50 Awesome Natural Phenomena That Will Blow Your Mind

41. St Elmo’s Fire

St. Elmo’s Fire is a weather phenomenon that looks like blue or violet fire which sailors attributed religious significance to. This occurs is when plasma is formed by a coronal discharge from a sharp pointed object that is in a strong electric field in the atmosphere. This often happens on the top of the mast of a ship during a storm. This occurrence was named the after St Elmo, the patron saint of sailors.


42. Creepy Frozen Trees

Rising eerily from the frozen landscape, ice-encrusted trees look like something from a science-fiction film. Frost-covered trees are located close to the Arctic Circle, where temperatures can drop as low as -40C. In the dramatic sub-zero conditions, the snow and frost become so thick that everything is covered in a thick blanket.


43. The Hum

Residents of the town of Taos, in north-central New Mexico, have been hearing a hum of unknown origin, the so-called “Taos Hum.” Only 2% of the population can hear it, and no one knows where the sound comes from. The hum seems to have first been reported in the early 1990s. The Hum is most often described as sounding somewhat like a distant idling diesel engine. Hums have also been reported all over the world, especially in Europe and on the Big Island of Hawaii, which is typically related to the volcanic action.


44. Blood Rain

A blood-red rain fell in 2001 in Kerala, India. Yellow, green, and black rain were also reported. Color rain was also reported in Kerala in 1896 and several times since, most recently in June 2012. It was initially thought that the rains were clouded by fallout from a meteor burst, but a study of the water sample collected concluded that the rains had been clouded by airborne spores from a locally prolific terrestrial green alga from the genus Trentepohlia.


45. Spherical Boulders

Spherical boulders are molded over millions or even billions of years by a natural but long-misunderstood geological phenomenon called concretion. The concretion process occurs when sediment that has not yet hardened into rock accumulates around some sort of hard nuclei, such as a fossil or shell, and then binds together with a cementing mineral such as calcite. A natural concrete then forms in the space between sediment grains, banding the layers of sand together around the core, often in a spherical shape. In the Torysh Valley in western Kazakhstan, a stretch of semi-desert landscape is covered in concretions ranging from tiny marbles to huge boulders nearly the size of a car. The Moeraki Boulders of the Koekohe Beach in New Zealand are also spherical.


46. Lenticular Clouds

Lenticular Clouds are stationary lens-shaped and sometimes multilayered clouds that form at high altitudes.  They are formed when moist air is forced to flow upward around mountain tops.  Due to their shape, they have been offered as an explanation for some UFO sightings.


47. Funnel Cloud

A funnel-shaped cloud contains condensed water droplets.  It extends from the base of a cloud (usually cumulonimbus), but never reaches the ground. Funnel clouds are usually visible as a cone-shaped protuberance from the main cloud base. They are most frequently spotted during thunderstorms.  If it touches the ground it becomes a tornado.


48. Water Spout

A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex connected to a cumuliform cloud that forms over a body of water.  They are often weaker than most of their land counterparts.  They do not suck up water.  They are mostly observed in tropic and warm climate zones.


49. Virga

Virga is an observable wisp of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground.  It is very common in the desert and in temperate climates. In North America, it is commonly seen in the Western United States and Canadian Prairies.


50. Belt of Venus

The Belt of Venus or Venus’s Girdle is an atmospheric phenomenon seen shortly after sunset or before sunrise.  A pinkish glow can be observed in the horizon that extends roughly about 10°–20° above it.  Often times the glow is separated by a dark layer from the horizon which is the Earth’s shadow. This pink color is due to backscattering of reddened light from the rising or setting sun. A very similar phenomenon can be observed during a total solar eclipse.

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1 COMMENT

  1. I loved this slide show of natures most incredible dances. I would like to return to it but I don’t know how to save it. One could never tire of looking at such natual magic.

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