Oh, nature… you’re so beautiful but you can also be so crazy!
Look, I love traveling around the world and discovering new things. Not long ago, I traveled to the tropics and took a kayak tour to explore a hidden lagoon inside a cave. It was absolutely amazing and I gave myself a pat on the back for doing something so adventurous. This is about as adventurous as I’ll get.
But maybe you’re more adventurous than me? Maybe you’re crazy? Because if so, perhaps I can interest you in some absolutely mind blowing natural phenomenons that you can actually witness happening on this humble planet that we call home.
From the hurried migration of millions of tiny red crabs, to a nightmarish explosive lighting storm, these are the sort of bizarre and frightening things that you might expect to see in a movie. Once you see the photos, you’ll probably scream “Photoshop!” Heck, I refused to believe that some of these were even possible when I first saw them. But every single one of them is absolutely real. Seriously.
Check out the photos and let us know what you think. Which ones would you be willing to see for yourself in person? Any of them going on your bucket list? Any of them going on your nope-nope-nope list?
1. Cocooned Trees
Spiders take to the trees and create this incredible sight during flood season in Pakistan.
2. The Door to Hell
The Darvaza Crater, also known as “The Door to Hell” is a natural gas crater in Derweze, Turkmenistan measuring 69 meters (226 ft) across with a depth of 30 meters (98 ft). It was originally thought to be a substantial oil field by Soviet engineers but they found a massive natural gas pocket. To prevent the spread of methane gas, geologists tried to set it on fire in 1971. The fire has continuously burned since then.
3. Rainbow Trees
When these Australian eucalyptus trees are known for their unique, multi-hued bark.
4 Steam Towers
Towers of steam and gas from fumaroles create an eerie sight against an auroral display.
5. Volcanic Lightning Storm
When rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in a volcanic plume collide, electrical charges are generated. The result? One violently angry volcanic eruption. I’m going to stay as far away form this as possible.
6. Snow Chimneys
Snow chimneys are what happens when you have fumaroles in Arctic areas. What’s a fumarole? They are basically vents to allow steam from volcanoes to escape. But in freezing cold weather, the steam freezes and you end up with these crazy looking things.
7. Moskstraumen (Maelstroms)
With a name like that, you know it’s got to be dangerous. Moskstraumen is a strange system of whirlpools off the Norwegian coast. It’s the second strongest whirlpool in the world with currents reaching speeds of 20 mph (32 km/h). It has been referenced in numerous movies and books.
8. Light Pillars
Light pillars are what happen when light is reflected off of numerous tiny ice crystal suspended in the atmosphere or clouds. The resulting optical phenomenon is quite stunning!
9. Frost Flowers
There are two types of frost flowers. The first one involves ice crystals growing on young sea ice in calm conditions. These formations occur when the atmosphere is much colder than the underlying ice. The second one are thin layers of ice that extrude from long-stemmed plants. The thin layer of ice create incredible patterns that curl into “petals.”
10. Spotted Lake
Located in Osoyoos, BC, Canada, the Spotted Lake is a very bizarre looking lake. The lake is very highly concentrated in numerous different minerals. When the water evaporates in the summer, the minerals leave behind spots and crystallized “walkways” around the spots.
11. Flamingo City
The lakes of Kenya are a popular destination for flamingos due to their huge amounts of algae. The lakes end up looking like a sea of of pink flamingos! It’s estimated that there are between 1.5 and two million flamingos, comfortably enjoying the lake water.
12. The Great Blue Hole
Off of the coast of Belize is an enormous submarine sinkhole, measuring 984 ft (300 m) across and 354 ft (108 m) deep. It was formed when sea levels were much lower and as ice caps grew, creating this massive cave. As ocean levels began to rise, the cave was flooded. The site was declared one of the top ten scuba diving sites in the world by the famous Jacques Cousteau.
13. “Black Sun” Murmurations
Murmurations are when huge flock of birds fly together in a incredibly coordinated formation. It’s absolutely mesmerizing to watch. Scientists have been trying to determine how the birds are able to move in such precise unison.
