These 12 mysteries of nature prove that the Earth again and again surprise us

Sometimes it seems that humanity already knows about earth, and such Sciences as Geology, geography and meteorology, people today have purchased applied nature. But it is not so.

The website has collected some rare and spectacular phenomena, looking at that, realize that the Earth still has something to surprise us. Some of them are scary, others are just amazingly beautiful.

St. Elmo's fire





The spires of the towers, the tops of masts and other similar places sometimes illumined a ghostly glow. This happens usually in a storm or when it is approaching.

In medieval Europe, dancing lights associated with a Catholic Saint Elm, the patron Saint of sailors. According to legend, before he died, he promised that the world will pray for seafarers and to submit marks about their future in the form of the lights on the masts.

Sources: wikipedia, science, scientificamerican

Antarctic volcano and its snow tubing





Have you ever wondered what's in the permafrost, too, are volcanoes? Erebus is one of the highest volcanoes of Antarctica and the most active of them. It is covered with snow tubing, formed as a result of the permanent conversion of steam coming out of the crevices in the ice and snow. A snow tubing emit vapor.

Sources: volcanodiscovery, nationalgeographic, atlasobscura

Light (solar) posts





This is a beautiful optical phenomenon caused when light from the sun, the moon or the city lights reflected from the surfaces of tiny ice crystals suspended in the air. Light poles often observed in the cold season.

Sources: earthsky, amusingplanet, scribol

Snow "spaghetti" in one of the lakes of Finland





One of the residents of the district of hämeenlinna, Finland, found that the lake house was covered with snow strands like noodles. When he took the boat to examine the phenomenon closely, he found that if you take one of the threads in the arm, you can roll the snowball.

Perhaps the strand is originated from snow that fell in the water, and the movement of wind and water has created strange shapes before the snow melted.

Sources: lakescientist, yle, newscom

Dancing forest





In the Kaliningrad region, Russia, is the site of a forest with intricately curved trees. Scientists and no definite opinion regarding the causes of the phenomenon: some believe that the case in the parasites, injuring pines during their growth. Others blame the strong wind from the sea. The old-timers are afraid of this place, considering that it was inhabited by evil spirits. Such groves in Denmark and Kazakhstan.

Sources: park-kosa, odditycentral, scribol

Sprites





It flashes red or blue, occurring at high altitude. People are puzzled about the nature of this phenomenon, some even thought that the flashes arise from an alien spacecraft. And only after the phenomenon was able to capture in 1989, scientists have shown that they have an electrical origin is akin to lightning.

Sources: national geographic, popsci,elf.gi.alaska

Red tide





Red tide is a phenomenon caused by excessive accumulation of microscopic red algae at the water surface. Under certain circumstances, the microorganisms begin to multiply too quickly. In General, it is the same as algal blooms.

Red tides are dangerous to marine life, because while they reduced the content of oxygen in the water, there are hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. A number of scholars associated with "red tides" the first of the ten biblical plagues. According to legend, all the water in the Nile turned into blood, killing the fish.

Sources: oceanservice, sciencedaily, ncbi

Brokensky Ghost





If in the mountains to look in the direction opposite the sun, sometimes you can see something similar to shadow of the giant, surrounded by a rainbow glow. In fact, it is nothing, as the shadow of the observer cast on the fog. Small droplets break sunlight into separate rays of the spectrum, forming a color glow around the shadow of a man.

The phenomenon is named after mount Brocken in Germany where it appears most often. Brocken has long been considered a place where witches celebrate Walpurgis night, so in the old days this phenomenon was associated with the activities of witches.

Sources: nkj, earthsky, bbc

Naga fireballs





From the depths of the Mekong river, Thailand, from time to time rise glowing red balls shaped like eggs. They rise 10-20 m above the river surface and disappear.

These often occur in October, this time in the nearby villages a festival dedicated to this phenomenon. Scientists are trying to explain this phenomenon, the combustion gases rising from the bottom of the river. But local residents believe that these balls creates a Nag paulusma-man living in the river.

Source: skeptoid, mnn, mysteriousuniverse

Valley of the falling birds





In India, there is the valley of Jatinga, where in the last days of summer the birds are acting very strange, and this is repeated for many years. They are circling over the heads of people, some of them immediately fall to the ground in a semiconscious state.

Usually birds in flight guided by the light of the heavenly bodies and the Earth's magnetic field. Probably the reasons are geophysical anomalies that knock birds off course and affect them in a strange way.

Sources: vokrugsveta, thehindu, indiatoday

Anomaly at the bottom of the Baltic sea





At the bottom of the Baltic sea was discovered a strange object resembling an alien ship. He actively studied by scientists from different countries, but to a common opinion they still didn't come. Due to the fact that the object is composed of basalt, the version of the spacecraft was not confirmed. Here the two most plausible hypotheses: it is either the result of a melting glacier, or a secure facility during the Second world war, with which the Germans fought with the Soviet and British submarines.

Sources: news, zmescience, bbc

Brinell — icy "finger of death"





This phenomenon happens in the Arctic under-ice waters due to the different temperatures of the freezing point of water with different salinity. Outwardly, it looks like the unexpected increased ice icicles, which, reaching the bottom, turns into the ice stream. Marine animals, met on his way brajnik, quickly covered with a crust of ice and freeze.

The idea of the existence of brinkle was first proposed in 1974, but only in 2011 it was proven. Operators BBC accidentally took a picture of this phenomenon, and today it is the only video brinkle.

Sources: bbc, mnn, livescience

Ice circles in rivers





Perfectly smooth, slowly rotating circles of ice appear in rivers with slow flow. They are formed due to eddy currents. Caught in such a piece of ice starts to rotate. During rotation the edges of this piece worn about the surrounding ice, and may soon get a smooth circle. This phenomenon was observed in Scandinavia, North America, Germany, England and Russia.

Sources: nat geo, livescience, iflscience

Photos on the preview wetter-foto


See also
8 cool solar phenomena
7 historical mysteries, which are all still scratching their heads


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