45 Most Unbelievable Natural Phenomena You Didn’t Know Existed

The world is truly a beautiful place filled with wonder. Let’s venture around the world together and explore some of the most unbelievable natural phenomena!

But soon after the confirmation, the exploratory well collapsed into a wide crater. Thinking the methane would burn up in weeks, the geologists set it on fire. But it is among the world’s largest natural gas reserves. The doorway to hell is still burning today.

When oppositely charged particles collide within the volcanic plume, they create an electric field marked by a lightning strike. Volcanic lightning is a dark yet magnificent show! It is famous by the name, dirty thunderstorm.

This spectacular show is a significant tourist attraction. Scientists are yet to pinpoint the exact cause of the never-ending lightning. One study concluded that when warm air meets cold air, they create an electric charge resulting in lightning.

When the Sulphur melts, it rolls down the volcano carrying with it blue flames. It then appears like blue lava. These blue flames are best observed in night hours. Similar blue flames are observed when wildfires erupt in the Yellowstone National Park, which has high Sulphur levels.

The deep-sea photographer, Anatoly Beloschin, captured this phenomenon first. Beneath the halocline, you will need even brighter lights to navigate the abyss. If you love dark and thrilling adventures, this is an adventure worth scuba diving lessons.

The great blue hole started as a limestone cave during the ice age. As the sea level rose, water flooded in the cave. The water collapsed the cave to form a deeper vertical cave in the ocean called the Great Blue Hole.

Ookota brought in Japan’s NHK TV crew to document it. They soon found the artist: a white-spotted pufferfish who would work day and night for a week. The art was a breeding area with many nests. Yet, the female would only choose one nest to lay her eggs.

During the night, bioluminescent zooplankton (like copepods) come to the water surface to feed on bioluminescent algae (phytoplankton). These bioluminescent organisms create surreal blue, green, and red waves perfect for a romantic setting.

An aurora happens when the sun’s ions (called solar wind) collide with atoms in the earth’s atmosphere. The collision releases energy that results in a glowing halo in the sky. If the ions collide with oxygen atoms, the result is red, green, and yellow lights. When they collide with nitrogen atoms, they result in bluish light.

Light pillars form when light interacts with ice crystals suspended in the air. The ice crystals reflect the light, trajecting a colored light beam. The light beam is even more stunning when the air is saturated with ice crystals.

The result is a weakly colored white bow. When all the fog droplets have the same size, the resulting fog bow may have different layers of intensely colored white rings. Fogbows always appear in the opposite direction of the sun. When they happen at night, they are called lunar bows.

Red is the primary color of the landforms. That’s because most rocks in the region are red sandstones. Groundwater that passes through the cracks in these rocks leaves behind mineral deposits. These minerals react with oxygen, forming differently colored oxides. The result is the rainbow colors you see on the Danxia landforms. The rainbow-colored mountains were listed in The World Heritage List in 2010.

Icebergs get other different colors from minerals and dead algae. The algae matter creates different shades of yellow, brown, and green. When the frozen water contains sediments picked up by rolling water, it forms black stripes.

Salar De Uyuni’s extensive surface is saturated with salt and chlorides. After rains, the surface forms a gigantic reflective mirror that’s a sight to behold. The salt pan is a prime breeding ground for flamingos. It is also used as a filming location, like filming Star Wars: The Last Jedi and other movies.

The Eye features concentric rings of different rocks from different ages, some dating back 100 million years ago. Volcanic activity exposed the rock layers to erosion agents. Geologists hold that the eye is a result of deep wind and water erosion spanning over centuries.

Groundwater created caverns within the limestone bed till the cavern roofs collapsed to form rocky towers. Rainwater eroded the softer rock surfaces until all that was left were tough rocks. The stone forest is tough to navigate, but it’s a worthwhile adventure.

Another theory suggests that the surrounding grass colonizes the circular region, preventing other plants’ roots from accessing the water reservoir. One research concluded that sand termites and grass activity are plausible explanations for fairy circles in the Namib desert.

The Moeraki boulders began as marine mud over 60 million years ago. The mudstone grew larger as more marine mud was collected and cemented around the boulder to form concretions. For many years, these boulders were buried in layers of mudstone. But as the waves washed away the mudstone layers, they revealed spherical boulders.

A group of researchers set out to demystify this rhythmic migration pattern in 2010. They found that the starlings have no designated leader. Instead, when one starling changes direction, the rest follow suit immediately. Another study determined that each starling responds to the nearest seven starlings’ immediate movement.

Researchers suggest that the sardines migrate when seawater temperatures drop below 21 degrees Celsius. Each sardine has a lateral line that responds to pressure changes, allowing them to move in one large motion. When one sardine changes direction, the rest follow. It is similar to the starlings’ murmuration.

These crabs follow the same paths year after year when going to and returning from their breeding journey. The migration can take up to 18 days as the crabs crawl over everything in their way in one mass movement. The red crabs time the migration such that the females will lay eggs and hatch them right before the high tides to release their hatched eggs in the sea.

Ballooning is another spider behavior that results in spider rain. As baby spiders migrate to find food, they travel using their threads and the wind. The thread forms a parachute.

First, rains fill up the playa with water. The water then freezes during winter nights. But in the daytime, the sun heats and melts the ice sheets, breaking them into floating ice panels. Wind pushes the ice panels, which in turn pushes the rocks to glide through the playa.