14. Fairy Circles
These barren red circles of soil can be found in Australia and Namibia. These circles can be found in the millions, extending over 1,500 miles of desert. There are two main theories about how these circles were formed. The first theory is that the circles were created by neighbouring sand termite colonies, who eat grass roots in a circular patch. The second theory is that the plants are fighting over water and other scarce nutrients, and the landscape naturally organizes into rings of deep-rooted grasses.
15. Underwater Crop Circles
Underwater crop circles remained a mystery for a very long time until 2011 when its creator was finally caught in the fact. These ornate underwater crop circles are created by male pufferfish as part of a mating ritual. It takes seven to nine days for the pufferfish to build these incredible circles that are used to attract a mate. They even decorate the peaks with shell and coral fragments! Once a mate is found, the circle is used as a nest for the eggs.
16. Migration of Red Crabs
Christmas Island is home to the annual migration of millions of red crabs. Around October/November, the crabs make the trek from the forest to the coast to breed and release eggs into the sea.
17. Catatumbo Lightning
Catumbo is the everlasting lightning storm that occurs over the mouth of the Catatumbo River in Venezuela. The frightening scene is the result of the heat and moisture being collected across the plains, creating electrical charges. The air masses become destabilized by the mountain ridges, resulting in one of the most epic storms on this planet. The storm has a mass of storm clouds at a height of more than 1 km and it occurs from 140 to 260 nights a year. The frequency of the storm changes from year to year.
18. Frozen Bubbles of Methane
They may look like jellyfish but these are actually frozen bubbles of methane that formed after microbes consumed dead organic matter.
19. Winnie the Pooh Cloud
Incredibly, a cloud that looked just like Winnie the Pooh appeared in the sky at a children’s charity event.
20. The Giant’s Causeway
This area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns (volcanic rock) is the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It can be found in the northeast coast of Northern Ireland and it has been declared the fourth greatest natural wonder in the UK.
21 Fire Rainbows
Also known as circumhorizontal arcs, this incredible optical phenomenon isn’t actually a rainbow. They are an ice halo formed by plate-shaped ice crystals suspended in high level cirrus or cirrostratus clouds.
22. Lenticular Clouds
These lens-shaped clouds may look like UFOs but they have a perfect good explanation. When air moves over mountains, it becomes cooled enough for condensation to occur. While lenticular clouds are typically found over mountains, this phenomenon can also occur over flat terrains due to shear winds created by a front.
23. Bioluminescent Waters
This breathtaking glow-in-the-dark phenomenon occurs when bioluminescent organisms, that normally live in the dark depths, are disturbed by oxygen (usually due to the wake of ships). Bioluminescent waters can be found in all over the world, including beaches and lakes in Australia, the US, the Caribbean, Asia, and Europe.
24. Living Rocks
These sea creatures from Chile are not actually rocks but they are entirely immobile.
25. Blue Lava
Sulfuric gases combust at such high temperatures that this volcano in Indonesia erupts with blue lava.
26. White Rainbows
This is what arched fog looks like!
27. Never-ending Wave
When the Atlantic Ocean meets the Amazon River in Brazil, the resulting wave can travel 500 miles inland without slowing down.
28. Monarch Butterfly Migration
Across the US and Mexico, butterflies migrate together in incredible numbers!
29. Flower Desert
Deserts in Chile will sprout flowers after exceptionally heavy rainfall.
30. Horsetail Falls
At certain times of the day in February, the water resembles lava at this waterfall in Yosemite National Park, California.
31. Hair Ice
Bacteria causes water to freeze in this manner as the liquid escapes plants in freezing weather.
32. Green Flash
At the beginning or end of a sunset, the right conditions may result in this rare phenomenon.
33 Danxia Landforms
These colourful sandstone hills and mountains can be found in China.
34. Underwater Waterfall
It looks like a painting but this incredible waterfall illusion can be seen in Mauritius. So how is the illusion created? The sand and silt deposits that flow through the area and fluctuate the colour of the water, creating the appearance of an underwater waterfall. It’s very convincing, isn’t it?
35. Calficying Lake
Animals that become immersed in the waters of Lake Natron die and become calcified.
36. Bleeding Glacier
In Antarctica, iron oxide causes the outflowing water to resemble blood. This is also known as “Blood Falls.”
And there you have it. A nice collection of nature’s more unusual offerings, some of which would be amazing to see, others I want nothing to do with. If you enjoyed this story, please do share it with your family and friends!
