(Sorry
for some of the type sizes; blogger wouldn't let me fix them.)
The
world is a stranger, more beautiful place than you could ever imagine.
1. Bioluminescent phytoplankton can create a
beautiful blue glow when they are washed to shore as in this picture taken in
Dongying, Shandong Province, China.
REX/Shutterstock
2. There is a lake in Senegal that turns entirely
pink due to the light-absorbing algae it contains.
Wenn
3. The Zhangye Danxia Landform in Gansu, China,
is formed out of colored rocks resulting from red sandstone and deposits of
minerals building up over the course of 24 million years.
Getty
Images
4. A blue whale’s heart is as large as a small
car, with some arteries large enough for a human to swim through.
“Anim1754
- Flickr - NOAA Photo Library” by NOAA Photo Library
5. Some of the largest natural crystals ever discovered were formed by hydrothermal fluids in the “Cave of Crystals” below
the Naica Mine in Mexico.
7. In Christmas Island, Australia, red crabs
migrate en masse from the forest to the ocean to breed, during the spring.
8. There’s a tree in Happy Valley, Hong Kong,
that has adapted its roots to grow in the pattern of the brick pavement around
it.
commons.wikimedia.org
9. The Moeraki Boulders on the Otaki coast of New
Zealand occur isolated and in clusters. Their highly spherical shape is the
result of wave erosion.
flic.kr
10. During the rainy season, 4,000 square miles of
salt flats in Bolivia transforms into the world’s largest naturally occurring
mirror.
Stock
Connection/REX/Shutterstock
11. Nobody knows where the water from Devil’s Kettle Falls in
Minnesota goes. Water falls into a giant pothole without any discoverable
exit. Researchers have dumped multiple different kinds of materials
into the falls, including colored dyes, logs, and ping pong balls, but no one
has ever been able to figure out where it goes.
12. Most regular clouds weigh around 215 thousand
pounds. The average storm cloud weighs around 105 million pounds.
13. In 1969, scientist Ágúst Bjarnason found a
tomato plant in the lava of the volcanic island of Surtsey. It had grown from
the feces of one of the very few scientists allowed to visit the island.
14. The species of jellyfish called Turritopsis dohrnii is
technically biologically immortal.
Getty
15. The sounds made by the wind blowing in the
Sagano Bamboo Forest in Japan has been voted as a “must-be-preserved sound” by
the Japanese government.
Flickr: beggs
16. There is a place in southwestern Turkey called
Pamukkale, where natural terraces containing hot springs form due to carbonate
buildup. “Pamukkale” means “cotton castle.”
17. The largest glacier in Europe, the Vatnajokull
national park, is so massive that in the summer months, the meltwater creates
ice caverns that are large enough to be explored.
flic.kr
18. The world’s largest cave wasn’t discovered
until 1991. Son Doong Cave in Vietnam could fit 15 of the world’s largest
aircraft carriers inside it, and the ceiling is high enough to contain the
47-floor Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
flic.kr
19. A small treehouse called La Casa del Arbol at
the edge of a cliff near the Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador is home to “The
Swing at the Edge of the World.”
National
Geographic
Hanging
from the tree house is a swing that lets you fly over the precipice without any
restraints or harnesses.
20. There is a massive, round sinkhole off the
coast of Belize that’s 1,000 feet across and 400 feet deep.
National
Geographic
It was
formed by repeated periods of glaciation, and sits in the middle Lighthouse
Reef. Because of that, the waters are often crystal clear, and is home to many
unique varieties of fish, making it a popular destination for divers.
21. Hummingbirds can fly backwards. They are the
only known animal that can do this.
22. The roof of the “Glowworm Grotto” in the
Waitomo Caves lights up like the night sky thanks to a luminescent species of
glowworm called Arachnocampa luminosa that are
only found in New Zealand.
forevergone / reddit.com / Via reddit.com
BuzzFeed
Some strange (but not
necessarily beautiful cartoons:
This cartoon is inappropriate here, but funny.
Carol Wyer's newest book, "The Missing Girls", is, I believe, the best in this series so far.
There was no way I could have predicted the ending!!
It's available on Amazon starting today.
UK 🇬🇧 http://amzn.to/2stTbwj
US 🇺🇸 http://amzn.to/2sXB1Ej
US 🇺🇸 http://amzn.to/2sXB1Ej
