Sometimes nature presents us with "surprises" that are very difficult to understand and explain. Some of them are frightening, some are surprising, but they never leave you indifferent. All these natural anomalies and cataclysms only prove the power of Mother Nature and make us not forget about her cunning and power.
Icy Finger of Death
The new English term "brinicle" from "brine" (ocean water) and "icicle" (icicle) denotes a column of water in the ocean that is saltier and denser than the surrounding water, and very cold - colder than ice.
This column of ice slowly descends from the surface of the ocean to the very bottom (here it is the Southern Ocean) and freezes everything in its path, including the inhabitants of the ocean floor.
Cinematographers Hugh Miller and Doug Anderson pioneered the previously unknown phenomenon during their presence in Antarctica. Above the surface of the ocean, cameramen found ice stalactites that burn through the depth of the ocean in the form of a jet of extremely cold (practically frozen) and very salty water. Scientists called this phenomenon "brinikly", and the operators who observed it dubbed this phenomenon "the ice finger of death."
The water of this jet has a much higher density than all other ocean water surrounding it, and besides, the temperature of this jet is much lower, it is colder than ice, literally speaking. "Icicles of Death" are underwater stalactites. They got this name due to the fact that, forming at the bottom in places where impurities enter the water (these icicles are the center of crystallization), on their way they kill starfish and sea urchins.
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Biological studies have shown that the ice in the "icicles of death" is much more porous than in the ice floes, and it brings salt to the sea surface.
Oceanographer Seelye Martin was the first to describe this phenomenon in detail in 1974. Currently, a group of researchers from Spain has published a study of the composition and structure of brinicles, proposing a model of the mechanism of their formation. When salty ocean water freezes, it gives off the salt to form fresh ice. This excess salt saturates the water remaining on the ice surface and in cavities in the ice mass.
The result is ice reservoirs containing a high-density saline solution with a very low freezing point: this temperature decreases with increasing salinity. If the ice cracks, this dense, heavy and extremely cold liquid begins to sink to the bottom in the form of such a deadly stream, freezing everything in its path.
London Fog Killer 1952
Great Smog is a serious air pollution that occurred in London in December 1952. During the anticyclone, which brought cold and calm weather, pollutants - mainly coal - gathered over the city, forming a thick layer of smog. This lasted from Friday 5th to Tuesday 9th December 1952, after which the weather changed and the fog cleared.
Severe frosts forced power plants to work at full capacity, the main fuel for which was coal. But besides this, there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of fireplaces in London, also fired with coal. In the December days of 1952, the inhabitants of London, in order to somehow warm themselves, did not spare coal, not knowing how this would soon turn out.
The fog, due to the accumulation of harmful substances, had a yellow-black color, for which it was called "pea soup." Due to the absolute calm, the fog, or, more precisely, smog, hung over the British capital from 5 to 9 December 1952. Every day, due to the fact that the concentration of harmful impurities in the air was increasing, the situation was rapidly deteriorating.
The investigation into the Great London Smog went to the parliamentary level, where horrifying figures were announced. According to the Ministry of Health, about 4,000 people were killed in smog. The main cause of death is respiratory problems. Even adults and healthy people complained about the lack of air, and for the elderly, chronic patients and infants, the Great Smog became fatal. Further research showed that various respiratory diseases associated with the effects of the Great Smog of 1952 were found in 100,000 people. During the first months after it, the total number of victims increased to 12,000.
"Bloody" rains
The ancient Greek historian and writer Plutarch talked about the bloody rains that fell after the great battles with the Germanic tribes. He was sure that the bloody fumes from the battlefield soaked the air and painted ordinary drops of water in a blood red color.
In 582, a bloody rain fell in Paris.
In 1571, a red rain fell in Holland.
The bloody rains were recorded by the French Academy of Sciences. In her scientific "Memoirs" it is written: "On March 17, 1669, a mysterious heavy viscous liquid, similar to blood, but with a pungent unpleasant odor, fell on the city of Chatillene (on the Seine River). Large drops of it hung on the roofs, walls and windows of houses. Academics racked their brains for a long time trying to explain what had happened and finally decided that the liquid had formed … in the rotten waters of some swamp and was brought into the sky like a whirlwind!"
In 1689, a bloody rain fell in Venice, in 1744 - in Genoa.
In the early spring of 1813, a bloody rain suddenly fell over the Kingdom of Naples.
November 2, 1819 a bloody rain fell in Blankenberg (Belgium).
On August 17, 1841, people working in a tobacco field in Tennessee were very surprised to hear the sound of large drops on the leaves. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that the droplets resembled blood and fell from a strange red cloud.
In the March 1876 issue of Scientific American, it can be read that on March 8, many people in Kentucky, USA witnessed the fall of "meat flakes."
On May 15, 1890, a blood-like substance fell out in Messignadi, Calabria.
