Fantastic Natural Phenomena

The classical natural wonders are huge and hard to miss - vast canyons,

giant mountains and the like. Many of the most fantastic natural

phenomena, however, are also least easy to spot. Some are incredibly
rare
while others are located in hard-to-reach parts of the planet. From
moving
rocks to mammatus clouds and red tides to fire rainbows, here are seven
of
the most spectacular phenomenal wonders of the natural world.

1) Sailing Stones

The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley
have
been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up
to
hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a

time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds
and
surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not

explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at

different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics

calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of
hundreds
of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.

2) Columnar Basalt

When a thick lava flow cools it contracts vertically but cracks

perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric
regularity
- in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal
extrusions
that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such
examples
is the Giant's Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above) though
the
largest and most widely recognized would be Devil's Tower in Wyoming.

Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions

are exposed to air or water.

3) Blue Holes

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get

their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when
viewed
from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds
of
feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are

largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water

circulation - leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however,
contain
ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their

depths.

4) Red Tides

Red tides are also known as algal blooms - sudden influxes of massive

amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of
an
ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be

relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that
cause
the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even
humans
have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to
have
been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in
ride
tides are not harmful in small numbers.

5) Ice Circles

While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of

conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed
by
eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular
motion.
As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear

relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an

essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of

over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at

different sizes as shown above.

6) Mammatus Clouds

True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers
of
a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed

primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each
direction
and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen

minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the

messengers - appearing around, before or even after severe weather.

7) Fire Rainbows

A circumhorizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of
right
time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within
the
clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but

only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to

the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with
one
another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomena.