These Natural Phenomena Are So Strange They Terrified Scientists

Bright Side

🌪️ Earth still pulls off tricks that even scientists don’t see coming. Imagine lava that’s cold to the touch or spiders literally raining from the sky — and yes, both are real. These natural phenomena look fake, sound impossible, and still happen right here on our planet. In this video, we break down how cold lava forms, why spider rain occurs, and what other bizarre events shocked researchers. Don’t miss this video if you think nature has already shown you everything.  Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00Nature can ruin your life with a tsunami, hurricane, tornado, rainstorm, and many other destructive events.

00:07But did you know that it also has other, weirder ways to destroy?

00:11Let's take a look at the most unusual natural phenomena.

00:15How about the orange rain?

00:18It's not that orange drops are falling on you.

00:20No, the whole sky and the atmosphere are turning dark orange.

00:24Orange clouds are pouring dirty orange drops on you.

00:27Don't worry, they're not poisonous, but watch your eyes.

00:31Don't let the drops get in because they contain sand particles.

00:35If you want to see this unusual phenomenon, go to the Canary Islands.

00:40Every year, the sky turns orange there and pours orange-red drops of water mixed with sand onto the ground.

00:46This phenomenon happens because of the Sahara.

00:50In the desert, strong winds blow millions of tons of dust and sand into the air.

00:55All this mess penetrates the atmosphere and turns the sky orange.

01:00Then, the particles from the Sahara fly toward the Canary Islands and fall on people in the form of heavy rain.

01:07Residents of this region experience breathing problems and poor vision in the orange conditions.

01:13Airports stop working.

01:14All flights are cancelled.

01:16Under favourable conditions, a storm that carries sand particles can reach both the Mediterranean and Northern Europe.

01:24Therefore, if you suddenly see red rain, don't be scared.

01:27This is not the apocalypse.

01:31Warning, this kind of rain causes anxiety.

01:35During this phenomenon, you won't see drops of water.

01:38There will be spiders falling from the sky.

01:40People have faced spider rains in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

01:47These creatures are called money spiders, or sheetweb weavers.

01:51During strong winds, they climb as high as possible to the tops of plants, bushes, and fences.

01:57Then, they release a parachute-shaped web, and the wind blows them into the sky.

02:03They fly high into the air, meeting birds, cold winds, and harsh weather.

02:08Not everyone can survive this journey.

02:11Then, when the weather calms down, this tiny party lands on the ground.

02:16No one knows why spiders behave this way.

02:19According to one version, they fly away from places where flooding can begin.

02:23In other words, it's a forced migration.

02:26And because of this migration, spiders often become the first settlers of territories that have been destroyed by fires or other natural phenomena.

02:34But don't worry.

02:36These creatures are harmless to humans.

02:38They just want to live and multiply.

02:40Although, to be honest, it's hard to stay calm when thousands of arthropods are falling on your head.

02:47Tornadoes are a destructive force.

02:50But look at this.

02:51A whirlwind appears during a snowstorm.

02:53It's sucking in more and more snow.

02:56Now, it's not just a tornado, but a snow-nado.

02:59It looks like something terrible and destructive, but don't worry.

03:03It's not as scary as it seems.

03:06This is a fairly rare disaster that has recently occurred in Utah.

03:11The snow-tornado came across a man and his dog on its way.

03:14It looked impressive and dangerous.

03:17Fortunately, no one got hurt.

03:19This phenomenon occurs when an air vortex raises snow from the ground.

03:23If you see a similar vortex next to you, don't panic.

03:27Usually, such phenomena are harmless and don't have enough force to destroy things.

03:33This natural phenomenon is much more dangerous than the snow-nado.

03:37Just imagine that a mountain of chunks of ice is moving along roads, sweeping away everything in its path.

03:44It looks like a tsunami, but instead of water, there are ice boulders.

03:49The ice tsunami can destroy houses, cars, and trees.

03:53It can move on grass, asphalt, and sand.

03:57It can jump out of the water like a crazy salmon.

04:00Fortunately, the ice tsunami is not a frequent phenomenon.

04:05It occurs when three conditions are met.

04:07A flat coast, loose ice, and strong wind.

04:11Waves and wind are throwing broken pieces of ice onto the shore.

04:15These ice flows accumulate into a huge wall, and then, during strong winds, this ice monster begins to move.

