USO - Norwegian Worm Monster

What I've been too lazy to do so far is to transfer this motion to a map and figure out the speeds involved. I don't believe a swimming moose would be fast enough.
OK, you have just made me Google "How fast can a moose swim?" Never thought

We also know moose are incredible swimmers, at least as hoofed animals go. They are capable of hitting speeds of at least six miles per hour. That sounds like no more than a jogging speed for humans, but most humans can only swim two miles per hour. High School swimmers hit three to four miles per hour. Olympic swimmers win medals above five miles per hour. So moose are pretty fast swimmers.
https://www.tetonscience.org/can-moose-really-dive/

Elsewhere in the article it confirms that moose can dive, though they have to work at submerging due to various moose-boyancy factors that might derail the thread into duscussions of moose density, so I will omit them.
 
My second thought (after what dismal resolution it is, even for 2012)
was that the clip had been up for over 9 years, and yet there were only 130
comments. So, while it's difficult to pin down, it doesn't appear that many
people thought it was anything extraordinary.
While indeed it might not be extraordinary, it is of course very nagging that we don't know what it is that was filmed (yet).

Swimming moose, it sounds fun but I don't think this is it, as we should have seen the huge moose in the churning waters too, right?
Also these lakes are ridiculously shallow.
 
If it were clearer, I'd probably find it intriguing...but it's just far too unclear for me to hazard a serious guess.




p.s.: As an outdoorsman, I've seen virtually every animal swim...

deer, black bears, moose, grizzlies, coyotes, bison, elk, bighorn sheep, etc.

Zero chance that's a moose.


ETA: Just google "moose swimming" and hit "video" They--like most animals--move pretty gracefully, barely disturbing the water.
 
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Made this gif online, with the most clear part of the video (end bit). It reminds me that we are looking at something small.

 
Made this gif online, with the most clear part of the video (end bit). It reminds me that we are looking at something small.


Remember that in the zoomed-out 360p shot, each pixel represents about 1m horizontally and 3m vertically.
 
Remember that in the zoomed-out 360p shot, each pixel represents about 1m horizontally and 3m vertically.
Ah, I overlooked your findings in #27..
Hmm, based on that scale, it looks the "churning event" in my gif above (so not the whole event or full video) takes place in an area of about ±30 meters. I cannot really quantify how large it really is, but I see it might not be as small as I initially thought.

I tried to use the scale from google maps, as indicate it below, but fairly huge uncertainty.. The red oval is the area in the gif.

norge.jpg
 
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While indeed it might not be extraordinary, it is of course very nagging that we don't know what it is that was filmed (yet).

Swimming moose, it sounds fun but I don't think this is it, as we should have seen the huge moose in the churning waters too, right?
Also these lakes are ridiculously shallow.
How deep or shallow is ‘ridiculously shallow’? I don’t think we know the depth of the lake, do we? At 200m from the shore, that could be quite deep. Certainly enough for a swimming mammal. A moose height to shoulder level can be between 1.7 and 2.1m. For example one of the smallest lakes in the Lake District, UK, Coniston Water has maximum depth of 56m.

from Wikipedia for the European Elk:

Finland, Sweden, Norway, Latvia, Estonia and Russia. No longer present in central and western Europe except for Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, with a certain population in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and northern Ukraine, including Bohemia since the 1970s; recently sighted in eastern Germany (the range formerly included France, Switzerland and the Benelux nations). Population increasing and regaining territory. Males weigh about 320 to 475 kg (705 to 1,047 lb) and females weigh 275 to 375 kg (606 to 827 lb) in this mid-sized subspecies. Shoulder height ranges from 1.7 to 2.1 m (5 ft 7 in to 6 ft 11 in)

Agreed though it’s unlikely Elk.

I think @deirdre may have nailed it. It could be floating ice, out of focus and with poor resolution, with the sun enhancing the bobbing movement. We can see from the OP video, there is plenty of floating ice around and the commentator already mentioned something seen sub-surface, so that fits submerged ice occasionally topping. When it disappears and re-emerges, that could be different sections of ice. The information we don’t have is wind direction and strength of wind to create surface movement. We also do not know if there are any natural currents from the various sources around the lake. It looks almost still or dead calm on the surface, but with a resolution as poor as that, it would struggle to pick up a tsunami!.......

it should be easy as the location and options are really limited, but the quality of the video has us all guessing.
 
How deep or shallow is ‘ridiculously shallow’? I don’t think we know the depth of the lake, do we? At 200m from the shore, that could be quite deep. Certainly enough for a swimming mammal. A moose height to shoulder level can be between 1.7 and 2.1m. For example one of the smallest lakes in the Lake District, UK, Coniston Water has maximum depth of 56m.

from Wikipedia for the European Elk:

Finland, Sweden, Norway, Latvia, Estonia and Russia. No longer present in central and western Europe except for Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, with a certain population in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and northern Ukraine, including Bohemia since the 1970s; recently sighted in eastern Germany (the range formerly included France, Switzerland and the Benelux nations). Population increasing and regaining territory. Males weigh about 320 to 475 kg (705 to 1,047 lb) and females weigh 275 to 375 kg (606 to 827 lb) in this mid-sized subspecies. Shoulder height ranges from 1.7 to 2.1 m (5 ft 7 in to 6 ft 11 in)

Agreed though it’s unlikely Elk.

I think @deirdre may have nailed it. It could be floating ice, out of focus and with poor resolution, with the sun enhancing the bobbing movement. We can see from the OP video, there is plenty of floating ice around and the commentator already mentioned something seen sub-surface, so that fits submerged ice occasionally topping. When it disappears and re-emerges, that could be different sections of ice. The information we don’t have is wind direction and strength of wind to create surface movement. We also do not know if there are any natural currents from the various sources around the lake. It looks almost still or dead calm on the surface, but with a resolution as poor as that, it would struggle to pick up a tsunami!.......

it should be easy as the location and options are really limited, but the quality of the video has us all guessing.