According to the journal Popular Science News, the Italian Weather Bureau determined that the substance was bird's blood.
From 25 July to 23 September 2001, red rain fell intermittently in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Carmine-red rains fell along the entire coastline, painting the clothes of local residents pink, burning the leaves on the trees and sometimes falling out in scarlet downpours.
In October 2012, red rain fell in Sweden.
A strange natural phenomenon could be observed on the weekend by residents of the southern regions of Sweden - forecasters predicted "bloody rain".
The name "blood rain" should not be taken literally. In theory, this is ordinary water, only with an admixture of reddish dust from the Sahara desert. According to information from the Swedish Meteorological Institute, this kind of precipitation is absolutely harmless to human health.
"Blood rain" in India.
For a whole month, the inhabitants of the Indian state of Kerala could witness with their own eyes a real Egyptian execution, according to which, as you know, all the water turned into blood in an instant. For several weeks, the Indian lands were flooded with bloody rains, terrifying all local residents who watched this phenomenon. In fact, the culprit turned out to be an equally terrifying natural disaster - a water tornado that sucked spores of red algae from local reservoirs, mixed them with rainwater into a frightening cocktail and brought down the unsuspecting Indians on their heads.
The causes of red rain can be different, but, in most cases, are understandable.
"Black Day" on Yamal 1938
This is one of those cases that neither astronomers nor specialists in other fields can explain. Geologists who worked on the peninsula talk about sudden darkness, which was also accompanied by complete radio silence: it was impossible to find a single station on the air. By launching several signal flares, geologists were able to establish that extremely dense clouds hang above the ground at low altitude, blocking the sun's rays. No dust, no solid particles, no precipitation were observed on the ground.
Afterwards, these strange clouds did not leave any traces on the surface of the earth - neither precipitation, nor dust. Geologists, with the light of signal flares, were able to determine that the blackout strip was 200-250 kilometers wide and, moreover, moved from west to east. She crossed the southern part of Yamal and captured the Ob Bay. The darkness lasted about an hour and dissipated.
Similar cases were observed before Yamal. On May 19, 1780, in the middle of the day, suddenly “a black canvas covered the sky” - this is how eyewitnesses described. On that day, the full moon appeared only after midnight - blood-red, then the stars began to appear and the usual picture of the world returned to normal. On June 2, 1802, in the Pacific Ocean, the crew of the schooner "Eldorado" was caught in complete darkness during the day with complete calm, in half an hour the darkness dissipated. Information was recorded about sudden darkness in broad daylight: in 1884 in England, in 1886 in Wisconsin and in 1904 in Memphis (USA).
Such phenomena, due to their rarity and unpredictability, have not been studied at all.
Fire tornado
A fire tornado is an atmospheric phenomenon that forms when initially scattered fires come together. The air above the fire heats up, its density decreases and it rises up. From below, cold air masses come from the periphery to its place. The incoming air is also heated. Oxygen is sucked in. Stable centripetal directional flows are formed, screwing in a spiral from the ground to a height of up to five kilometers. There is a chimney effect. The hot air pressure reaches hurricane speeds. The temperature rises to 1000˚С. Everything that is nearby is "sucked" into a fiery tornado - it burns and melts. And so on until everything that can burn is burned out.
One of the most striking examples of this phenomenon was the fire in Hamburg in July 1943. The bombing of Hamburg was a series of carpet bombings of the city carried out by the Royal Air Force of Great Britain and the United States Air Force from 25 July to 3 August 1943 as part of Operation " Gomorrah ". As a result of the air raids, up to 45,000 people died, up to 125,000 were injured (estimates vary, figures from 37 to 200 thousand are called), about a million residents were forced to leave the city.
The greatest number of victims was on the night of July 28, when a huge fire tornado formed in the city. The number of victims that night is estimated at about 40 thousand people, most of whom were poisoned by combustion products. The fire destroyed about 21 square kilometers of the city's area.
The consequences of this phenomenon were extremely destructive due to the established dry and hot weather, as well as blockages on the roads that prevented fire brigades from reaching the fires. Due to the temperature difference, the hot air created a strong thrust, literally sucking people into the fire. The speed of the storm wind on the streets reached 240 km / h, and its temperature exceeded 800 ˚С. The asphalt was burning from the intense heat, and people in the bomb shelters were suffocating due to oxygen burnout, or were burned to death.
Of course, such destructive fire tornadoes do not occur often, but one of them, in 1923 in Japan, which lasted only 15 minutes, killed almost forty thousand people! In 15 minutes! That tornado arose after the Great Kanto earthquake from massive fires, and was not only a natural phenomenon, but its destructive power was colossal.
Fire tornado. Alice Springs, Chris Tangey, Australia, 2012
One of the most recent fairly large-scale fire tornadoes happened quite recently, in early September in Australia, in the famous place of Alice Springs, the capital of central Australia.
Natalia Zhivotikova