04:25Therefore, if you see a large pile of ice near the water, move away from this place as far as possible.

04:31And we're back to the tornado again.

04:34You already know about snow tornadoes.

04:37You've probably seen the footage of tornadoes in a desert when the wind blows sand into the air in documentaries.

04:44Tornadoes pass over the ocean's surface and can create a funnel inside the water.

04:48But there's a phenomenon that's even cooler and more impressive.

04:52It's a fire tornado.

04:55Surely not many of you have heard about this thing.

04:58It's a very dangerous phenomenon.

05:00But people have ventured close to the fiery tornado to study it.

05:04But firefighters, by the way, often encounter this devastating phenomenon.

05:08A fire tornado forms during forest fires, and sometimes it can appear inside a burning building.

05:16If you see a big flame and feel a strong wind, be careful.

05:20A fiery funnel may form.

05:23But how does this happen?

05:24Let's first look at the origin of an ordinary tornado.

05:29So, we're somewhere in a dry place in the middle of a hot day.

05:33The sun heats the air that is close to the ground.

05:35Its lower layers absorb more energy than the upper ones.

05:39An increase in temperature makes this air less dense and more buoyant.

05:44Then, it lifts into the sky in the form of long columns.

05:48This rise has a spiral movement.

05:51The water in your bathtub moves similarly when it flows through the drain hole.

05:55So many of these air vortices are quite weak, and you can't see them.

06:00But some of them encounter strong air currents.

06:02This accelerates their movement, adds energy, and increases the area.

06:08More and more air gets into this vortex, making it stronger.

06:12When dust and sand get into these whirlwinds, you see a tornado.

06:18The fire tornado follows the same pattern, with only one difference.

06:22The air below is heated, not by the sun, but by fire.

06:26Fire heats the air, it rises, rotates, and pulls the fire inside.

06:32Some of the vortices can reach up to 400 feet high and 50 feet wide.

06:37It's like a thin, leaning tower of Pisa, made of fire, only twice as tall.

06:42This is a truly devastating and terrifying phenomenon.

06:45The ground is shaking.

06:48Flocks of birds are flying away.

06:51You can hear a loud, low rumble.

06:53The volcano spits out a giant ash cloud.

06:56Lava is flowing from the mouth of the fiery mountain.

06:59Rivers of fire are running down and dashing towards you.

07:03You have nowhere to escape.

07:05The fire is getting closer and closer, and...

07:07Wait a minute.

07:08This lava isn't hot.

07:09It's cold.

07:10How is that possible?

07:13You can observe cold lava flows near many volcanoes.

07:17In Indonesia, for example, this phenomenon has recently destroyed entire villages.

07:23Yes, it's not hot, but it's still dangerous.

07:26Cold lava streams occur when hot lava mixes with ash, sand, and pebbles during wet weather.

07:32In a sense, the volcano spews out streams of heavy mud.

07:36It covers roads, houses, cars, and trees.

07:39Cold lava flows are a destructive phenomenon, so stay away from them.

07:44Even if some volcano is very beautiful and you want to take cool photos, don't take any chances.

07:51Okay, let's relax a little and end our video with something fun.

07:55How about surfing?

07:57But instead of ordinary waves, we have icy ones.

08:01This phenomenon is called the ice wave.

08:04It looks as if someone paused a wave while it was forming before it hit the water.

08:09It's a rare occurrence, but you can find it on Mount Washington.

08:14The top of the mountain is shrouded in fog most of the year.

08:18Cold temperatures, humidity, and winds form frost.

08:22Then strong winds force this frost sideways, and thus a wavy shape forms.

08:27And when there's a wave, you can ski or snowboard inside, like a surfboard.

08:33But be careful, it's pretty cold in there, so wear warm clothes.

08:37If you were visiting Earth from another planet, your rational mind just wouldn't understand how singing dunes and moving balls of lightning were scientifically possible.

08:51I bet you'll feel like these images are just stills from your favorite sci-fi movie.

08:55You better hope you never find yourself alone near Catatumbo River in Venezuela during one of its lightning storms.

09:03Because if you were, you'd be surprised to find out that lightning works both ways, meaning it can come from the sky and from the ground.

09:11Terrifying, I know.

09:13Scientists think that in this case, it probably happens because of a high presence of uranium in the bedrock.