Agreed that we don't know how deep the lake is.

But the ice theory only really holds if there is current or wind. But agreed, it is another theory.
 
Cheers, I registered just to let y’all know that if I saw that activity ahead of me in my kayak I would assume it’s the sunlight reflection off of ripples or small waves caused by water interacting with probably smooth rocks, or other structure, just under the surface. I discount the claim the “object“ is moving fast because in the close-up it is localized beside the protruding rock. The nearby protruding rock is further evidence that structure just below the surface is likely in that area. Have a nice day.
 
Yeah, in case it wasn't clear enough: I do not think it's a moose or any other large mammal or whatever. I just had to mention it, to correct my initial assertion that they don't pass by these barren regions.

I still hold a bird or two messing around as the most likely culprit. Loon or merganser, or an angry long-tailed duck.

The other theories re ice or some rocks just beneath the surface seem plausible as well, but I find that difficult to reconcile with the overall range of the movements.
 
I watched this video a couple more times, and specifically the bit around the gif I posted in #46.
I still hold a bird or two messing around as the most likely culprit.
Fully agreeing with @gargamel

EDIT:
rewords...
 
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This is a tiny, landlocked freshwater lake. The object/objects are moving in a purposeful, somewhat erratic fashion. You cannot tell how big they are, but based on a Google “Measure Distance,” they are relatively small.

The weather seems clear and there do not appear to be any weather anomalies present, and wind does not appear to be stirring the surface water in such a way as to cause these anomalies.

The most likely explanation is that this is a natural phenomenon caused by fauna. The fauna is likely either waterfowl or freshwater fish. It would be good to know what fauna inhabit this area. There is nothing that makes me deviate from that into “USO” territory.
 
This is a tiny, landlocked freshwater lake. The object/objects are moving in a purposeful, somewhat erratic fashion. You cannot tell how big they are, but based on a Google “Measure Distance,” they are relatively small.

The weather seems clear and there do not appear to be any weather anomalies present, and wind does not appear to be stirring the surface water in such a way as to cause these anomalies.

The most likely explanation is that this is a natural phenomenon caused by fauna. The fauna is likely either waterfowl or freshwater fish. It would be good to know what fauna inhabit this area. There is nothing that makes me deviate from that into “USO” territory.

See earlier posts.

The only fish that realistically could be found in it is Arctic char, and in such a small lake in such an area, it's almost certainly going to be dwarf forms of it. Chances are there aren't fish at all in it though.
 
See earlier posts.
Chances are there aren't fish at all in it though.
Can you share what you are basing that on? If it is just that it is a small lake, I don;t think that's a safe assumption at all -- I know the storm-runoff/creek next to my house that has a few inches of water in most of its length for much of the year has bluegill nests in it in the spring most years: doesn't take much of a body of water at all to grow some fish.

(This is not from my creek, but is included for the edification of anybody not knowing what a "bluegill" is, and is roughly the size of the ones living "ext door.")
bluegill.jpg
 
Can you share what you are basing that on? If it is just that it is a small lake, I don;t think that's a safe assumption at all -- I know the storm-runoff/creek next to my house that has a few inches of water in most of its length for much of the year has bluegill nests in it in the spring most years: doesn't take much of a body of water at all to grow some fish.

(This is not from my creek, but is included for the edification of anybody not knowing what a "bluegill" is, and is roughly the size of the ones living "ext door.")
bluegill.jpg

The lake in question isn't like any small lake - it is at almost 1000m above sea level, in northern Scandinavia. It's above the tree-line and all. Its surface is frozen for more than half of the year, the only inflow comes from ancient glaciers in the surrounding mountains, etc. The climate at those latitudes and elevations only permit a few select species of fish to "thrive" (debatable, barely survive is a more apt description), all of them are salmonids, and the only salmonid that typically makes it way up there is char.

Other cold-hardy salmonids like trout and grayling may inhabit streams (and lakes) at lower altitudes in said mountains. But you don't encounter "normal" fish (perch, pike, burbot, various cyprinids etc) until you're way below altitude-wise, where you find actual forests and stuff.

Cf the lakes in the Canadian Arctic, where the climate is comparable. Ie:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingualuit_crater

The only species of fish in the crater lake is the Arctic char.

Many of these small alpine lakes up here in the northern Scandinavian mountain region don't have any piscine presence whatsoever, but the ones that do typically only host char. Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, some otherwise fish-less lakes up there have been stocked with char by the local Sami people, but yeah. Char is what you'll find, if anything, and in that particular environment they tend to settle as "dwarf" forms, due to the lack of nutrition. Char can get huge when they have access to large lakes or the sea, but in these tiny, cold lakes the ecological circumstances force dwarfism.
 
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To me this could be a large group of fish eating and the sun reflecting on the surface of the disturbance. Why are some replies calling it a USO?
 
The lake in question isn't like any small lake - it is at almost 1000m above sea level, in northern Scandinavia....
Thank you for an in depth and useful reply. It is nice to be on a site where a question about a topic will often be met with an informative answer, rather than just snark.

USO is a play on UFO meaning Unidentified Swimming Object.
I've generally seen it used as and acronym for "Unidentified Submerged Object."
 
USO is a play on UFO meaning Unidentified Swimming Object.
I was being sarcastic. I know what it stands for and what it means. It just sounds ridiculous. I don't look at something in sky which may or may not be a balloon and say, Oh look at that UFO.
 
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