The Wave is a sandstone rock formation located in North Coyote Buttes of the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument on the Arizona and Utah borders.
The swirling stone waves combine water and wind eroded sandstone dunes, calcified vertically and horizontally, and fossilized over 190 million years. The rich red-vermilion rocks get their colors from iron oxide pigments.
Only 20 people can visit The Wave in Vermilion Cliffs daily, reachable exclusively by foot through a challenging 6.5 mil round-trip terrain. The distinct rock formation rests 3,000 feet above the benchland below.
The scene offers some of the best photography of public lands in the United States.
Lake Hillier located off the south coast of Western Australia (Middle Island) is an iconic lake known for its vivid pink color.
Scientists postulate that the lake’s solid bubblegum color results from the intermixing of Halobacteria and a salt-tolerant algae species called Dunaliella Salina.
When mixed with salt-tolerant microalgae, the bacteria produce red pigments that create a stunning strawberry milkshake color. The chemical reactions between the salt and the microorganisms also make the lake ten times saltier than the ocean nearby. But the lake is still safe to swim in.
There are 29 other pink lakes in the world. But unlike other pink lakes that morph into different colors, Lake Hillier — 2,000 feet long and 660 feet wide — retains its pink hue all year round. The contrast between the bright pink and dark blue ocean water is stunning.
A scuba diver discovered an ancient sword off Israel’s Carmel coast near the port city of Haifa. The iron sword is thought to have belonged to a crusader knight 900 years ago when the Crusaders were fighting Muslim forces for control over the Holy Land.
Eagle-eyed diver Shlomi Katzin stumbled upon the three-foot blade on October 18. Kobi Sharvit, the director of the Marine Archaeology unit at Israel’s Antiques Authority, believes that the shallow waters off Haifa once served as a shelter for seafarers.
“The archaeological finds at the site show that it served as a small, temporary natural anchorage for ships seeking shelter,” said Katzin in a statement.
“Identification of the various finds shows that the anchorage was used as early as the Late Bronze Age, 4,000 years ago,” he added. “The recent discovery of the sword suggests that the natural cove was also used in the Crusader period, some 900 years ago.”
A lucky 900-year-old find!
The rare sword remains in pristine condition despite being “encrusted with marine organisms,” announced the Authority’s chief inspector Nir Distelfeld.
The iron sword resurfaced from the Mediterranean seabed as a result of shifting sands and undercurrents. But Sharvit’s find came down to sheer luck and timing.
“Because of the dynamics of shallow water, the sand keeps moving,” Sharvit revealed. “Each time, a new area is exposed.”
The government experts will clean and restore the archaeological treasure before putting it on public display. Meanwhile, the diver received a “certificate of appreciation for good citizenship.”
Mount Bromo is an active volcano located in the Tengger mountain range of East Java, Indonesia. It is also one of the most visited tourist attractions in the rugged Indonesian province.
The views from atop the mountain are extraordinary, as one can see well into the crater and the beautiful countryside surrounding it.
There’s also a 700-year-old Ganesh shrine at the edge of Mt. Bromo 7600 feet up made of lava stones. The locals believe that the idol God has been protecting them from a massive eruption for hundreds of years. The word “Bromo” comes from the Javanese pronunciation of Brahma, the Hindu god of creation.
The Somma volcano last experienced a significant eruption in March 2019 when it spewed both ash and sand rather than hot lava. The crater is known to incur irregular eruptions on the bottom of the caldera daily.
More than a hundred years ago, the father of modern neuroscience, Santiago Ramón y Cajal demonstrated that information is the output of messy internal wiring provided by the brain’s chemical synchronicity.
Cajal was an artist trapped in a laboratory. He used his trained skills as an artist to draw masterful sketches of the brain. In doing so, he illustrated the neuron doctrine.
But where the Renaissance master goes sensual, macro, and dynamic, the Spaniard zeros in, mapping the miraculously microscopic using new methods of staining slide tissues that isolated single cells under the microscope. In this way, Cajal drew the newly visible synaptic networks of the brain and discovered a breakthrough that proved that neurons are in touch without touching. These results changed neuroscience. His work is still widely used as a teaching device.
He called the connection between the neural impulses synapses, the gaps between the neurons that allowed them to talk to each other. However, he couldn’t identify the synapses under the microscope like we can with 200X magnification today.
You can still walk across an invisible bridge even if you can’t physically see it there. All you need to know is that the magic is working.
The ever-so-beautiful Vestrahorn mountain in southeast Iceland is a sight to behold.
Nicknamed “Batman Mountain” for its dark and ominous appearance – it looks like the iconic Bat-signal from afar — the 1,490-foot tall scree mountain looks down at the flat black sand of Stokksnes Beach below.
Vestrahorn is composed of gabbro and granophyre rocks, which help give it the appearance of sharp spikes resembling bull horns.
The mountain is located on private property. So to access the photogenic landscape of the beach, you’ll need to make a small payment first.
The experience is worth every penny—especially if you get to see Vestrahorn mountain on a clear night under the Northern Lights.
