Top 15 strange natural phenomena

Green tides, glowing mushrooms, fire rainbows... are strange natural phenomena that few people have witnessed with their own eyes.

1. Green Tide

The bioluminescence phenomenon inside the waves is caused by phytoplankton.

There are many species of phytoplankton in the world that are capable of bioluminescence. The most common bioluminescent species living in the oceans is the “dinoflagellate” algae, the algae that causes red tides. Dinoflagellate algae are unicellular organisms.

The dinoflagellates float on the surface of the ocean and move around in the water currents, creating electrical pulses around the protons, preventing water from penetrating the microorganisms. These electrical pulses then create voltage-sensitive proton channels, which trigger a series of chemical reactions, including the protein luciferase – responsible for the formation of neon green light inside the algae.

During the green tide at Leucadia Beach, California in September 2011, scientists also discovered some species of dinoflagellate algae containing dangerous toxins that are harmful to human health, the growth and development of fish species and many other marine creatures. In addition, the algae also use their luminescence as a powerful weapon to prevent threats from other creatures.

2. Glowing Night Mushrooms

The luminescent mushroom is a poisonous plant, also known as the “ghost mushroom”.

Researchers believe that the fungus also glows in the same way as a firefly, thanks to a mixture of chemicals luciferin and luciferase. Luciferase is an enzyme that helps facilitate the reaction between luciferin, oxygen, and water to create a luminescent solution.

However, to date, there has been no conclusive evidence of the presence of luciferin and luciferase in luminescent mushrooms. The reason why mushrooms glow remains a mystery. Scientists hypothesize that mushrooms glow to attract insects, helping them disperse their seeds to form new mushroom seedlings.

3. Fire Rainbow

In fact, the fire rainbow phenomenon has nothing to do with rainbows or fire. Fire rainbows are a special optical phenomenon, appearing as multi-colored bands parallel to the horizon (also known as iridescent clouds). This phenomenon occurs when water-laden clouds are nearly uniform in size. These clouds diffract or bend light, causing the light to shine in different wavelengths, or colors.

4. Mother of pearl clouds

Mother of pearl clouds look like thin membranes, gently rolling and unrolling, spreading out and then contracting in the twilight sky.

Nacreous clouds typically form in the extremely cold regions of the lower stratosphere, at altitudes of 15-25km, just above the troposphere clouds. The reason they shine so brightly before dawn and after dusk is because at those altitudes they are still exposed to sunlight.

This phenomenon is a direct result of humans releasing too much methane into the atmosphere, which reacts with ozone and forms chlorine clouds. The appearance of nacreous clouds is a worrying sign that the Earth is warming.

5. Snow rolled into a tube shape

Rolling snow is an extremely rare natural phenomenon that only occurs when there is a harmonious combination of temperature, humidity, wind speed, terrain and snow conditions.

Snow rolls form on flat or slightly sloping ground, covered with a smooth layer of ice or hard snow. The snow falls or piles up on the ground. Strong winds pick up the snow and roll it up bit by bit.

The wet, new snow clings to the ice surface, and the newly formed snow drifts and rolls. Winds move the snow rolls to become thicker.

Snow rolls only stop moving when they are too heavy for the wind to move them or when they collide with an obstacle. Since they are only created when there are special climatic conditions, it is easy to understand why they are rare. Not only are they rare, but they are also very fragile. If the temperature rises or falls, they will collapse.

6. Cylindrical basalt forest

Basalt rocks are formed by volcanic eruptions, they are vertical rocks, a group of rocks with quite spectacular geometric shapes, distributed in grid lines with 6 regular hexagonal sides.

This amazing natural rock formation is one of the natural landscape masterpieces located on the Irish coast.

7. Animal Rain

There have been strange rainstorms that have seen thousands of toads falling from the sky onto the streets. Rain accompanied by other animals is rarer than "toad rain", but has occurred in some countries around the world.

Explaining this strange phenomenon, most naturalists believe that at that time, a strong tornado swept away the toads and frogs, and after thousands of miles, when the tornado weakened and rain appeared, the animals that were swept away also fell to the ground along with the rain.

However, this is only part of the explanation for the appearance of strange rains. In fact, the rains accompanied by the appearance of "animals" are still a mysterious natural phenomenon that humans are still trying to discover.