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More unusual phenomena, having learned which you will become even wiser and smarter!
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00:00Now, picture this. You're watching a volcano erupt, which is a scary view by itself.
00:05But suddenly, you notice ominous bright flashes lighting up the sky over the volcano.
00:11It takes the nightmarishness of the experience to a whole new level.
00:16One causes static electricity, which occurs when dense ash particles rub together not very high above the ground.
00:23The other source of volcanic lightning is high above the surface, near the stratosphere,
00:27where chaotically moving ice crystals set free, powerful jolts.
00:33Salar del Uni feels like you're standing on top of a large mirror,
00:37but it's actually a salt flat of more than 4,000 square miles.
00:42It's located in Bolivia, South America's highest elevated country.
00:46This natural mirror is a remnant of prehistoric lakes that had evaporated a long time ago.
00:53Even though it may look flat, GPS technology proved that some of the landscape has some little defaults that are
01:00all less than an inch small.
01:02The place is so bogged that it has around 10 billion tons of salt.
01:06If you get there at the right time, some of the nearby lakes overflow with a small layer of water,
01:12which acts as the mirror of the sky.
01:14Many locals extract salt and lithium from there.
01:18Don't forget to pass by the world's first salt hotel when you visit.
01:21You can find a real rainbow mountain in Peru.
01:24Scientists still can't explain it.
01:26The colorful peak is hard to reach, but seeing the blue, red, green, yellow, and pink colors in nature is
01:33something to remember.
01:35Now, what looks like frozen flying saucers is, in fact, pockets of highly flammable and combustible methane gas.
01:43Trapped underwater, it forms psychedelic landscapes and stunning patterns.
01:47Typical for northern lakes, such as Lake Abraham in Alberta, Canada.
01:52These bubbles appear when dead animals, leaves, and plants fall into the water and get consumed by bacteria.
01:59These bacteria later excrete methane gas.
02:02Wow, I can smell it from here.
02:05In late March 2018, Eastern Europe witnessed an event as beautiful as it was spooky.
02:11Skiers glided down tangerine slopes under the red-tinted sky.
02:16Puzzled and excited, people described this experience as walking on Mars or skiing down sand dunes.
02:23But however mysterious this phenomenon seems, it has a disappointingly simple explanation.
02:30The sponsor of the extraterrestrial landscape was a powerful sandstorm that had arrived from the Sahara Desert.
02:36This storm had brought along dust, sand, and pollen particles that colored the snow orange.
02:42It's not a one-time natural phenomenon.
02:44Meteorologists say that orange snow covers the lands of Eastern Europe at least once every five years.
02:50Meanwhile, don't eat the orange snow.
02:54On February 20th and 21st of 2018, people in the northeastern part of the U.S.
03:00experienced one of the most extraordinary weather events of recent times.
03:04And it was a heat wave.
03:06Yep, in February.
03:07In fact, it was the most impressive winter heat wave since official weather records started in the 1800s.
03:14For example, in Freiburg, Maine, people were taking off their coats after the temperature had risen to a baffling 70
03:21degrees Fahrenheit.
03:21In Fitchburg, Massachusetts, confused people put on sandals when they saw the temperature outside 80 degrees.
03:28The same was happening in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the temperature reached 83, and in Wells, Maine, where the thermometer showed
03:3677 degrees.
03:38Now, around 11,000 years ago, in present-day Turkey, with no cities or metal tools whatsoever, some incredibly skilled
03:47craftsmen completed Gobikli Tepe.
03:49How they managed to chip and lift limestone blocks three times as heavy as a T-Rex, and what they
03:55symbolize is still unknown.
03:58Ooh.
03:59One mind-blowing fact about Devil's Tower in Wyoming, USA, is that scientists can't explain how it came to existence
04:07in the first place.
04:08You see, it's an 867-foot rock formation with walls so steep they're basically vertical.
04:15This piece of stone just arose amid the rolling plains of Wyoming, with nothing like it for miles and miles
04:21around.
04:22So, how is it that such a flat landscape could have suddenly given birth to something so tall?
04:28Theories abound, but nobody has the answer yet.
04:34Croatia's Plitvice Lakes National Park is a major tourist attraction and a World Heritage Site, with many unique animals and
04:41plants teeming around.
