00:00Ooh, lava explosions, dramatic collapses, entire waterfall disappearing.
00:06Hey, what's going on?
00:07Well, iconic landmarks disappear for all sorts of reasons.
00:11Guaira Falls, for example, used to be one of the loudest, most powerful waterfalls on the planet,
00:17more than three times the volume of Niagara Falls in New York.
00:21It was located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay
00:24and had this insane flow of three and a half million gallons of water per second.
00:29But in the 1970s, the authorities of both countries decided to build the Itaipu Dam,
00:35which now supplies a large amount of electricity to Brazil.
00:39Renewable energy is great, but it became possible at the cost of one of Earth's greatest natural wonders.
00:46The Guaira Falls became covered by the rising water from the reservoir and disappeared for good.
00:53Hundreds of people gathered to say their goodbyes
00:55and held a proper local ritual of remembrance for the deceased in the memory of the falls.
01:02So, next up, we have a Game of Thrones favorite, the Azure Window in Malta.
01:08This gorgeous limestone jutted out into the Mediterranean as early as the 19th century.
01:13It was born thanks to the sea erosion of a limestone cliff face.
01:18Between the 1980s and the 2000s, parts of the top slab of the arch already collapsed,
01:24and fishers wouldn't come close to it in their boats.
01:28But it didn't stop the tourists, who would still walk across the top,
01:31even though everyone knew the arch was eroding fast.
01:34In March 2017, during a heavy storm, the whole thing collapsed into the sea.
01:40Just like that, a 92-foot masterpiece of nature crumbled in seconds.
01:45Now, no one was hurt, but the island of Gozo lost its most famous landmark forever.
01:51Now, only underwater divers can admire the ruins.
01:55Our next destination, the Pink and White Terraces of New Zealand,
02:00were natural staircases that formed thanks to mineral-rich water pouring down volcanic rock.
02:07Once the water hit the cooler air, those minerals hardened really fast,
02:11kind of like how sugar turns into rock candy when it cools.
02:15That same process is still happening today, in places like Yellowstone,
02:18with all those steaming geysers and colorful but deadly hot pools.
02:23At the White Terraces, boiling hot water full of silica
02:27bubbled out of a crater about 100 feet above a lake.
02:31It flowed down over around 50 huge curved steps.
02:35Across the lake, the Pink Terraces were a little smaller, but still amazing.
02:39Their colors probably came from different minerals in the water,
02:42or even tiny microbes living there that added some flair.
02:46You could soak in the terraces like hot tubs, but make it 19th century and magical.
02:51Then, in 1886, Mount Tarauea erupted.
02:56Ash, lava, earthquakes, and the terraces vanished,
03:00either buried under layers of ash or sunk to the bottom of Lake Rotomahana.
03:04Yeah, I got that right.
03:06Meanwhile, for over a century, people thought they were gone forever.
03:10But in 2011, someone said they found parts of the terraces under the lake.
03:15So, maybe they're not entirely gone, but just hiding.
03:19Beek-a-boo!
03:19If you've seen the beach with Leonardo DiCaprio,
03:24you definitely know this place.
03:26Maya Bay on Pipile Island in Thailand.
03:29After that movie dropped in 2000, the place went viral.
03:33Before viral was even a thing.
03:36Soon, thousands of tourists arrived every day,
03:38with speedboats, sunscreen, plastic trash,
03:42all that sort of stuff which wrecked the coral reef.
03:45And in 2018, Thai authorities decided it was time to shut the bay down.
03:51After a four-year recovery, Maya Bay reopened in 2022, but with big-time restrictions.
03:57Boats can't come directly in, swimming is limited, and the number of tourists is capped daily.
04:02Plus, they now closed the idyllic location during the less popular rainy season to let the natural resources and ecosystems recover.
04:11So yeah, it's technically back, but the wild original version of Maya Bay is gone for good.
04:17Meanwhile, once upon a time, there was a giant cliff face in New Hampshire,
04:24which looked exactly like an old man's profile.
04:28See?
04:28There was a jaw, forehead, and even a nose.
