9 places on Earth that are hard to believe

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

Volcanoes with blue lava, singing stones, boiling rivers - what just does not happen on planet Earth!

A boiling river. In the tropics of the Amazon, a small river with a length of 6.4 km flows in Peru. It is filled with natural boiling water at 91 ° C! Usually rivers are heated by volcanoes, but the nearest is located no closer than 700 km. There is a theory that water is heated underground by geothermal activity, and this is a unique case. The river was discovered by the Peruvian explorer Andres Ruzo; today there is even a project for the separate protection of a unique reservoir.

Movile Cave with a hydrogen sulfide atmosphere. In southeastern Romania, workers accidentally discovered a cave completely isolated from the world for the past 500,000 years. Inside there is a lake with water saturated with sulfur, and the atmosphere is saturated with carbon dioxide, methane and hydrogen sulfide. There is life in this sulfuric hell - 33 endemic species; all devoid of eyes and able to live and reproduce in the atmosphere of the cave.

In the British town of Naresborough, there is Mother Shipton's cave, which contains a source that turns things into stone. The process takes three to five months, but there is no end to those who want to leave a teddy bear or bicycle underwater. It was once believed that the source was cursed, but scientists have found a more realistic explanation - its water is simply overly saturated with minerals.

Gruner See is a park that goes under water every spring. The Hochschwab Mountains, which surround a small Austrian park, collect huge amounts of snow during the winter. There is so much of it that during the snowmelt, the water fills the lowland where the park is located, turning the area into a lake. In July, the water recedes. In the spring you can look at the underwater bench, bridge and paths, and in the fall you can use them on land.

Double wood Casorzo. In Piedmont, Italy, there is an incredible twin tree - cherry on top of a mulberry. Usually such cases are explained by parasitism, but not this one - both plants are healthy and of full size. Perhaps a cherry tree bone that somehow got to the top of a mulberry was able to take root through its empty trunk and reach the soil.

Lightning Catatumbo. In western Venezuela, where the Catatumbo River flows into Lake Maracaibo, an eternal thunderstorm is raging. More precisely, almost eternal - up to 260 thunderstorm nights a year, up to 10 hours a day and up to 28 lightning strikes per minute. Perhaps this is due to the shape of the surrounding mountains, directing warm winds to collide with the cold winds of the Andes. And all of this is fueled by methane from an oil field nearby.

Hokkaido's blue pond. The water of this pond has a unique shade that changes color when viewed from different angles. The pond appeared in 1988, when a dam was erected in that area to protect it from mudflows. Scientists explain its unusual color by the admixture of aluminum hydroxide particles in the water. It reflects blue color much better than regular water.

Jingle Rocks Park (Bucks County, PA). At the top of the hill is an area filled with unusual stones of unknown origin. If you hit them, they make a sound more like the sound of a metal pipe. The reason for this phenomenon is not fully known.

Ijen is a volcano with blue lava. More precisely, with blue liquid sulfur in places where sulfur dioxide ignites. The gas then condenses into a liquid flowing down the slopes of the mountain. In order not to get poisoned, scientists and photographers wear gas masks when visiting the volcano, but they still come regularly to observe the phenomenon.