Science
Scientifically Impossible Places that Actually Exist
Published: 17 May 2022
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The Seven Wonders of the Natural World may have been named too quickly. Wonders like The Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls are certainly big, and anyone who sees them will surely be impressed—but sheer size isn’t enough to truly leave a person in awe. There are other places in this world, though, that are far stranger. Places that seem almost alien, as if they could only exist on a planet that evolved separately from our own.
These are places that scientists have had to struggle just to understand how they ever could have been formed. Places that will truly make you wonder—not just because they’re beautiful, but because they seem to follow scientific laws that don’t exist anywhere else on earth.
Devils Kettle Swallows Half of the Brule River
The mystery of Devil's Kettle Falls: Side-by-side waterfalls send half of a river on its merry way to Lake Superior. But the other half? Researchers have a guess. Minnesota’s Devil’s Kettle Falls has been puzzling hikers and geologists for generations. At the falls, along Lake Superior’s north shore, a river forks at a rock outcropping. While one side tumbles down a two-step stone embankment and continues on like a normal waterfall, the other side vanishes into a deep hole and disappears — apparently forever.
Where Does the Water Go? People were so curious to find out where the river ends up that they have conducted numerous experiments. One of the most famous experiments included the pouring of numerous ping pong balls into the pit. A phone number was etched onto each ball with a message that if found, the person should call back and would get a reward. Not a single call came to claim the reward. Many theories have come up to explain the mystery. Some believe that there might exist an underground river. Others believe in the existence of an ancient lava tube that carries the water directly to the floor of Lake Superior. Both theories have been dismissed. In February 2017, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources finally established that the disappearing water resurfaces in the stream below the waterfall.
The Mystery of The Hessdalen Lights Over Norway: Since 1983, there has been ongoing scientific research, referred to as "Project Hessdalen", initiated by UFO-Norge and UFO-Sweden. This project was active as field investigations during 1983–1985. A group of students, engineers and journalists collaborated as "The Triangle Project" in 1997–1998 and recorded the lights in a pyramid shape that bounced up and down. In 1998, the Hessdalen Automatic Measurement Station (Hessdalen AMS) was set up in the valley to register and record the appearance of lights. Later, a programme, named EMBLA, was initiated to bring together established scientists and students into researching these lights. Leading research institutions are Østfold University College (Norway) and the Italian National Research Council.
Norway's Aurora Borealis Northern Light
Despite the ongoing research, there is no convincing explanation for the phenomenon. However, there are numerous working hypotheses and even more speculations. In 2016, Norwegian scientist Christian Opdal Eid published an article evaluating superposition of cosmic EM waves, or collisions of cosmic ray particles, as the source of the phenomena.
The Mystery of Movaile Cave in Romania: Movile Cave has been cut off for millions of years. Its air is thick with harmful gases, yet it is home to an array of strange animals. In the south-east of Romania, in Constanța county close to the Black Sea and the Bulgarian border, there lies a barren featureless plain.
The desolate field is completely unremarkable, except for one thing. Below it lies a cave that has remained isolated for 5.5 million years. While our ape-like ancestors were coming down from the trees and evolving into modern humans, the inhabitants of this cave were cut off from the rest of the planet. Despite a complete absence of light and a poisonous atmosphere, the cave is crawling with life. There are unique spiders, scorpions, woodlice and centipedes, many never before seen by humans, and all of them owe their lives to a strange floating mat of bacteria.
A Watersorpion Found at the Movile Cave - Romania
The Movile Cave microbes could also offer hints about how the first life formed on Earth. They are genetically similar to those found in geothermal vents, which are also rich in carbon dioxide, sulphides and ammonia. The conditions in both places may well be similar to the primordial Earth. In our world's early years, the Sun's light was obscured by an atmosphere thick with carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia. It could be that the first living cells were similar to those found in Movile Cave. Almost 30 years after its discovery, Movile Cave remains perhaps the most isolated ecosystem on the planet. It surely has many more secrets to give up. There are plenty more organisms buried in the cave's sediments, waiting to be identified, and they could help us understand some of our deepest questions about the nature of life.
Lake Karachay One of teh Most Toxis Places on Earth
The Mystery of Lake Karachey in the Southern Ural Mauntains of Central Russia: Lake Karachay was then designated a close-by and convenient dumping ground for large quantities of high-level radioactive waste too "hot" to store in the facility's underground storage vats. The original plan was to use the lake to store highly radioactive material until it could be returned to the Mayak facility's underground concrete storage vats, but this proved impossible due to the lethal levels of radioactivity. The lake was used for this purpose until the Kyshtym Disaster in 1957, in which the underground vats exploded due to a faulty cooling system. This incident caused widespread contamination of the entire Mayak area (as well as a large swath of territory to the northeast). This led to greater caution among the administration, fearing international attention, and caused the dumping grounds to be spread out over a variety of areas (including several lakes and the Techa River, along which many villages lay).
