Seven natural phenomena that scientists are unsuccessfully racking their brains over
It is the 21st century, but on our planet, geographical discoveries are still being made, previously unknown animals are discovered, cosmic, geological and weather phenomena are being learned. And yet nature continues to keep a great many secrets!
When they will be revealed and whether they will be at all - time will tell. In the meantime, the site of the TV channel "My Planet" offers a selection of extremely mysterious natural phenomena, the origin and essence of which are not yet known to man.
Earthquake lights
Where: Most often found in Italy, Greece, France, Germany, China and South America, rarely in Japan and North America.
According to researchers, ominous fires are rare - about 0.5% of all earthquakes in the world. They resemble bluish flames, lightning strikes, flashes in the sky, or floating balls. Sometimes they are observed several hours before the onset of earthquakes, sometimes during it.
The theories and versions of scientists until 2014 relied on disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field or the piezoelectric effect (the generation of electricity by compressing certain crystals). But in the new study, the lights are believed to be attributed to tiny crystalline defects in certain rocks, such as basalt, that, when stressed by seismic shears, release electrical charges. However, there is no consensus yet, scientists do not dare to put an end to the knowledge of this natural phenomenon.
Promotional video:
Earthquake lights seen minutes before a powerful, destructive 8 magnitude earthquake in China in 2008
Ball lightning
Where: wherever thunderstorm processes are observed.
Lightning, which looks like a glowing plasma ball floating in the air, is a rare and mysterious natural phenomenon. None of the numerous theories about the origin and course of this phenomenon is generally accepted in the scientific world. Moreover, versions were expressed that reduced his existence to hallucinations. Only in 2012, Chinese scientists managed to record detailed spectra of ball lightning using spectrometers. They were dominated by substances characteristic of soil (iron, silicon, calcium), while ionized nitrogen is released in the spectrum of ordinary lightning. But most of the questions remain unanswered.
Green ray
Where: an open horizon under the obligatory two conditions - clean air and a cloudless sky from the side where the sun sets or rises.
An exceptionally rare optical effect manifests itself as a flash of green, less often blue light at the moment of the disappearance of the solar disk below the horizon (or appearing above the horizon), more often of the sea. Flash duration is from one to two seconds to five minutes. Although a unique case is recorded in history. During one of the expeditions to the South Pole, American pilot and polar explorer Richard Byrd observed the green beam for 35 minutes! This happened at the end of the polar night, when the edge of the solar disk first appeared above the horizon and moved along it. The mechanism of the emergence of a ray of extraordinary beauty is not fully disclosed.
Funnels Baldy
Where: South Shore of Lake Michigan, USA (Great Lakes System of North America).
Among the coastal dunes, the average height of which reaches 10–20 m, stands out the sandy 37-meter hill of Boldi. A terrible feature of this dune is that huge craters periodically appear in the sand, where people disappear. So, in July 2013, the earth literally collapsed under the feet of a six-year-old child. The kid was buried in a three-meter hole. Fortunately, after many hours of rescue work, the boy was saved. The next month, another dip suddenly formed.
Scientists do not comment on the causes of the deadly craters.
Naga fireballs
Where: northeast Thailand, Laos.
Once a year, from the depths of the Mekong River, glowing balls resembling chicken eggs, only reddish in color, rise. They rise 10–20 meters above the surface of the river and disappear. Most often, balloons appear in October, on the eve of the Pavarana holiday, although they were also recorded at other times of the year. Scientists cannot explain the reasons for the occurrence of a strange phenomenon, but the locals are sure that the fireballs are created by the naga (a snake with a human torso and a human head) that lives in the river.
In order to attract more tourists in the city of Nong Khai and neighboring villages, a festival is held during the period of the appearance of the balloons.
Jagged surf
Where: Dorsetshire and East Devonshire coast in southern England, Point Reyes National Park, California, USA.
Researchers cannot explain why the sea wave at some point doubles and, already separated, continues to move in the same direction. In mathematics, there is the concept of a cusp, or cusp point, at which a curved line is divided into two (or more) branches having the same direction vector at this point. The forked wave is like an algebraic curve. How this happens remains a mystery. The only thing that is known is that such a surf is most often observed after a storm.
Eye of the Sahara
Where: Sahara Desert, North Africa.
The Richat Structure, also known as the Eye of the Sahara, is a curious geological formation, roughly 50 meters in diameter, nestled in the hottest desert in the world. From above, the Eye looks like concentric circles in all shades of blue. Previously, it was believed that the Richat structure appeared as a result of a meteorite fall, but recent studies prove that this is not the case: as a rule, various silicon compounds are present in meteorite craters, and there is nothing like this in the "Eye of the Sahara". Proponents of alternative historical theories believe that Rishat is nothing more than the remnants of the Atlantean civilization, which Plato mentioned. However, according to geologists, "Eye" was formed more than 100 million years ago, so even if the Atlanteans actually existed, most likely they had nothing to do with it. According to one version, Rishat is the peak of a long extinct volcano,but then it is not clear why the volcanic dome is missing. Most likely, the origin of the structure will be the subject of heated debate among scientists for a long time.