04:43It looks like an epic movie set, with infinite waterfalls flowing from every direction and the clear lakes all around.
04:51In the mid-1980s, a scuba diver discovered the Yanaguni Monument off the coast of Japan.
04:57Scientists are positive this collection of structures is thousands of years old.
05:02But they still can't decide if it's natural or man-made.
05:06In case it proves to be an ancient city, the new mystery is, what lost civilization built it, and how
05:12did it make it to the bottom of the sea?
05:16The shape and formations of these rocks aren't a result of some human's work.
05:20They were created by intense volcanic eruptions.
05:23Scientists are still confused why the Giant's Causeway in Ireland is shaped in such a weird way.
05:31Back in 1812, for an unknown reason, an English farmer paid a local painter to remove tons of soil on
05:38a hillside and fill the contours with chalk.
05:41The painter ran away with the money, so the farmer had to pay a second time to get the Alton
05:46Barn's white horse finished.
05:49Black Falls in Iceland get their name from the dark lava columns surrounding it.
05:54The base of the waterfall has sharp rise.
05:57The entire structure was the inspiration for Icelandic architecture seen in some of their famous buildings.
06:04You can see hair ice in the forest on a humid winter night.
06:08Resembling cotton candy or a white hair wig, unusual ice crystals grow on rotting wood.
06:15Unfortunately, this beauty melts as soon as the sun comes up.
06:18Only recently have scientists discover what creates hair ice.
06:22All this time it was…
06:24Are you ready?
06:25Fungus.
06:26Yep.
06:26It allows the ice to form super-thin hairs and helps them to support this form throughout the night.
06:32When this particular type of fungus isn't present, instead of fragile hair, ice forms a crust-like structure.
06:40Now, one of the most common causes of wildfires is lightning from thunderstorms.
06:46But have you ever heard of a wildfire that triggered a thunderstorm?
06:50Well, now you know.
06:51It happened on May 11, 2018, not far from Amarillo, Texas.
06:56Then, the super-powerful Mallard Fire not only created a massive dense cloud high in the air,
07:02its heat also caused a violent thunderstorm that later dumped tons of quarter-sized hailstones 60 miles away in Wheeler
07:11County, Texas.
07:14Carhenge is the weirdest landmark of Nebraska.
07:16Its author studied the real Stonehenge and created his own version out of old cars as a tribute to his
07:23father.
07:23Some cars stand like monoliths.
07:27Others are connected into arches.
07:31When asked why he did all this, the creator of the construction said, why not?
07:38Another Stonehenge look-alike was found on the bottom of Lake Michigan in 2007.
07:43There's a group of rocks in a circle and carvings of a mastodon.
07:47This beast ceased existing over 10,000 years ago, so the carving has to be older than that.
07:53Its location is kept secret from the public.
07:56Good luck finding it!
07:59Canada's Hudson Bay is probably the only place in the world where gravity is indeed lower than anywhere else on
08:05the planet.
08:06Even skeptics can't smirk at it, because the difference has been measured with precision equipment.
08:11So, does it mean that the gravity here is as low as, say, on the moon?
08:17Unfortunately, or is it luckily? I'm not sure yet.
08:19The difference is minuscule.
08:22The exact value is 0.005, or 1 200th of a percent.
08:27You won't be able to feel it even if you try your hardest, but it's still there.
08:31Scientists say this anomaly exists because of the ice sheet that covered the area about 10,000 years ago.
08:38It compressed the rocks so much that they still can't fully recover, shifting the gravitational field in Hudson Bay.
08:45Sometime in the future, though, the gravity will return to normal in this area as well.
08:51In 2010, fossilized fish were uncovered 250 miles west of the Nile River, where the Sahara Desert was as arid
09:00as ever.
09:00This chance finding led scientists to believe there could have been a sea where the Sierra is now.
09:06So, they conducted a geological survey of the area, and it yielded unexpected results.
09:12They found evidence of something huge under the sands, and it wasn't part of any sea at all.
09:19For several months, the research continued with GPS equipment on land, and later, when all the ground data was collected,
09:26scientists took a look at the area from a satellite.
09:29The view was astounding.
09:31It turned out there was an enormous basin underneath the desert, with another, smaller one nearby.