In the 1960s, the lake began to dry out; its area dropped from 0.5 km2 in 1951 to 0.15 km2 by the end of 1993. In 1968, following a drought in the region, the wind carried 185 PBq (5 MCi) of radioactive dust away from the dried area of the lake, irradiating half a million people. Between 1978 and 1986, the lake was filled with almost 10,000 hollow concrete blocks to prevent sediments from shifting. Conservation of the affected area continued into the 2000s via the federal target program "Nuclear and Radiation Safety in 2008 and for the period up to 2015", with the rest of the lake finally being backfilled in November 2015. Conservation work was completed in December 2016 with the final layer of rock and soil being added, effectively making the former lake "a near-surface permanent and dry nuclear waste storage facility.
The Mystery of the Double Tree of Casorzo in Italy: The Double Tree of Casorzo, also known as Grana Double Tree, is situated between Grana and Casorzo in Piedmont, Italy. It is a mulberry tree on which a cherry tree grows. The cherry tree rises well above the mulberry tree on which it stands. Epiphytical growing trees are not unusual, but they normally reach a small size and have a short lifespan, as there is normally not enough humus and space available where they grow. Large epiphytes like this one require that the "upper tree" have a root connection to the ground, for example by growing down through a hollow trunk.
The Mystery of the Sleeping City of Kalachi: The villagers of Kazakh village of Kalachi are suffering from a strange ailment. At any time of the day they just fall asleep and remain unconscious for many days. Kalachi is a village located in Esil District of Akmola Region in Kazakhstan. Almost one fourth of the villagers have suffered atleast once from the sleeping sickness. The first case of this mysterious illness was reported in March 2013. The symptoms include tiredness, drowsiness, loss of coordination, headaches and partial loss of memory. The sickness attacks anyone. Age, sex, species and health conditions do not matter. The sickness strikes anytime. A person may falls asleep while walking on the streets, while eating or while he is talking and he may sleep for days. When the person wakes up he feels dizzy and confused. Even animals are affected. Sometimes the animals also show sudden outburst of hyperactivity after they wake up.
Many scientists, doctors, virologists, radiologists and toxicologist have visited Kalachi to find the cause. Some people don’t sleep completely but look intoxicated. They appear confused and are unable to stand. Some of those affected suffer from vivid hallucinations.The residents of Kalachi blame the wind coming from the abandoned Soviet-era uranium mine for causing the sickness. This Krasnogorskiy mine that is located besides the village was once used to extract uranium. The mine was closed in 1990s. Tests showed that the radiation levels in the village and at place closest to the mine were same as the background levels. Miners who had worked at the mine were also not affected by the sickness. High levels of radon had been found in the village that was four to five times the normal. But doctors claim that the elevated levels would not be a cause and the symptoms of the sickness did not match. Radiation as a cause was ruled out. Carbon monoxide poisoning is also considered as the possible cause. The mystery of the ‘sleeping sickness’ in the villagers of Kalachi is still not cracked and the residents are asked to resettle elsewhere.
The Mystery of the Circles of Namibia: There has long been debate about the causes of the circles. The investigation and development of theories have included numerous theories both mundane and supernatural. Unresolved questions remain about the soil from the center of the circle inhibiting plant growth and the interactions of other species in the fairy circle as they relate to the local ecosystem. The Himba people use the fairy circles in their agriculture. Because fairy circles support grasses in otherwise barren land, they provide grazing. Sometimes they erect temporary wooden fences around the circles to corral young cattle for overnight protection against predators.
The Mystery of the Home of Taos, New Mexico USA: Since the early 1990s, the people of Taos have complained about a low-frequency buzzing or rumbling noise constantly. People find this sound similar to a diesel engine idling in the distance, a faint droning sound. It is a never-ending sound which is audible while you are indoors or while you are sleeping. Till 1993, the hum became unbearable, and the locals of Taos shared their concern to Congress. After this, a public study was initiated to research about the mysterious low-frequency buzzing. During this research, various sound detection instruments were placed in the town and the residents were asked questions about the hum. According to the study, only 2 percent of the total population Taos could hear the hum. Some people could replicate the mysterious hum but no such signals were ever detected. The only unusual activity observed was elevated electromagnetic field levels, but it found to be the result of local power lines. While Taos is not the only place to report such peculiar sound, what can be the possible cause for the hum? Scientists believe that various sounds surround us and most of them go unnoticed.
The Mystery of the Never Ending Lightening Storm in Venezuela: Located at the mouth of the Catatumbo river, there’s a storm that rages continuously, with 250 strikes of lightning an hour, for 10 hours a day, up to 300 days a year. Enough energy to power 100 million light bulbs. Venezuela has an almost never ending lightning storm. Located at the mouth of the Catatumbo river, there’s a storm that rages continuously, with 250 strikes of lightning an hour, for 10 hours a day, up to 300 days a year. Enough energy to power 100 million light bulbs. Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo earned a place in the Guinness Book of world record for highest unity of lightning with 250 strikes of lightning.
This phenomenon has been going on for centuries and it’s so massive that it’s visible up to 400 kilometres away. The thunderstorm in the dryer long period of January and February and are most marvellous at the peak of the wet season around October. During this season, you can see a normal of 28 lightning flashes every moment. Now there’s varying theories as to why this happens, such as global weather patterns, and the reactions between the water and the mountains in the area, but what’s most interesting is that no- body, not even scientists, can definitively say what cause this phenomenon. Scientist’s suggests the air above Lake Maracaibo had enhanced conductivity because of Methane from Oilfields below and now scientists say the region’s unique topography and wind patterns contribute to the unique phenomenon.
