Science can explain everything on the planet, right? Not always--especially not these places we’re about to talk about up next!
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8. The Nazca Lines
Now we go back to Peru for another ancient mystery! This time we’re talking about the Nazca Lines, the massive geoglyphs etched on the soil of southern Peru’s Nazca desert. Each geoglyph varies in size, though on average they’re between 0.2 to 0.7 miles or 0.4 to 1.1 kilometers across. Some geoglyphs depict animals like lizards, monkeys, and jaguars, or plants like flowers and trees. Those that studied the Nazca lines cannot say what the purpose of the lines is. A popular theory is that these images represented the ancient Nazca culture’s deities in the sky.
7. Shanay Timpishka (sha nay tim pish kah)
This tributary of the Amazon River is boiling, and researchers can’t figure out why. The body of water is known as Shanay Timpishka or La Bomba, and it spans 40 miles or 64 kilometers. Dubbed the “only boiling river in the world,” Shanay Timpishka’s temperature reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius. The river sits in the Mayantuyacu (my yan two yakoo) sanctuary. Its name means “boiled by the heat of the sun,” even though the heat sources are geothermal, not solar. Geothermal scientists are confused as to how it boils because the nearest volcano is too far away.
6. Blue Pond
The human-made pond in Hokkaido, Japan is famous for its intensely blue color. At other times, the water’s color is green. The Blue Pond, or Aoiike, is near the hot spring town of Shirogane Onsen. After the eruption of Mount Tokachi in 1988, officials ordered the pond to be made to protect the village of Biei from volcanic mudflows. No one is sure where the blue color comes from, but the prevailing theory is caused by aluminum hydroxide particles reflecting light in the water. Depending on the angle you look at the pond, the color may change.
5. Bialbero di Casorzo
Rooted between Grana and Casorzo in Piedmont, Italy is Bialbero di Casorzo. Sometimes called the Grana Doubletree, the existence of this mulberry tree is quite the enigma. Why? Because a cherry tree is growing out of it. This tree is an example of an “epiphytical growing tree” an organism that grows out of a plant. Most trees of this kind don’t live long due to the lack of space for growth and lack of humus (soil organic matter that retains nutrients and moisture). They’re also much smaller. The Doubletree’s size is well above average, and the tree itself has been around for years.
4. The Petrifying Well
When people first came across petrifying wells, they thought it was the work of witchcraft. A petrifying well is a well that cover objects with stone. Upon placement in a well of this nature, it takes weeks to months for an object to gain a stony exterior. One of the most prominent stone wells is this one located in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England. The well water’s high mineral content is what researchers believe gives the well its petrifying powers. After water drizzles down the side of this supposedly skull-shaped cliff, it flows into the hole you place objects in if you want to petrify it.
3. Lake Karachay
Tucked within the region of the Ural Mountains in Russia is Lake Karachay. Unlike most lakes in the world, you cannot stand near Lake Karachay unless you don’t value your life. From the year 1951 to the following decades, the Soviet Union used the lake as a dumping grounds for radioactive waste from a nearby nuclear waste and reprocessing facility. When the lake started drying out in the 1960s, a wind that passed through the area carried some of the radioactive dust towards nearby residences. This dust caused the irradiation of half a million people. Afterward, the lake was filled with 10,000 hollow blocks of concrete to prevent this from happening again.
2. Catatumbo Lightning
The atmospheric phenomenon called Catatumbo Lightning only takes place over the mouth of the Catatumbo River in Venezuela. First, storm clouds loom over the area at heights of 0.6 miles or 1 kilometer or higher. The continuous lightning occurs 140 nights to 160 nights annually and last 10 hours a day. It’s likely that these storms ensue due to winds blowing from Lake Maracaibo (which the Catatumbo River empties into) and nearby swamp plains. Mountain ridges trap the air. Heat and moisture from the plains generate electrical charges, creating thunderstorms.
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