09:37Along the shords of these basins, ancient human settlements had been found previously,
09:42and now the researchers finally had the answer as to why exactly they had chosen those spots to live.
09:49There had been a lake of impressive proportions, over 42,000 square miles of freshwater in total,
09:56about half the size of Lake Michigan.
10:00You're in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, one of the driest places on Earth.
10:05But this desert has a beautiful secret.
10:08Every three to five years, flowers pop up out of nowhere.
10:12It's so famous, it's also called the Flowering Desert.
10:16Seeds lie around in the ground just waiting for some rain.
10:19When the desert gets enough water, about 200 types of flowers sprout up.
10:25The yellow sands of the Atacama turn purple, white, green, and even pink.
10:30Another mystical phenomenon that can be seen in the desert is called a sand waterfall.
10:35When the wind brings a lot of sand to the edge of the canyon, it begins to fall down.
10:41Now, amplify this effect 100 times, and you get a sand waterfall in Saudi Arabia.
10:47It really is like Niagara Falls, only there's not a drop of water.
10:51The locals say this phenomenon warns of an impending sandstorm.
10:56Fairy rings, also known as elf rings or pixie rings,
10:59are mysterious circles of mushrooms that appear in grasslands and forested areas.
11:04There's a lot of debate about why these fairy rings form a nearly perfect circle.
11:10Some superstitions claim that fairy dances would burn the ground,
11:14causing mushrooms to rapidly grow.
11:17In southern India, between July and September 2001,
11:20people witnessed one of the strangest weather phenomena in recorded history.
11:25The rain was red.
11:28What many would have thought to be a typical rainstorm left them shot.
11:32The color was bright enough to stain clothes.
11:35There were other colors too, such as green, yellow, brown, and even black.
11:40In the middle of a monsoon, red rain started to fall, and so did periodically for several weeks.
11:46Researchers have found this unusual rain is stained either by dust or algae.
11:51So don't try to catch any on your tongue.
11:54Scientists aren't entirely sure how the algae got all the way up there.
11:58This does make events like this a little unsettling.
12:02Now, people who live in rural central Norway, over the Hestalen Valley,
12:07can often witness floating lights of white, yellow, and red cross the sky.
12:12The lights appear both at day and night.
12:14And once back in the 80s, the 1980s,
12:18they were spotted 15 to 20 times in a single week.
12:21The Hestalen lights can last just a few seconds.
12:24But sometimes, they can last more than an hour.
12:27The lights move, seeming to float or even sway around.
12:31Some scientists believe that the reason for these lights is due to ionized iron dust.
12:37Others say it's a combination that includes sodium, oxygen, and hydrogen.
12:41Many people claim they're just misidentified aircrafts.
12:45Norway!
12:46Snow donuts are one of the rarest meteorological sites to see,
12:50with perfect weather conditions needed just to create them.
12:54Found in any snow-covered mountain area, like the Rocky Mountains,
12:58the wind, temperature, snow, ice, and moisture all have to work together for us to see these phenomenal rings.
13:05A thin layer of wet snow on the ground.
13:08Under that layer, ice or powdered snow.
13:11Then, a strong enough breeze to roll the donut down a hill, just like a snowball.
13:16Once it stops rolling, it can be the size of a baseball, or as large as a car tire.
13:22It all depends on how strong the wind is.
13:24A newly formed snow donut won't stay around for very long,
13:28so hurry up with that camera and watch your head.
13:31Can you believe there's another place on Earth with its own ecosystem and atmosphere,
13:36similar to another planet?
13:38Well, start believing.
13:40Movil Cave, located in southeastern Romania,
13:43remained closed in complete darkness for a whopping 5.5 million years.
13:48It wasn't until workers discovered the cave,
13:51when they were looking for a place to build,
13:53that anyone learned about it.
13:54Scientists carved out an opening to the cave
13:57and found that a completely sustained ecosystem was thriving inside.
14:02As a pathway was carved through the rock past numerous tunnels,
14:06scientists found a lake of sulfuric water that stank like rotten eggs.
14:10The air was filled with hydrogen sulfide
14:13and had 100 times more carbon dioxide than Earth's atmosphere contains.
14:18Needless to say, this air is completely toxic.
14:21What's even crazier is that a whole ecosystem has been existing in this cave
14:25with 33 species that can't be found anywhere else on Earth.