The top of Darwin’s Arch, a rock formation located in the Galápagos Islands, collapsed into the sea from erosion.
The Ecuadorean Environment Ministry reported the destruction of the unique 141 foot high, 230-foot long rock on May 17.
“The collapse of Darwin’s Arch, the attractive natural bridge found less than a kilometer from the main area of Darwin Island, was reported,” said the ministry.
A tour group traveling with tour company Aggressor Adventures witnessed the collapse right in front of their eyes.
Informamos que hoy 17 de mayo, se reportó el colapso del Arco de Darwin, el atractivo puente natural ubicado a menos de un kilómetro de la isla principal Darwin, la más norte del archipiélago de #Galápagos. Este suceso sería consecuencia de la erosión natural.
— Ministerio Ambiente, Agua y Transición Ecológica (@Ambiente_Ec) May 17, 2021
The natural stone bridge was named after the English biologist Charles Darwin who visited the Galápagos Islands in 1835. Among the smallest of the 19 islands in the Galápagos Archipelago, Darwin’s island is located 621 miles from the coast of Ecuador.
The island hosts a rich array of plants and wildlife, many of them endemic, including some of the largest shark communities in the world.
The rich diversity of wildlife in the surrounding areas (re: Darwin’s finches) became the cornerstone of Darwin’s theory on evolution.
Take a look back at the world-famous Darwin’s Arch before the collapse took place.
Put your hands in the air and wave them like you just don’t care.
What looks like a dubstep rave of little ghost people is actually styrofoam dancing to sound waves in a massive plexiglass pipe known as a Kundt’s tube.
In 1866 German physicist August Kundt constructed the experimental acoustical apparatus to measure the speed of sound in a gas or a solid rod. Said Kundt, “A physicist must be able to saw with a file and to file with a saw.”
The faux mosh pit is the result of a process called “sound looking” which demonstrates what audible vibrations or acoustical forces may actually look like.
No one can doubt that life moves to fascinating rhythms & vibrations.
Archaeologists uncovered the body of a wealthy 40-year old man and his young slave in Pompeii, 2,000 years after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Excavations at the suburban villa Civita Giuliana, a suburb outside Pompeii, discovered the bodies covered in a bed of 6.5-foot ash.
Researchers believe that the two men survived the initial eruption from Mount Vesuvius, only to succumb to a massive and more destructive cloud of scorching ash while seeking shelter in a cryptoporticus.
The skeletal remains follow last year’s discovery of another Ancient Roman man crushed by a flying rock during Mount Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 A.D.
Did you know that we shed different types of tears based on our emotions?
Each tear type is composed of unique chemicals — mainly salt, water, and lysozyme — that give them their variable structure.
Emotional tears contain a natural painkiller
According to scientist Claire Phillips, tears of grief contain the neurotransmitter leucine enkephalin which helps relieve the body in times of stress. In such a way, our tear ducts can act as a natural painkiller.
There’s a biological and evolutionary reason we feel better shedding tears after experiencing a traumatic event.
On December 26, 2019, amateur photographer Elias Chasiotis captured an incredible ‘red devil horns’ sunrise over the Persian Gulf during a rare solar eclipse.
The Athens-based photographer was vacationing in the coastal city of Al Wakrah in Qatar just before the new year when he snapped the rare spectacle of the moon blocking the sun. The sun appears to rise in two pieces amid the cloudiness.
“Astronomy has attracted me since I was a kid,” Chasiotis said in an interview with Bored Panda. “I’ve been an amateur astrophotographer for the last 15 years as well. I took these photos in the coastal city of Al Wakrah, Qatar, on the morning of December 26, 2019, when an annular eclipse was in progress.”
“I was worried that nothing would come out of the eclipse. However, when the sun finally began to rise, it looked like two separate pieces, some sort of red horns piercing the sea. It soon took the form of a crescent, with the so-called ‘Etruscan vase’ inferior mirage effect visible. Due to its shape, the phenomenon was nicknamed the ‘evil sunrise.’”
Interestingly, images of the red crescent sunrise emerged a few days before the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Make of that what you will.
Lenticular clouds form when strong winds force air up and over a topographic barrier such as a mountain in a wave-like pattern.
Once the rising air hits the obstructive peak, an “eddie”, and then mixes with the upper wind, the air deflects the mountain wind downward to create the lampshade-looking clouds. (Be sure to witness the strange beauty of mammatus clouds as well.)
Here’s a collection of lenticular clouds forming in different settings — over buildings, volcanoes, and grassy fields. You love to see it!
Minimalism. Sunset lenticular cloud over Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy today 5pm, Dec 27th. Thanks to Gabriele Acerboni for the report – posted with permission. pic.twitter.com/PWwqDhhtOu
Flying saucer, marshmallow, or bean pod? A pink #UFO-shaped cloud appeared in #Beijing on Thursday morning, surprising commuters. The meteorological service explains that this was actually a lenticular cloud. (via Beijing Daily) https://t.co/3sl64HyD1Kpic.twitter.com/yAwdQ5s6jh