At the collision point, air rises to form a line of clouds. When it gets colder at night, an inversion (an area where temperature rises with height) forms as the air condenses and starts to descend. The pattern continues with air rising in front and descending at the back of the cylinder. At high saturation, morning glory clouds form.

Lenticular clouds are formed when valleys or mountains disrupt the airflow creating a turbulence area (eddy). When moist wind flows over the eddy and encounters low temperature, the water condenses to form a stationary lenticular cloud. They may disappear as suddenly as they appeared.

The plant’s roots absorb the soil water from the ground. As the water goes up the stem, it freezes and expands until the stem splits open. The water freezes instantly on exposure to cold air. As more water reaches the split stem, it forms protruding ice crystals that resemble petals, ribbons, or cotton candy.

While other eucalyptus trees grow in sub-tropical regions, this eucalypt species grows in lowland rainforests. The rainbow eucalyptus sheds its orange-tinted barks to reveal red, orange, brownish, and grayish streaks. It is no wonder that these trees are planted for their aesthetic value in Hawaii and other states.

Dating back 50 million years, the unique tree resembles a tall umbrella with ever-green leaves. The leaves grow at the branch edges and point upwards. The dragon tree thrives on rocky grounds and arid conditions. The densely packed leaves prevent excessive water loss just as they provide shade for people and animals. Additionally, the trees grow close together to survive on less water and soil.

The two joint leaves store enough water to last the lithops through a dry season. Everything about the plants, from the leaf’s patterns to the almost absent stems, creates the perfect camouflage and arid-area adaptation for the lithops. They need little maintenance, which makes them a popular houseplant.

The Maelstrom of Saltstraumen in Norway is the strongest in the world. Though smaller watercraft are usually the ones at risk of getting pulled into a maelstrom, large watercraft have to wait this one out. At its strongest, it runs 10metre wide and 5 meters deep.

The minerals arrive in the lake as run-off from surrounding areas. As water flows to the lake, it collects minerals like magnesium sulfate, titanium, and silver. When the crystals form, they resemble the present mineral’s color. The surreal spotted lake is closed off from the public to protect the reserve.

On warm days, the gas quickly dissipates in the air. But during the winters, the water surface freezes, trapping the methane gas within the waterbody. Methane bubbles form on the water surface as floating white disks. When spring comes, the frozen bubbles melt, releasing the methane gas into the air.

Caves also form when meltwater from the glacier runs through the glacier’s bottom. Glaciologists use these caves to access the glacier’s interior. Ice water drops from their roofs, and sometimes rocks fall onto the cave’s floor when the ice melts.

Below Naica, there’s a magma chamber that heats the mineral-saturated groundwater in the cavern. Over the past 500,000 years. The extreme heat crystallized the minerals in the water to form giant selenite crystals jotting from the walls and floor. The tallest crystals measure 36 ft high and 55 tones heavy.

The Amazon river normally flows to the Atlantic Ocean. But when the ocean tide is highest, water flows from the Atlantic to the Amazon river, creating the noisy Amazonian tidal bores. The waves ride up to 13ft tall, traveling up to 500 miles into the Amazon river. The Amazonian Tidal Bores (or Poporoca) happen at least twice every year, around February and March. Surfers are always looking forward to these!

In Hverir, there is mud so hot that it actually does boil and let off steam. When viewing the landscape, you see large clouds rising from the ground in various places. It’s probably not somewhere you’d like to let your kids run and play, but it makes for some breathtaking pictures.

While humans might be a little large for this to happen the mummification does actually occur to birds and other small animals. The lake is full of calcium carbonate. When a small creature ventures into the lake, it quickly calcifies. The lake is not exactly a great tourist destination, but it is an interesting and beautiful thing to see.

In colder regions where volcanoes are present, the cool air fights against the heat. As this happens, huge steam clouds come out of the volcanoes, making them appear to be snowing. That’s a stark contrast to the normal view.

Agitated clouds are both mesmerizing and somewhat terrifying. They are also extremely rare. The last documented sighting was in 2009, but they are so interesting that scientists all over search for them regularly.

Mammatus clouds are made mostly of ice, and, as you can see, they are very large. When they do appear, they can cover hundreds of miles of sky. They typically hang around for ten minutes or a little more. If you see them, get your camera out because it’s a fortunate view. Not everyone has the pleasure of witnessing this fascinating occurrence.

At first glance, these columns appear to be man-made ruins, but they are actually completely natural formations. When a volcano erupts, lava pours out. Over time, it cools, takes shape, and eventually cracks. These columns were formed during such a process.

Glaciers are a normal part of the water in cold months, of course, but most glaciers appear to be white. However, as snow falls onto the Icelandic glaciers, it compresses. The mixture of snow and ice makes the glaciers an intense sky blue color. A truly magnificent natural phenomenon to see.

 In the winter, the lake freezes, and that glassy appearance becomes even more visible. Huge chunks of ice can be seen all over the surface, looking oddly similar to rock candy. And thanks to the clear water, that ice shows as a gorgeous hue of turquoise.

If you’ve ever played with a prism, you know that when the light hits it in just the right way, you see a rainbow of colors. The same concept happens here, which is why you can only see these clouds well in polar regions as the sun is setting or rising.

This ice formation is rather rare as it requires a very specific climate to produce this silky, wool-like ice. You may be able to find hair ice naturally in leaves and deadwood in broadleaf forests. They are mainly found within locations between latitudes of 45 and 55 °N.