A peculiar black ring which appeared hovering in a clear sky in Kazakhstan in the middle of the day had dozens of locals staring in disbelief, wondering what it could be. The strange, dark circle appeared in the sky and then disintegrated after about 15 minutes.
Somebody managed to capture video of the phenomenon for a few minutes, and one can hear people in the background commenting on whether it might be a portal to another reality, a bizarre weather pattern, a UFO, or the beginning of the apocalypse.
Local residents suggested to Today.kz that the black ring may have been caused by a fire at an electrical substation. However, after interviewing town administration officials at Shortandy, near Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, that possibility was rejected.
The large, black ring hovered in the sky for about 15 minutes.
Local resident Oleg Menshikov said “It was like a black cloud. We saw it at around 4 pm on April 3. It dissipated like smoke, but it had no detectable odor.”
Some suggested it may have been the result of an “extra-terrestrial force” or a sinister warning.
Andrey Solodovnik, associate professor at the Northern Kazakhstan State University, estimated that the ring had a diameter of about 100 meters (330 feet) and was floating between 200 meters to 1 kilometer above the ground.
Locals stood and watched the ring as it gradually faded away and disappeared. (Image: today.kz)
The video footage (below), which is well on the way to registering 100,000 YouTube views, has been discussed by people all over the world.
One viewer wrote “A vortex ring or smoke ring can be formed in the atmosphere by a rising mass of warm air, which is also called a thermal (microburst). It could have been artificially created as well.”
Video – Strange black ring in Kazakhstan sky