I thought this was pretty interesting to share with you today. Someone had sent me this yesterday via email and I have never heard or seen it before. Here are a few of the most spectacular phenomenal wonders of the natural world. (Click on picture to enlarge)
Sailing Stones - The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.
Ice Circles - While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above.
Mammatus Clouds - True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers - appearing around, before or even after severe weather.
Sailing Stones - The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.
Ice Circles - While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above.
Mammatus Clouds - True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers - appearing around, before or even after severe weather.
article and the information is very useful for me, I will always be waiting for any posts you next
ReplyDeleteGreat Post I always love hearing about Natural Phenomena.
ReplyDeleteThe mammatus clouds are gorgeous! I've been lucky enough to capture a few landscape photos with these clouds, one after a severe thunderstorm one spring day. They definitely are a natural wonder.
ReplyDeleteI think it is unfair that these images have been used in a MASS email without any consent from the photographers. I for one, am the holder of the Circumhorizontal Arc (the one with the airplane) ALSO this is Not aFire Rainbow, that is insulting to the atmospheric community! This photo is copyrighted BY ME and I am trying to get to the source of this email and who constructed the montage of CHA's without any written consent from the owners. Sure I want to share this with the world, as I have. It was published in National Geographic April 2008, but where is the credit(s) to all of us who photographed these images????
ReplyDeleteAny help in tracking down where this originated from would be greatly appreciated. The one who "copied" my photo did so without my permission and that is just wrong!
Lisa Gonnelli