Nature always amazes us, with its thousand shapes, its thousand colors and its extreme ability to survive, even when we try to prevent it. Blue lava, ice bubbles, mysterious circles on the grass, even a pink lake. They are not fairy tales, it is just her: nature
Nature always amazes us, with its thousand shapes, its thousand colors and its extreme ability to survive, even when we try to prevent it. Blue lava, ice bubbles or mysterious circles on the grass. They are not fairy tales, nor photoshop, it is just her: nature.
These extraordinary phenomena, which leave us speechless, and sometimes without explanation, are true, under the eyes of all, at least of the beholder, and they really seem straight out of a storybook. But it's not Alice in Wonderland, she is our Planet.
Here are 15 of these completely natural effects, which leave us speechless even just looking at the photos. For some there is a precise scientific explanation, for others, for now, only the wonder (and some hypotheses) remains.
The circles of the fairies
So they call them, 'Fairy circles', the green-free circular shapes that arise in tall grass along a narrow strip on the eastern edge of the Namib Desert, which runs from mid-Angola to northeastern parts of South Africa. The populations of southern Angola believe they are in the footsteps of the gods, but according to the biologist at Florida State University of Tallahassee Walter Tschinkel they could be the work of creatures alive and well, since, among other things, they come and go. The mysteryhowever, it is still unsolved.
The pink salt lake
This time it is not a way of saying, as is sometimes done with the Moon. The salt lake of Koyashskoye is really pink, it is located in the Crimea, on the Kerch peninsula, a territory disputed by Russia and Ukraine. Its fascinating color, whose shades range from real pink to scarlet red, is due to the presence of microscopic algae that live in salt water. It is about 4 km long and 2 km wide, but above all it is not very deep (about 1 meter), a feature that also brings out some suggestive rocky islands.
The volcano with blue lava
Lava is known to be fiery red, but in Indonesia it is blue. The erupting volcano of Kawah Ijen is in fact just this color, surreal but true. And the explanation is: the Indonesian mountain contains large quantities of pure sulfur, which when burned emits blue-violet radiation. Therefore highly toxic areas, but, only for the eyes, a beauty panacea.
The lake with ice bubbles
Ice bubbles trapped beneath the surface. This is what happens in Abraham Lake, an artificial reservoir on the North Saskatchewan River in Canada's western Alberta region. The extraordinary phenomenon is due to methane released from the bottom of the lake, which barely freezes as it rises, it is quite close to the surface. And the phenomenon is "continuous": the bubbles continue to pile up one under the other as the climate stiffens during the winter season. Wonder.
La Danxia
Landscapes of a thousand colors, all in a single picture. It happens in China, due to rocks of different types and colors transported by river waters over the centuries. It is Danxia, whose manifestations in the Asian giant are over 700. In one case the phenomenon even occurs on the water, in the Dajin Lake basin (Fujian province), known for this for its multi-colored reflections.
The white rainbow
Instead of 7 colors, a mysterious and very surreal white / gray. In some very rare cases a rainbow really unusual, white, in fact. The phenomenon, as surreal as it is true, is similar to what happens when a classic rainbow is formed, but it is the fog that generates it. Unlike raindrops, however, which behave like prisms "dividing" the light into its 7 colors (diffraction), those of fog are too small and fine to do the same, leaving the light "whole", ie white.
Ice hair
Photo: Des Colhoun/geographer
Ice "in the shape" of silky hair: a phenomenon that is as unusual as it is fascinating. And even here, it is only nature that gives it to us. In fact, it occurs when the Pseudomonas syringae bacterium is present in the plants, which lowers the freezing point of the water inside. When the liquid escapes and meets the cold air, it freezes, forming this wonderful "icy hair".
The purple / rainbow beach
7 colors on the same beach: incredible but true. It happens in California, along Big Sur, at the end of Sycamore Canyon Road. The beach is "studded" with minerals, which, according to the inclination of the sun's rays, give the whole area different colors: at sunset there are the colors of purple, pink and lilac, but during the day the beach is a real one rainbow. The beach is protected by the Los Padres National Forest.
L’arco circumorizzontale
Unusual rainbow, indeed, technically not even a rainbow, because it is not due to the light that meets the raindrops. In reality it is a halo formed by hexagonal ice crystals and is formed when the sun hits the high cirrus clouds, the clouds that are higher than six thousand meters, only if the rays have ainclination of 58 ° or more (our star must therefore be very high on the horizon), a condition that occurs mainly in summer and only at certain latitudes. As rare as it is suggestive.
The circular rainbow
Photo: NASA
Not just an arc, but an entire circumference of 7 colors around the sun. Rare? Technically not, but its observation depends on where the observer is, who is rarely at a height that can be admired. Being with your feet on the ground, it is very difficult in fact to see the whole rainbow, because the lower part, from down here, is under thehorizon. From above our horizon is different, and allows us to see it intact. And if the light is reflected twice "bouncing" between the drops of water, you can have the extraordinary good fortune to see even a double one.
The penitents of ice
Photo: European Southern Observatory
They rise from the earth, usually form in large groups and point to the sun. They are made of ice or hard snow and are found only at high altitudes, such as in the Chilean Andes, which often exceed 4000 meters. Here nature surprises itself and continues to keep the secret. The origin of these fascinating formations, which can be a few centimeters long, recalling the low grass, up to five meters, giving the impression of an ice forest in the middle of the desert, is in fact still a mystery.
The salt desert
Not just sand. In Bolivia there is a salt desert, the Salar de Uyuni, which, with its 10 billion tons of salt, is the largest salt flat in the world (as well as representing a third of the planet's lithium reserves), approximately as large as Abruzzo. Made up of 11 layers, it is able to reflect light creating, in fact, the largest mirror in the world (and quite natural).
The rift in the clouds
It appears as a large gash in the sky, usually circular or elliptical. The phenomenon occurs between the cirrocumulus or the altocumulus, clouds that form at medium-high heights, and is due to a chemical-physical condition very particular: at those altitudes, the water is generally below the freezing temperature, but the ice crystals are unable to form because crystallization nuclei, or "aggregation points", without which the crystals are very rare they do not grow. However, as soon as some of them begin to form, the droplets of water nearby evaporate, leaving the suggestive "gashes" in the sky.
The desert rose
It sounds like a poetic, romantic expression, but the Desert Rose really exists. It is a mineral with a color that fades from orange to yellow-ocher, an aggregate of gypsum crystals, capable of forming in desert areas only in particular environmental and climatic conditions, which must necessarily include arid climate and presence of chalky deposits. Its shape, which appears to be that of a rose, makes it particularly charming.
The turquoise ice
In southern Siberia, the ice is turquoise. Due to a completely natural phenomenon, Lake Baikal, Unesco heritage since 1996, gives the (few) inhabitants of the area light games wonderful. From January to May, due to the very low temperatures, the lake freezes, but the water remains so clear that, from the surface, it is possible to see it down to a depth of 40 meters. Then when the slabs begin to break in March, the turquoise appears more clearly, making the body of water a unique spectacle in the world.
For other images of extraordinary places read also:
- 10 EXTRAORDINARY PLACES IN THE WORLD THAT APPEAR TO COME FROM ANOTHER PLANET (PHOTO)
- THE 10 MOST "STRANGE" (AND COLORFUL) BEACHES IN THE WORLD
Surreal but real.
Roberta de carolis
