nature
3 beautiful and bizarre natural phenomena
following on from the original list (see here), here’s another small bunch of natural phenomena notable for their rare and bizarre beauty. (oh, and a belated merry christmas / premature happy new year to everybody who deserves them).
1. the spotted lake
the spotted lake (kliluk), situated in osoyoos, canada, contains one of the highest concentrations of minerals in the world (mainly epsom salts, calcium and sodium sulphates). the lake’s healing waters were used by native indians to alleviate aches and pains and during the first world war the salts were skimmed from the surface in huge amounts to be transported to eastern american munitions factories - sometimes as much as a ton per day.
the pattern you see below appears during hot sunny days as the water evaporates and the minerals crystallize to form hundreds of incredible yellow pools.
photo credit: liembo
2. red tide
red tide, the common name for ‘algal bloom’, is caused by high levels of phytoplankton accumulating to form dense, visible clouds near the surface of the water. due to the varying colouring of the phytoplankton’s pigments, these algae blooms range in colour too. although aesthetically stunning, this naturally occuring phenomena sometimes results in a high death rate amongst certain marine life due to an increase in karenia brevis algae.
3. penitentes
these amazing ice spikes (generally known as penitentes due to their resemblence to processions of white-hooded monks) can be found on mountain glaciers and vary in size dramatically: from a few centimetres to 5 metres in height.
‘initially, the sun’s rays cause random dimples on the surface of the snow. once such a dimple is formed, sunlight can be reflected within the dimple, increasing the localised sublimation. as this accelerates, deep troughs are formed, leaving peaks of ice standing between them’ - new scientist
discussion
53 comments for “3 beautiful and bizarre natural phenomena”
post a comment
deputydog favourites
- adaptive reuse
- art of manliness
- bldgblog
- boing boing
- cineleet
- dark roasted blend
- environmental graffiti
- fogonazos
- freshome
- gcaptain
- grow-a-brain
- look at this
- matt gilluley photography
- metube
- miss cellania
- neatorama
- plastique monkey
- pruned
- startling moniker
- super colossal
- things
- think or thwim
- unique daily
- videosift
- web urbanist
WOW!!
That spiked snow is absolutely artistic in its beauty
imagine just wandering aimlessly thru it
How beautiful nature is, the bottom picture of the ice spikes looks almost like a sea of ice.
Regards.
that was a nice year reading your blog, and a nice last post to end it. Happy new year, and keep on being.
God’s created natural beauty
farrukh, it’s not God… The explanation is next to each of the figures, and it doesn’t require magic.
Wops
Beautiful photos 
neapsakoma
bet toj juroj nelabai noreciau maudytis :D:D
Thank you.
man tai tie ezeriukai geriausi, kaip kiausinienes daug atrodo ;-0
Farrukh shut up, there’s no such thing as god, it’s nature!
Quite nice these photographs, i’d like to view these spots myselve!!
Killjoys…if Farrukh wants to believe God did it, what harm is it doing you? Sheesh…it’s beautiful. So what?
What am I talking to trolls for, anyway?
Me thinks the Klingons created them all!
Methinks the KAHN created them!
you wouldn’t think red tide was so beautiful if you saw the piles of dead fish on the beaches, and the dolphin corpses floating in the water.
It’s not completely natural either, It’s partially fueled by human activity and pollution.
I don’t think anybody ought to be allowed to believe in anything.
But what loverley images.
Excellent Photos, I enjoyed looking at them. Truly a phenomenon.
I’m not sure that the first one can really be classed as beautiful to be honest. Big sickly pools of standing water… Its fascinating and awe inspiring but im not sure id streach to beautiful.
I loved that underwater picture. I can’t believe that some people actually don’t care if we destroy this earth becaue they will be dead by then. Destroying this beautiful earth will in my opinion be like cutting up the Mona Lisa. You’re not just destroying a ‘thing’ you are destroying a masterpiece. And this earth is a master piece. Beautiful pics! Have a good ‘08!
ugh. jesi, if you’re anti water pollution by humans, would you mind posting in a thread with a subject more along those lines? they are some pretty beautiful pictures. that’s all. leave it alone.
I love the spotted lakes. really cool looking.
Those photos are absolutely stunning. God or no God, Nature is truly an awe-inspiring force in our world.
Wtf that be funny if he just fell and *SPLAT* snow spike penatrates his spleen
Stunning photos. God’s creation is so amazing.
