Like on another planet: 12 amazing places on Earth

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There are a huge number of places on Earth that amaze the imagination with their beauty or scale. But there are also those, a visit to which is akin to a trip into space. And not at all because they are so difficult to access, but because they bear little resemblance to the species that people are used to seeing on our planet.

To your attention 12 points on the map of the Earth, which impress even the experienced tourist with unearthly landscapes.

1 Namib Desert (South Africa)

The most ancient desert on the planet even has a name that speaks: the word "namib" is translated from the Nama language as "a place where there is nothing." And this definition is incredibly accurate: the area of this place is 1,900 km along the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean, and apart from sand, gravel and rare bare, as if petrified trees, there is one void. As if you really find yourself on a planet that was once inhabited, and then a local Apocalypse happened - and nothing remained.

2. Large prismatic source (USA)

There are a lot of hot springs on Earth, but the one in the American Yellowstone is one such. And the point is not even that the Ornn is the largest in the United States and the third largest on the planet: its depth is 49 meters, and its dimensions are 75 by 91 meters. It's just that its appearance is too unearthly: as if it were a large alien eye on the body of the Earth.

3. Salt flat Uyuni (Bolivia)

The Bolivian salt marsh Uyuni is considered the largest on the planet - the dried salt lake has an area of 10 588 square kilometers. In addition, it is located at an altitude of more than 3, 5 thousand meters above sea level - in the Andes. But when you get there, you get the impression that you are no longer on earth, because the clouds are so accurately reflected from the salt marsh that the illusion of "sky under your feet" is created.

4. Skaftafell National Park (Iceland)

Iceland is famous for its volcanoes and harsh climate. But not everyone knows that there are real ice caves. We are talking about the Skaftafell National Park, where full-fledged ice crusts are formed from frozen water every autumn. True, this beauty is short-lived and dangerous: tourists can enter without risking their lives only in winter, when the frosts are the most severe. In addition, you can move no further than six meters in them, but the impressions of such a cave are certainly worth it.

5. Red Beach (Panjin, China)

Looking at images of the Chinese beach in Panjin urban district, you might think that it was somewhere on Mars that a lawn suddenly grew. But in fact, everything is much more mundane: it turns out that the soil in that area is famous for such a concentration of alkaline compounds that only a plant from the Sueda species can survive there. It just has such a bright shade. By the way, during the year the color of the plant can change: for example, in April, when it is just beginning to bloom, it is only slightly pink, but by summer it changes to a deep red.

6. Spotted Lake (Canada)

Another place where the concentration of certain chemical compounds determines the appearance of an unearthly landscape is in Canada. Only in a place known as "Spotted Lake" is the highest concentration of magnesium sulfate on the planet. There you can also find calcium, sodium, titanium and even silver. In the warm season, when water evaporates, minerals remain on the surface, which form bizarre multicolored spots, similar to craters of unpopulated planets. Moreover, the color of these spots can be different - blue, yellow, green or earthy.

7. Death Valley (California, USA)

Perhaps a more famous place on the planet with unearthly views than California's Death Valley will be difficult to find. As the hottest and driest region in North America, it is renowned for its dry, cracked land, dramatic desert foothills, and even the phenomenon of moving rocks. The landscapes there are indeed quite post-apocalyptic. That is why Death Valley has often appeared as alien landscapes in films - in the legendary Star Wars, for example.

8. Seven-colored sands (Mauritius)

This unusual place is located in Mauritius, in the southwestern part of the island. There, as a result of several transformations of the basalt soil, a small area has emerged, famous for sand dunes of seven different shades. One gets the impression that sand was brought there from different parts of the Earth and from a couple of other planets.

9. Danxia Geopark (China)

Another colorful place, only this time it is about rock at all, is located in the Danxia Geopark in China. These elevations owe their appearance to geological processes: even in the Cretaceous period, sandstone was gradually deposited there, alternating with other minerals, which gave the area such a variety of shades.

10. Pamukkale (Turkey)

Humanity also owes this beautiful unearthly place to nature. Pamukkale, which is translated from Turkish as "cotton castle", bears the status of a UNESCO heritage site. It is not surprising, because this is not the only geothermal source on Earth, but this kind of it is really unique. And the thing is that a helmet of terrace baths, in which water accumulates, is a precipitation of calcium. That is why the terrain has such a color.

11. Dallol Volcano (Ethiopia)

The Ethiopian volcano Dallol is known for being the only volcano on the planet with a crater below sea level, and it arose quite recently - in 1926 as a result of a powerful phreatic explosion. Then manganese and iron began to wash out to the surface, forming salt terraces, and the lava had an unusual composition - it includes sulfur and andesite. All this became the reason for the appearance of such an unusual landscape that it seems as if it was filmed somewhere on Venus.

12. Lassen-Volcanic (Northern California, USA)

Another place, which with its multi-colored dunes is very similar to an unearthly landscape, is located in the Lassen-Volcanic National Park. And even from its name it is clear that volcanic activity played a large role in the formation of this impressive landscape. Indeed, it would look like the surface of some other planet, if not for the completely earthly trees that grow on top of colored soil, as if nothing had happened.