04:31That was called the young woman on the porch.
04:34No, not really.
04:35It was the old man of the mountain.
04:37Made of granite ledges perched on Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch,
04:41with some severe freezing and thawing after the retreat of glaciers 12,000 years ago,
04:47the rock took the shape of that face, 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide.
04:53People first wrote about it in the early 1800s, and it became a symbol of New Hampshire.
04:57It even appears on license plates and the state quarter.
05:00But even with all that public love and many attempts to patch the cracks with steel rods, cement, and chains,
05:07the face couldn't last forever.
05:10Sometime between midnight and 2 a.m. on May 3rd, 2003, it collapsed and was gone forever.
05:17A geologic facelift, I would call it.
05:19Today, you can visit Profiler Plaza and see the recreation of the profile on the cliff across from Profile Lake.
05:26Now, the most isolated tree in the world stood alone in the middle of the Sahara Desert in Niger.
05:35The tree of Tanera was literally the only tree for 250 miles in any direction.
05:42For centuries, nomads used it as a natural compass that helped them cross the harsh desert.
05:48Its roots stretched unbelievably deep to reach underground water,
05:51and it was staying alive in a place where nothing else could grow.
05:55The lonely tree survived desert heat, wind, and droughts for centuries.
06:00Until a truck driver knocked it down in 1973.
06:04Yep, the dunderhead managed to hit the only standing thing in the middle of nothing.
06:09Perhaps the driver thought the tree was jaywalking or something.
06:12Hmm.
06:13Anyway, you can now see some twisted remains of the tree in a museum.
06:17And a metal sculpture stands in its original place.
06:20Now, another tree, this time not lonely at all, stood as tall as a 23-story building in Yosemite National Park.
06:30You see, at the end of the 19th century, two men managed to cut a tunnel right through the 26-foot base of this giant sequoia.
06:38It was all part of a campaign to promote automobile tourism and bring more visitors to the park.
06:44And it worked!
06:46The Wobona Tunnel Tree became a real tourist magnet.
06:49I mean, who wouldn't want to have their photo taken in a car driving through a big tree?
06:55But, sadly, this beauty fell in 1969 under a heavy load of snow.
07:00It was around 2,300 years old at that time.
07:03You can still see it in the same spot where it fell.
07:07Look up the fallen tunnel tree.
07:10Now, for a change, let's take a look at a couple of human-made landmarks.
07:15New York's current Penn Station does its job pretty well.
07:19But the original one was 10 leagues above it when it came to beauty.
07:23Built in the fancy bow art style, it had massive domes, tall archways, and elegant columns.
07:30It used to welcome over 100 million travelers every year, especially in its heyday during the mid-1940s.
07:37But things changed.
07:39By the late 1950s, people were flying more and driving on the brand-new interstate highways, rather than by train.
07:46Then, in 1962, the city decided to build a new Penn Plaza and the Madison Square Garden Arena.
07:54Just one year later, they tore down the original Penn Station so they could squeeze a smaller version underground.
08:02The New York Times called it, quote,
08:04a monumental act of vandalism against one of the greatest landmarks of that elegant Roman-inspired era.
08:12Now, back on the Pacific coast.
08:15The Sutro Baths opened in San Francisco in 1896.
08:19It was a three-acre glass building, packed with seven different swimming pools, all with different temperatures.
08:26It had springboards, high dives, water slides, and even trapezes dangling over the water.
08:32And it could handle serious crowds, up to 10,000 people at once.
08:37There was also a natural history museum with Egyptian mummies,
08:41and a sculpture gallery filled with artifacts from Mexico and China.
08:45It was definitely a one-of-a-kind playground.
08:47But there was also one major problem.
08:51It cost a fortune to run.
08:53Even during the Great Depression, when the owners turned the pools into ice-skating rings to try to stay afloat,
08:58the place still didn't make enough money.
09:01The baths finally shut down in 1964, and two years later, a fire burned it to the ground.
09:08Oh well.
09:10That's it for today.
09:11So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
09:16Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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