confident that “Bloop” is an example of the sound created by ice cutting the seabed, but it is still fun to wonder: what if the noise was some other mystery of the deep?

Tracking the source of mysterious ocean sounds has a special place in the hearts of our team at Lonely Whale. Our name was inspired by the true story of 52 Blue, the lonely whale who was first recorded vocalizing in the Pacific Ocean at an unprecedented frequency of 52 hertz over 30 years ago. You can listen to the story of the world’s loneliest whale in episode one of our new podcast series, 52 Hertz.

Just look at that symmetry; a pattern of impressions, seven feet across, so perfect it could have been stamped into the sand! But who made them..? For a long time, nobody knew.

When the mysterious architect was finally revealed, his identity was, perhaps, as astonishing as the circles themselves! It turns out male pufferfish build what look like underwater crop circles to attract mates! They use their fins to sculpt the sand into nests. When a prospective female comes along, he stirs up the sand to show off his hard work and get her attention. If she likes him, she lays her eggs in the middle of the circle.

As one of the hardest working signs, we thought you might appreciate seeing yourself reflected in nature by pufferfish artistry and attention to detail. 🤗

In honor of the sun’s recent transition into Scorpio, we’re taking this month to celebrate some of our favorite ocean mysteries and phenomena. Scorpio’s energy is relentless. It encourages us all to look deeper inside ourselves, and to ask questions about the things we see in the world around us every day that just don’t make sense.

Speaking of which, let's get back to the underwater waterfall!

Deep beneath the Denmark Strait, tucked between Iceland and Greenland, cold water cascades down the side of an undersea ridge. In case you forgot from high school chemistry class, the colder the water, the denser it is! In this bizarre case, cold water from the Nordic Sea sinks below warmer water in the exact same place where the ocean floor drops to 2 miles deep. Known as the Denmark Cataract, the result of cold and warm water mixing is a waterfall roughly 11,500 feet tall.

Mother Nature, in perfect balance. Reminds us of you, Libra.