14:30This cave gives us a glimpse of what could possibly exist on other planets
14:34with completely different atmospheres.
14:37How it managed to exist on Earth all this time
14:40without anyone knowing is rather unbelievable, isn't it?
14:44Now, check these trees out.
14:46They're called Indian rubber trees.
14:48Their strong roots grow not underground, but on the surface.
14:52With the help of special frames and fasteners,
14:55people have learned to control how these roots grow.
14:58Let's say a tree is next to a small pit.
15:00You need to make a bridge from one end of this pit to the other.
15:04You direct the growing tree roots in the needed direction.
15:08Over time, the roots penetrate the ground
15:10and strengthen under endless downpours.
15:13It takes about 15 years to create one bridge.
15:16Here's another amazing tree called the Tree of Life.
15:20It grows in Bahrain's desert.
15:22The tree has been standing on top of this sandy hill for more than 400 years,
15:26surrounded by miles of sand.
15:28It's extremely hot here, and there's no moisture.
15:31But despite this, the tree has green leaves, and it continues to grow.
15:36So far, scientists haven't figured out yet how the tree gets moisture and nutrients.
15:41There are only places with oil deposits around.
15:44Locals think the tree is sacred.
15:46After all, it demonstrates the magic of life and the power of nature.
15:50Some experts are sure it's all about the roots.
15:54They go so deep that they can reach underground sources of water.
15:59So, there you are.
16:00You've been driving for hours through the night.
16:02You didn't have any chance to sleep, so your mind is hanging by a thread.
16:07You stop the car and go out to stretch your limbs.
16:10And then, you look up into the sky and see a beautiful sunrise.
16:15Whoa, wait.
16:16There are three suns in the sky.
16:18You rub your eyes, but nope.
16:21There are still three bright stars in the sky.
16:23No, our home star hasn't been torn into three pieces, nor has it been visited by two other stars.
16:30This is called a sun dog.
16:32It occurs mostly during severe frosts.
16:35Small ice crystals in the sky bend the light.
16:38As a result, you may see three bright spots in the sky instead of just one.
16:42This phenomenon is officially called a halo.
16:46Usually, it's just a circle around the sun.
16:48You can even see a halo at night, too.
16:51Just look at a street lamp, and you'll see a bright circle around it.
16:55Sometimes, a halo can take on a fancier shape.
16:58If there's a lot of ice in the air, the light is warped even more.
17:02Just like in a room with a dozen mirrors.
17:05Then, the halo can take on the shape of a human eye.
17:08Because of this phenomenon, a false dawn can also occur.
17:13While you're looking at the horizon, the dawn begins, and the edge of the sun appears.
17:18A little bit more, and wait!
17:21The sun starts to just dissolve in the sky.
17:24After a few moments, it's dark again.
17:26And only a minute later, the real sun shows its face.
17:30It was the same light curvature effect you saw before with the three suns.
17:35Only now, the light is curved vertically, not horizontally.
17:39And instead of the real sun, its reflection in ice crystals in the sky appeared.
17:44But the sunrise, with three stars on the horizon, is actually real.
17:48Not on Earth, though, but 340 light-years away.
17:52There's a star system at the center of which lurks a star almost twice the size of the sun.
17:58And there are two smaller stars orbiting around this giant.
18:02The strange world has a planet, too.
18:05Sunsets and dawns there really happen with three stars.
18:08If you brought your significant other to a park bench to watch a sunset here,
18:13your date would go just fine.
18:16Whatever that means.
18:17And since we're talking about the most baffling natural phenomena,
18:21it would be a crime not to mention snow in a desert.
18:24Yep, in the winter of 2018, the inhabitants of the Sahara Desert,
18:30one of the driest and hottest places on this planet,
18:33woke up to discover a thick blanket of snow covering the sand.
18:37In some places, the layer of snow enveloping the dunes reached a staggering 15 inches.
18:43Meteorologists, however, had an explanation for this exciting phenomenon.
18:47They stated that cold pools of air, combined with the precipitation from the most recent storm,
18:53resulted in a snowfall instead of rain.
18:56So, what do you do in that case?
18:58Build snow camels?
19:00Hmm, one hump or two.
19:04Kwaajan Volcano in Indonesia is not your ordinary lava-belching mountain.
