Address: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Vadsky district, with. In hell
Depth: 15 m.
Coordinates: 55 ° 32'22.8 "N 44 ° 11'20.9" E
Content:
For a long time, Lake Vadskoye, also known as Vad or Mordovskoye, was a favorite resting place for divers in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Lake Vad is located 30 km from the city of Arzamas, in the village of Vad, Vad district... Along with Lake Svetloyar, the Vadsky reservoir is on the list of natural monuments and remarkable landscapes of Nizhny Novgorod. But unlike Svetloyar, the origin of Vada is not shrouded in secrets - it has been reliably established that Lake Vadskoye is a karst sinkhole. For years, underground waters dissolved gypsum rocks, forming hollows and funnels, and the Vadok River, flowing among karst voids, created underground tunnels.
Lake Wad view
Karst cavities, interconnected by underground channels, were filled with water, and this is how Lake Vadskoye arose. The hypothesis of the interconnection of voids is also confirmed by the fact that when the flow from Lake Vad is dammed, the water level in neighboring, smaller karst reservoirs simultaneously rises. Due to its peculiar hydrological regime, Lake Vadskoye is recognized as unique. The lake is fed by rain, snow waters and rising karst springs. From deep-water caves (voklin) jets of cold groundwater (4-6 ° C) are intensely beating, creating the impression of a convex "lens" over the lake surface.
Due to the powerful underwater currents spreading from the vokline at a distance of up to 20 meters, the water in Lake Vadskoye does not freeze even in winter... In warm winters, the Vadsky reservoir served as a shelter for swans, which happily survived here until spring. As historians believe, the name "Wad" comes from the Mordovian "vat" - "water". In the 19th century, on the southern shore of the lake there was the settlement of Vad, and on the north - the village of Mordovskaya. With the unification of these settlements, the now existing village of Vad was formed, which gave the name to the lake. In the past, Lake Vad was famous for its abundance of fish, and nowadays there is a fish farm "Vadsky" located not far from it, the products of which are in demand in many districts of the Nizhny Novgorod region. In artificial ponds, employees of the SEC "Vadsky" raise carp, pike, trout.
Cave entrance view
Karst caves at the bottom of Lake Vadskoye - a natural wonder of the Nizhny Novgorod region
Over the past 70 years, there have been two voklins in Lake Vadskoye (that is, two karst sinkholes with a source at the bottom). In 1938, the monastery dam was restored, and one of the voklin, overgrown with algae and rare plants, collapsed. In 1967, the earthen dam was replaced by a dam with reinforced concrete sections, and an asphalt road was laid along its crest. As a result of all the reconstructions, Lake Wad acquired a triangular shape typical for a pond with a dam-like base. The only vokline survived, from which the spring beat with such force that the boat rocked on the waves. Sitting in the boat, one could observe an amazing picture: a huge funnel with bizarre mosaic walls covered with blue-green algae and pinkish-dark green plants rising to the surface of the water could be seen through the transparent water at the bottom. The window above the hovering vokline did not freeze even in the most severe frosts, and on hot summer days there was coolness from it. The cave with a non-freezing spring attracted fishermen and divers from the Nizhny Novgorod region and other regions of the Russian Federation. In 2005, a hotel was built on the shores of Lake Vadskoye and a diving center "Vadskoy" was opened... According to scientists, there were only three such caves in freshwater lakes on our planet - in Belgium, in France and in Russia, in the village of Wade. But to date, there are only two caves left on Earth, since in April 2007 a tragedy happened in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The vaults of the cave collapsed, blocking the outlet of the underwater river Vadok at the bottom of the lake. The water in the lake is still clear, but only a narrow gap remains from the karst funnel, through which the underground river makes its way out.
Cave in the lake
Soon after the collapse, a second vokline reopened, littered with debris in the last century. In March 2011, at the site of the first voklina, the water washed away the entrance to the cave, and now it remains to wait for the water to pierce the stone and the grotto opens, but this will take more than a dozen years.
