Phenomenal Wonders of the Natural World
Here are the links. Also a couple more to some of my favorite artists.
http://weburbanist.com/2009/01/05/20...nd-bullet-art/
http://thechive.com/2009/04/beautifu...iff-20-photos/
http://thechive.com/2008/12/the-ligh...chs-16-photos/
http://thechive.com/2009/04/beautifu...phy-45-photos/
http://thechive.com/2009/03/beautifu...phy-15-photos/
http://thechive.com/2009/07/new-york...-chris-gampat/
http://www.oddee.com/item_96619.aspx (10 geological places you didn't know)
http://www.oddee.com/item_96656.aspx (10 alien looking places on earth)
http://oddee.com/default_0_85_datetime.aspx (art and sculpures)
http://englishrussia.com/?p=2546 (alexandreev.com)
The classical natural wonders are huge and hard to miss – vast canyons, giant mountains and the like. Many of the most fantastic natural phenomena, however, are also least easy to spot. Some are incredibly rare while others are located in hard-to-reach parts of the planet. From moving rocks to mammatus clouds and red tides to fire rainbows, here are seven of the most spectacular phenomenal wonders of the natural world.
1) Sailing Stones
(Images via: f8BeThere and Ian Parker)
The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.
2) Columnar Basalt
(Images via: Centripetalnotion, Habitas and Strahlen)
When a thick lava flow cools it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity – in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such examples is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above) though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water.
3) Blue Holes
(Images via: AEAdvisor, BelizeDiving and ScienceRay)
Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation – leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.
4) Red Tides
(Images via: Carleton, CleanWaterNetwork and UMN)
Red tides are also known as algal blooms – sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers.
5) Ice Circles
(Images via Panoramio, CrystalLinks, CropCircleAnswers and DailyMail)
While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above.
6) Mammatus Clouds
(Images via: John Olson and the DNR)
True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers – appearing around, before or even after severe weather.
7) Fire Rainbows
(Images via: Lisa Andriani-Gonnelli, Unwired and UMN)
A circumhorizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomena.
10 Alien-Looking Places on Earth
Published on 4/30/2009 under Places - by Gracie Murano - 280,448 views
Dry Valleys (Antartica)
Antarctica's Dry Valleys, with their barren gravel-strewn floors, are said to be the most similar place on Earth to Mars. Its fascinating landscape, located within Victoria Land west of McMurdo Sound, get almost no snowfall, and except for a few steep rocks they are the only continental part of Antarctica devoid of ice. The terrain looks like something not of this Earth; the valley’s floor occasionally contains a perennially frozen lake with ice several meters thick. Under the ice, in the extremely salty [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]water[/COLOR][/COLOR], live mysterious simple organisms, a subject of on-going [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]research[/COLOR][/COLOR].
Socotra Island (Indian Ocean)
This island simply blows away any notion about what is considered “normal” for a landscape on Earth, you’d be inclined to think you were transported to another planet - or traveled to another era of Earth’s history. Socotra Island, which is part of a group of four islands, has been geographically isolated from mainland Africa for the last 6 or 7 million years. Like the Galapagos Islands, the island is teeming with 700 extremely rare species of flora and fauna, a full 1/3 of which are endemic.
The climate is harsh, hot and dry, and yet - the most amazing plant life thrives there. Situated in the Indian Ocean 250 km from Somalia and 340 km from Yemen, the wide sandy beaches rise to limestone plateaus full of caves (some 7 kilometers in length) and mountains up to 1525 meters high. The [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]trees[/COLOR][/COLOR] and plants of this island were preserved thru the long geological isolation, some varieties being 20 million years old.
Rio Tinto (Spain)
The giant opencast mines of Rio Tinto create a surreal, almost lunar landscape. Its growth has consumed not only mountains and valleys but even entire villages, whose populations had to be resettled in specially built towns nearby. Named after the river which flows through the region-itself named for the reddish streaks that colour its water-Rio Tinto has become a landscape within a landscape. The river red [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]water[/COLOR][/COLOR] is highly acidic (pH 1.7—2.5) and rich in heavy [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]metals[/COLOR][/COLOR].
Kliluk, the Spotted Lake (Canada)
In the hot [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]sun[/COLOR][/COLOR] of summer, the water of Spotted Lake, located in British Columbia and Washington, evaporates and crystallizes the [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]minerals[/COLOR][/COLOR], forming many white-rimmed circles: shallow pools that reflect the mineral content of the water in shades of blues and greens. It contains one of the worlds highest concentrations of [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]minerals[/COLOR][/COLOR]: magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts), calcium and sodium sulphates, plus eight other minerals and traces of four more, including silver and titanium.
The Indians soaked away aches and ailments in the healing mud and waters. One story cites a truce in a battle to allow both warring tribes to tend to their wounded in the Spotted Lake, "Kliluk".
Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia)
Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni is perhaps one of the most spectacular landscapes in the world. A magnificent area with an impressive salt desert (the world's largest), active volcanoes, tall cacti islands and geyser flats, it exists like an alien mirage, something completely out-of-this-world. Oddee's crew went there in July 2008, be sure to check it out.
Vale da Lua (Brazil)
Vale da Lua ([COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]Moon[/COLOR][/COLOR] Valley) is a water eroded rock formation with natural swimming pools, placed on a river in the brazilian cerrado forest. Located at Chapada, 38 km from Alto Paraíso de Goiás, it’s rock formations are one of the oldest on the planet, made of quartz with outcrops of crystals. ([COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]Photo[/COLOR][/COLOR] by: Alex)
Blood Pond Hot Spring (Japan)
Blood Pond Hot Spring is one of the "hells" (jigoku) of Beppu, Japan, nine spectacular natural hot springs that are more for viewing rather than bathing. The “blood pond hell” features a pond of hot, red water, colored as such by iron in the waters. It’s allegedly the most photogenic of the nine hells. ([COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]Photos[/COLOR][/COLOR]: L Plater and phototravel).
The Stone Forest (China)
The Shilin (Chinese for [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]stone[/COLOR][/COLOR] forest) is an impressive example of karst topography. Its rocks are made of limestone and are formed by water percolating the ground’s surface and eroding away everything but the pillars. It’s known since the Ming Dynasty as the 'First Wonder of the World.'
The Richat Structure (Mauritania)
This spectacular landform in Mauritania in the southwestern part of the Sahara desert, called the Richat Structure, is so huge with a diameter of 30 miles that it is visible from space. The formation was originally thought to be caused by a meteorite impact but now geologists believe it is a product of uplift and erosion. The cause of its circular shape is still a mystery.
Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves (Austria)
Ice caves are very different from normal caves. They have a strange feeling about them, as though they are not from this planet, and one has just temporarily stepped into their world when spelunking their depths.
There are many ice caves throughout the world, but the Eisriesenwelt Ice Caves in Austria are some of the largest known to man. They are located within the Tennengebirge Mountains near Salzburg and stretch for a remarkable 40 kilometers. Only a portion of the labyrinth is open to [COLOR=#754C24 ! important][COLOR=#754C24 ! important]tourists[/COLOR][/COLOR] but it's enough to get a taste of what the remaining network is like: a truly mesmerizing palate of Mother Nature's handicraft.
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