19:09Instead of producing black smoke and red lava, as most volcanoes do,
19:13this eccentric guy lets out a blue flame and electric blue lava.
19:18This phenomenon occurs because the volcano contains some of the highest levels of sulfur in the world.
19:24And when the sulfuric gases interact with scorching air and get lit by the molten lava,
19:29they start to turn blue.
19:31Unfortunately, you can see this mesmerizing sight only at night.
19:35But you can smell it all day long.
19:38By the way, the world's largest acid lake is also located inside this crater.
19:43The Dead Sea has a high concentration of salt and minerals compared to other seas,
19:48even though it's technically a lake.
19:50Swimming is almost impossible, but people go there for the natural chemicals for the body.
19:55Floating on the surface is a great way to relax.
19:58This ancient body of water got its name because no macroscopic organisms can live there
20:03since it's 9.6 times saltier than oceans.
20:07Only a few bacteria and fungi can be found enjoying the salt.
20:10It's also Earth's lowest elevation on land at 1,400 feet below sea level.
20:18An underground crystal cave exists in Mexico, and it looks like some interstellar world.
20:24It's roughly 1,000 feet beneath the surface,
20:27with each spike measuring up to 35 feet in length and weighing up to 55 tons.
20:32These are some of the largest crystals in the world.
20:36Luskintyre Beach is an endless strand of white sand dunes in azure water.
20:41But don't let the tropical vibes fool you.
20:43It's located in Scotland.
20:45That's why it mostly looks like this during May and June only.
20:49In December, the place gets only an average of one hour of sunshine per day,
20:53making it way more dramatic and monochrome.
20:57The Georgia Guidestones is a collection of giant stones in a star pattern.
21:01It has inscriptions in eight languages, including Hindi, Chinese, and Swahili.
21:07It also has an astronomical calendar finished in 1980 and was built to last centuries.
21:13No one knows who built it or why.
21:17All the way over in sunny California is Sequoia National Park, home to the giant forest.
21:23It's been around for thousands of years.
21:25More than 8,000 of these colossal trees rule the land,
21:29including 10 of the largest living plants in the world.
21:32The General Sherman Sequoia is estimated to be up to 2,700 years old
21:37and is recognized as the world's largest known living tree by volume.
21:43The famous stone heads of Easter Island have been around for hundreds of years.
21:47No one knows exactly why they were built.
21:50Some scientists think that local people believe the statues would make the soil more fertile.
21:55Soil analysis proved the heads did their job well.
21:58It's the best agricultural spot on the island.
22:02The chemical composition of the ancient hot springs in Pamukkale, Turkey,
22:07makes the water pouring over the edge look magical.
22:09They're not only good for cleansing your body, but the mind too.
22:13All the way in Saudi Arabia is a rock sliced perfectly in the middle with two pieces sitting parallel.
22:20What makes Al-Nashla so unique is that it wasn't artificially done,
22:25but is a result of nature's work over the years.
22:28Now this glacier may look like someone dropped tons of red paint in the middle of Antarctica,
22:32but it's actually the natural color.
22:35Blood falls is a result of extreme salted water mixed with iron oxide,
22:40giving out this eerie vibe in the middle of nowhere.
22:44In early May 2018, New England observed one of the scariest and most dangerous phenomena ever,
22:50a super-long-track tornado.
22:53The frightening natural phenomenon started not far from Charleston, New Hampshire,
22:57and traveled toward the town of Webster in Merrimack County.
23:01It took the tornado 33 minutes to cover 36 miles
23:05and become the third on the list of the longest track tornadoes in New England.
23:10In the Philippines, you can swim in some of the most crystal-clear waters
23:14and discover an underwater world below you in the province of Palawan.
23:19The municipality of Koran has white, sandy beaches
23:22with many small boats riding through the many amazing sceneries.
23:27Tristan de Cunha is a small volcanic archipelago in the Atlantic
23:31with the only neighboring cities of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Cape Town, South Africa.
23:36It takes seven days by ship to get to this unique place.
23:40If you want to escape from the rest of the world,
23:43staying with the 280 locals will make you feel like you're away from everything.
23:49During the first week of January 2018,
23:52unusually cold weather in the northeast United States
23:55froze the Atlantic Ocean in North Thalmouth, Massachusetts.
