Our world is filled with fascinating natural beauty and wonders. You can spend your whole life traveling and still not see it all. But there are some mesmerizing sights you won’t want to miss. From glowing beaches to rainbow clouds, here are 15 fascinating and rare natural phenomena to see around the world.
Bioluminescent Beaches
In places like Puerto Rico, Florida, and Jamaica, beach-goers get the chance to enjoy a stunning evening lightshow along the shore. Believe it or not, those glowing blue waves are caused by tiny organisms like plankton or dinoflagellates. Both of these microalgae contain luciferase enzymes which react with oxygen to create light. This serves as a defense mechanism for these organisms while offering on-lookers an otherworldly visual display.
Pele’s Hair
Volcanic eruptions are one of the most catastrophic natural events on Earth. But in the wake of the chaos, you may get to observe a truly mind boggling phenomenon. Pele’s hair is a rare volcanic byproduct that looks strikingly similar to strands of hair. After a basaltic volcano erupts, fluid lava may stretch into thin, glass filaments resulting in a hair-like mass. In Hawaii, they call it Pele’s hair after the goddess of volcanoes but in Norway, where it’s also found, they call it witch’s hair.
Sun Halo
On a crisp morning when cirrus clouds are hanging high in the sky, look up. You may be lucky enough to witness a sun halo. These incredible rainbow rings encircling the sun can appear to fill up the entire sky under the right conditions. Sun halos are caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals in wispy cirrus clouds. If you live in a colder region, you’re more likely to witness a sun halo, but they can also appear in warmer areas in the right conditions too.
Rainbow Eucalyptus
It may look like a rouge painter decorated the rainbow eucalyptus but that colorful bark is actually a completely natural phenomenon. The striking colors appear as the tree matures and sheds its bark. The result is a display of bright purple, green, red and orange caused by the tannins in the old bark.
Sailing Stones
Sometimes, nature defies expectations. The sailing stones of Death Valley seemingly move across the desert independently. It wasn’t until 2014 that scientists discovered a possible explanation for the roaming rocks. As it turns out, these stones aren’t actually magic – they move due to a shallow pond of water that freezes below the rock and creates the perfect condition for it to glide along when the wind blows.
Blood Falls
You’re not looking at a scene out of a horror film. In fact, Antarctica’s Blood Falls isn’t gruesome in origin at all. The striking red color comes from an outflow of salt water and iron(III) oxide. The iron-rich water stains the snow of Taylor Glacier crimson red. While it looks suspiciously like a waterfall of blood, what you’re actually seeing is essentially rust.
Ball Lightning
Ball lightning is an extremely rare and unexplained aerial phenomena. This strange weather event can manifest in a variety of forms. The “balls” of electricity can be white, blue, yellow, or orange. While they are always spherical, sizes can range from pea-sized to meters long. Sometimes they’re seen in the sky and other times they are close to the ground. Witnesses report that lightning balls may stick around for seconds or even minutes. Some have claimed they make a hissing noise and are even accompanied by an odor.
“Zombie” Ants
Deep in tropical and temperate rainforests, carpenter ants are at risk of turning into the closest thing to a real zombie we have on Earth. A parasitic fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis spreads by infecting unsuspecting ants. The spores drill into the insect’s exoskeleton and spread throughout its body. Once the infection reaches the ant’s brain, the fungus commandeers its nervous system and forces the insect to climb to the top of a tall plant. It will then lock itself to the plant with its jaw. The ant soon dies, allowing a mushroom stalk to sprout from its body. The fungus can then release more spores to infect its next unlucky host.
Water Spout
Usually found in the tropics, water spouts are essentially water “tornados”. There are three different types: non-tornadic, tornadic and snowspout. Non-tornadic water spouts, also known as fair weather water spouts, are the most common type and are generally not very intense. Tornadic water spouts tend to be more like their land-locked cousins and can be strong and dangerous. Snowspouts are the rarest of the three and are typically seen over the North American Great Lakes region.
Eternal Flame Falls
Beneath a waterfall just north of Boston, an eternal flame continues to burn. Eternal Flame Falls sits on top of a layer of organically-rich Hanover Shale. As the organics within the shale decompose, gases escape through the cracks in the rockbed. One particularly large fissure under the iconic falls releases enough gas to sustain an ever-burning flame, even in a moist environment near a waterfall.
Moeraki Boulders
If you take a trip to Koekohe Beach in New Zealand, you’ll notice over 50 giant spherical rocks lining the shore. Each boulder is roughly two meters high and weighs in at a whopping 7 tons. These calcite concretions formed over 65 million years ago. According to Maori legend, they are gourds washed ashore from a shipwrecked canoe called the Araiteruru. Scientists, however, have found that they formed over time as waves eroded soft rock layers to reveal spherical shapes within.
Nacreous Clouds
Nacreous clouds, also known as ice polar stratospheric clouds, are a beautiful display of iridescent colors trapped within wispy clouds. Most commonly seen in Antarctica, the brilliant sky display is the result of diffraction and interference of light through ice crystals in the clouds. If you’re not willing to endure the subzero temperatures of the southern pole, you may be able to catch a glimpse of nacreous clouds in the Arctic, Scotland, Northern Europe, Alaska, Canada or the northern Russian Federation in rare instances.
Volcanic Lightning
As if volcanic explosions aren’t terrifying enough, under certain conditions, they can also produce lightning from their eruption columns. When lightning flashes across the sky, it’s the result of tension between negatively and positively charged water droplets in the sky. Similarly, small particles of volcanic materials may create enough friction to produce an explosion of energy.
Aurora Borealis
While this phenomenon is already on most of our bucket lists, this roundup wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the aurora borealis. Though the vibrant lights appear mystical, they result from ions in solar winds colliding with Earth’s atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen. Those in the far northern and far southern regions of the planet will see this display regularly but sometimes we’re lucky enough to see it as far south as the Southern United States or the Mediterranean.
Caño Cristales ‘Liquid Rainbow’
Caño Cristales is a Colombian river more commonly known as the River of Five Colors or Liquid Rainbow. When you get an eyeful of the magnificent colors it’s not hard to understand its namesake. Featuring iridescent reds, oranges, yellows, greens and purples, this river attracts countless visitors every year. The vivid colors are mostly due to blooming aquatic plants called Macarenia clavigera. Visitors typically see the best display of this phenomenon from July to November.