Does anoyone have some coordinates for Google Earth for these locations? I’d really like to see them from above.
Beautiful ice spikes!
Thank God for such beauty in the world.
its fair to equate god and nature. they are synonomous for ‘the force which guides creation of life’ and the ‘force which guides certain activities on the earth (or perhaps all existence)’.. regardless, the pictures are quite nice. I’ve heard of these things before but never seen such good photos, Thank you.
Those ice spikes are photoshopped, the shadows are totally wrong. Definitely photoshopped.
Phil is wrong, his reason has no real basis. Definitely wrong.
(Ice is translucent honey, it might seem to glow even if is supposed to be a shadow, and there is nothing wrong with those shadows either)
After seeing this .. and people can still say there’s no God?
God has nothing to do with this; science explains everything here. Stop putting your god in my science!
Wow, amazing.
Yes Kat, I can say there is no god because it is true. It is only weak minds unable to comprehend simple explanations of the obvious that seek supernatural causes for everything.
The one picture of the red tide, looks a lot like the beach area near my home. Does anyone know the location of this picture?
Thank you for sharing. I am inspired with such nature and beauty.
Pearl
Re: kat, farrukh
I can only quote one better than me:
“Is’nt it enough to see that the garden is beautiful without having to believe there are fairies at the bottom of it”
Those who believe in science here are insecure about those beliefs or else they wouldn’t get so upset at those who believe in god, I’m a worldly man myself but I do agree with Thomas Jefferson, read his thoughts and grow up. Be tolerant of others beliefs whether those beliefs be in god or science:
“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
I love it when people argue about me. It helps to sell books.
Dan Dennett notes that the atheist and monotheist are the same: the atheist just believes in one less god. And when the monotheist realizes why he doesn’t believe in the rest, he’ll also realize why the atheist believes in none.
I would argue that that they are the same in the opposite direction, too: the modern, ‘naturalistic’ atheist accepts several unexplainable ‘phenomena’ (e.g., gravity [an unmoved mover in the tradition of Aristotle’s and Aquinas’ God], ‘fields’ [corporeal ether, anyone?], etc.) in order to explain the facts. And when he understands why he believes in these ‘explanations,’ he will understand why the theist has accepts one more.
Anyone who cares to debate these points can e-mail me at: junkmail.fer@gmail.com I would be happy to respond.
Also, the pictures are great! But why stop at three? A hidden message of Trinity?
i was on a beach with friends in wales, UK once. We were going cliff climbing at night. And we noticed that we were leaving blue glowing footprints. as we got further onto the beach there was more blue glowing. like millions of little blue dots everywhere. We were gobsmacked, we found this pool of water that was glowing like it had mood lights in it. we then chucked a rock in and it shimmered with colour between blue and purple and green, like a computer visualization. was amazinbg, we were gobsmacked and didnt know wot the hell it was. we then freaked out coz we thought i cud radio active waste. so scuttled off the beach. later that week we found out it was phenomenon that happens hardly ever, like once in every 1000 years for each beach. where certain deep sea algae comes to the shore and reacts with the air and light and starts glowing.
Re: Phil Rustage
But to see the beautiful garden and deny the existence of a gardener…IF God exists (which I do believe), that’s a pretty big insult.
Osoyoos in located in the extreme south of British Columbia,Canada, - almost at the US border(look at Lake Okanagon and go south) sorry, don’t know co-ordinates!
even here admiring nature the fools show their ugly side. the earth is a beautiful place much too nice to be random. God is Alive
There is no God, if there was he would have been along with the bug spray to rid this beautiful planet of the nasty virus called mankind long before now. Look at the pictures enjoy while you can.
Farrukh you are dumb.
wheelnut53, just because there is order, does not mean there is this god figure.
Hey. Yeah, those algal blooms might look pretty or even beautiful, but they ARE caused by pollution. The waves of algal blooms are unnatural and a product of us dumping poison and toxins into the world’s oceans. We do need to appreciate the earth’s beauty, but we need to realize that beauty can also come with some more understanding. Algal blooms are actually kind of scary- look it up.
The snow spikes are truly amazing. I could wander through the spikes all day.
Those are very cool pictures and interesting facts.
Hi there… nope, “god” had nothing to do with me. I was here long before you invented him and I’ll be here long after those fairly tales die off. But thanks for the nice words!
No words can describe how I enjoy the above images which are so amaing, so grand. The scene is very fresh to me. How I wish I could be participating.