23:58What's more, the ocean was frozen so thoroughly
24:01that people were walking on the waves.
24:03Now, that's obviously something you don't see every day.
24:08Red sand is what makes this beach unique
24:10and why tourists flock to Tianjin, China.
24:13A red-colored plant called a suede salsa dwells in the saltwater.
24:18The whole beach is covered in red
24:20with only the top layer of the sea visible.
24:23If there ever was a thing that said,
24:25I defy gravity out loud,
24:27it's the Stone of Devasco in Argentina.
24:30The huge 300-ton boulder stands precariously on the edge of a cliff
24:35and rocks a little bit from side to side in the wind.
24:38People even checked it by putting glass bottles under one of its edges.
24:42They exploded with another movement of the rock.
24:45Unfortunately today,
24:46you can't see this wonder of nature as it was a century ago.
24:50In 1912, the boulder suddenly dropped from its perch,
24:54which it had occupied for literally hundreds of years.
24:57The people of the nearby town of Tandil
24:59were so sad about this event
25:01that 95 years later, in 2007,
25:04they decided to restore the stone.
25:06They made a plastic replica of the rock
25:09and put it on the same spot and even in the same position.
25:12So, even today, coming by Tandil,
25:15you can see its famous balancing boulder.
25:18More of a symbol now, of course,
25:19because it's no longer rocking
25:21and only weighs 9 tons,
25:23but instantly recognizable nonetheless.
25:27Sokatra is an alien-like island
25:29off the coast of Yemen in the Indian Ocean
25:32with one of the most unique trees ever seen.
25:34It's called the Dragon Tree
25:36and it can only be found on this amazing island.
25:40In 2008, it was labeled as a World Heritage Site.
25:44If you ever see a tight burning column of air,
25:47don't panic, it's not the end of the world.
25:50The creepy combination of whirlwind sounds
25:52and scorching inferno
25:54means that you have crossed paths with a fire tornado,
25:57also known as Fire Twister or Fire Whirl.
26:00This dangerous phenomenon occurs mostly during wildfires.
26:05These fires create a big area of super-hot air
26:08just above the ground.
26:09When this scorching air gets mixed
26:11with the cooler air higher up,
26:13it results in a whirlwind
26:14that churns up burning debris and flames.
26:17The most powerful firenadoes
26:19can stretch hundreds of feet into the air.
26:22The House of Mystery in Gold Hill, Oregon,
26:25amazes its visitors with gravity-defying effects.
26:28You can't stand straight there,
26:30always leaning to the side
26:32and having to hold on to something for balance.
26:34Balls roll upwards.
26:36There's also a broom that stands perfectly still
26:39wherever you put it,
26:40unlike virtually everything else in the shack.
26:43The local Native American tribes
26:45called this place the Forbidden Ground,
26:47even before the house was built there,
26:49and they avoid approaching it.
26:52The owners of the shack, though,
26:53decided to turn it into an attraction,
26:55and they succeeded.
26:56They created an atmosphere of mystery around the place
27:00and spread the news about it in newspapers
27:02and later on the Internet.
27:03And voila!
27:05A perfect anomaly is made.
27:07In fact, it's no more than a curiosity.
27:09A human-made optical illusion
27:11that tricks your eyes and other senses.
27:14Now, if you travel to the Philippines,
27:16Indonesia, or Papua New Guinea,
27:18you'll have a chance to see
27:20some of the most unusual and cheerful trees in the world.
27:23The trunk of the rainbow eucalyptus
27:25looks as if it had been painted orange,
27:28green, red, purple, yellow, brown, blue,
27:31hey, you name it!
27:32Some trees are so bright that they seem artificial.
27:35The rainbow eucalyptus regularly sheds strips of bark,
27:39which reveals a bright green layer underneath.
27:41A bit later, this green layer gradually changes its color.
27:46And since the shedding happens at a different time
27:48in different places on the trunk,
27:50the tree starts to look multicolored and very attractive.
27:55Yemen is home to the oldest skyscrapers in the world
27:58and the oldest metropolis.
28:00The ancient city of Shabam
28:01is considered to be the Manhattan of the desert,
28:04due to the collection of mud buildings
28:06popping out of the desert floor.
28:08It used to be a caravan stop during ancient times.