Engavatnet - the mysterious lake
Engavatnet is a natural phenomenon which is unique in the Nordic countries. The lake has in the past caused fear, and still today researchers can't explain the phenomenon. The lake, measuring approx. 600 x 150 meter, is apparently like most other lakes, until it suddenly disappears for then to reappear, a few days- or a few weeks or maybe a few months later, apparently with fish and everything.
Engavatnet is a few kilometres north of Hommelstø between the farms Hegge and Brattås. If you are visiting the area, there is probably nothing that will suggest that there is something out of the ordinary going on here, unless you are lucky enough to witness the disappearing. But most likely you will either find a lake here, or you will find the bottom of a lake.
It is uncertain how long it takes to clear out 100 to 140 million liters of water. There are only a few people who have been watching the last drop of water disappear, but no one has been present during the whole "draining process".
When Engavatnet is gone, you can see a big hole at the bottom where the water has run out. This hole is usually blocked with a plug of clay, stones and branches. Towards the end of the 1800s and early 1900s it is said that farmers tried to close this hole with peat, in an attempt to reinforce the bottom and prevent the water from disappearing.
After an incredibly dry summer in 2009, Engavatnet disappeared completely on August 17. This time the "emptying-process" was very slow. It is uncertain when it began, but it is estimated late June or the beginning of July. In 2009 there were a total of 7 craters at the bottom where the water has been sucked down. Some fish were also left behind in these craters. The lake began to rise again on 31th of August, and it took 11 days until it reached normal water level.
Great interest from the media
There was considerable interest in this phenomena on national TV and other media, and the many footprints on the bottom of the lake gave evidence of many visitors. On the web, Engavatnet was the most watched news coverage in Nordland County in this period.
Research
The
disappearance in 2009 is the best documented so far, with extensive photographic material. Southern-Helgeland Adventures also undertook surveys and registrations from day to day. Professor in geology, Stein-Erik Lauritzen, visited Engavatnet again, and will ensure the quality of further research.
Velfjord has an enormously high concentration of caves, and beneath Engavatnet there could be a cavesystem that stretches for miles and several meter high. Once the groundwater has decreased so much that "plug" falls out, the water rushes down into these underground caves.
There are no houses nearby, so it is likely that Engavatnet have disappeared many times, without it being noticed. Taken into consideration that there were attempts to seal the craters in the 1800s, these disappearances may go far back in time.
Pale fishIn 1997, the water disappeared so quickly that fish was left behind sprawling, and people could pick great catch in buckets.
"Another specialty of Engavatnet is an unusually tenacious fish. The trouts follows the water down into the ground and back again. In the underwater caves the fish feeds on small animals that also comes with the water. Here they become a little skinny and very pale, for nature is oriented so that they lose their camouflage colors and the dots in the dark caves. But they get their natural color back very quickly when they are washed up in the sunlight again. " (From Illustrated Science)
There are many myths about Engavatnet, and not everyone agrees that the fish returns when the lake returns. Some believes that when the water is absent for long periods of time, the fish don't come back, but it is rather fish/eggs in the nearby streams that grows into a new strain of fish.
| Year | Duration |
| 1930 | Unknown |
| 1947 | Unknown |
| 1957 | Unknown |
| 1974 | Unknown |
| 1997 | App. 3 days |
| 2000 | At least two weeks |
| 2002 | Two months |
| 2008 | Almost gone |
| 2009 | 2 weeks. From August 17. to August 31. |
- Engavatnet does not disappear at the same place every time. In 2009, there were a total of 7 craters/drains.
- The water is said to have previously returned in periods with no rain.
- Where do the water go? There is no trace of Engavatnet and 60.000 to 80.000 cubic meters of water
- Pr. September 11, 2009- 14 days after the lake reached normal water level- no observations of fish has been made yet.
1) Some believe that the tunnels in the valley nearby has disturbed the underground cave system, so that Engavatnet is in danger of disappearing for good. Professor of Geology, Stein-Erik Lauritzen, found that after a long dry period, the groundwater level below the lake decreases and leaves hollow spaces. The bottom of mud in Engavatnet dries from below, suddenly it cracks, and the water spills out. When the groundwater level is rising, the water comes back.
(Photo: Jan O. Nielsen from Southern Helgeland Adventures, studying the phenomenon)
2) At the deepest place in the lake there is a kind of valve, and this opens up from time to time, and the water rushes out. After a time, this valve shut and the water fills up again.
3) Engavatnet is in direct connection with the groundwater. Normally, the nature itself provides a plug of mud, branches and rocks, but this plug alone can not hold back all the water. The pressure from the groundwater presses against the plug with such a force that it keeps the plug in place.
In dry periods the groundwater level drops and there is created an airspace below the lake. After awhile the groundwater has dropped so much that the plug falls out, and Engavatnet rushes into the underground. But this is hardly the whole explanation, "says Professor Lauritzen. Because the plug does not fall out every dry period.
(Retrieved from "Engavatnet in Velfjord" by Unni Aas Sandholm 2006)
See more photos/videos from Engavatnet on Norwegian page here.