09:18But it can also happen due to cold and warm air currents that meet around that area.

09:25This makes the electric field get all charged up, and the bolt flips, traveling from ground to cloud.

09:31Scientists even have a fancy name for it, upward lightning.

09:36This special place called Catatumbo River became famous because of its light shows.

09:41Actually, the name means House of Thunder in the local language.

09:45This phenomenon happens for up to 160 nights a year, and it can last around 9 hours a day.

09:53When scientists counted, they realized that the area could produce anything from 16 to 40 flashes of lightning per minute.

10:02Now, you've probably heard of Marco Polo, the 13th century Venetian merchant and world traveler.

10:08Well, in one of his voyages, he came across what he could only describe as singing dunes.

10:14The dunes literally started rumbling, like they were playing drums, and freaked him out so much,

10:20he thought it was the works of evil invisible entities messing with him.

10:25Fast forward to our times, and scientists have discovered how sand dunes produce these rumbles.

10:31A team of scientists studied a singing dune in Morocco.

10:35They chose a large crescent-shaped one that makes noise all year round.

10:40If the wind is right, this dune can sing a few times every afternoon.

10:46It turns out that the wind forces sand to accumulate at the top of the dune

10:50until the angle of the slope reaches a tipping point of about 35 degrees.

10:56This accumulated sand drops down like an avalanche, and that's what produces a sound.

11:01The sand needs to be dry enough for the singing to happen, though.

11:05They're like nature's boombox.

11:07Isn't that something?

11:08This next one might be the most disturbing of them all.

11:13First, you'll see a flash of lightning.

11:15Then, a thundering boom.

11:17And finally, a curious light floating through the air and bouncing off surfaces like a white electric ball.

11:25Would you also hide under your blanket if you witnessed something like this?

11:29That's what an old lady did when she witnessed this from bed in her Chicago apartment.

11:33It turns out, people have been swapping their own ball lightning stories for hundreds of years.

11:39An English monk's report from the early 1000s might be the oldest version of these accounts.

11:45It talks about a fiery globe descending from a storm cloud and falling into the river Thames.

11:50The thing is, scientists aren't entirely sure what causes it.

11:55But one theory involves lightning striking silica-rich soil.

11:59This can vaporize silica, creating tiny particles bound by electrical charges.

12:04When these particles react with oxygen, they produce glowing orbs, which can last a few seconds.

12:12Some other theories say that it can be linked to miniature black holes or even hallucinations.

12:18But the silica explanation is the best contender so far.

12:22What they know for sure is that ball lightning is often linked to stormy weather.

12:28If you'd wake up in the middle of a wintry night and saw these lights, you'd probably think otherworldly people were invading our world.

12:36Or you'd feel like one of the lucky people who got to see the northern lights during your lifetime.

12:41But none are correct.

12:44These beautiful shafts of pastel-colored light were photographed by a guy in Ontario, Canada.

12:49They happen when tiny, flat ice crystals that usually reside up in the atmosphere float closer to the ground.

12:58They're sometimes called columns of violet light, and they reflect light from sources like streetlights or cars.

13:05These reflections stretch into tall, colorful columns that look like they're glowing in the sky.

13:12The best part is that it's mostly an optical illusion.

13:15The pillars aren't really in the air.

13:18They're just a trick of light bouncing off the ice.

13:22Somewhere near Buffalo, New York, you'll find a surreal combination of the fire and water elements.

13:29This phenomenon is called the eternal flame falls precisely because it never stops burning, even if it's so near the water.

13:38This is due to a chemical reaction where gas leaks out of the ground and combusts with the air.

13:45It's one out of a few hundred natural eternal flames around the world.

13:50But the 30 feet tall waterfall is probably the most beautiful one.

13:55Now, how does it get lit the first time around?

13:58Usually, eternal flames can be ignited by lightning, human activity, or something called piezoelectricity,

14:06which is basically when certain materials make electricity when you squeeze, press, or twist them.

14:13Scientists believe that Native Americans lit these flames thousands of years ago, but that's just a hunch.

14:19Have you ever imagined going for a midnight swim and suddenly finding yourself surrounded by a glowing blue haze?

14:28As if there were huge cannons of light coming out of the seabed directly into the surface?

14:33This phenomenon is rare, but it sure is magical.

14:38This chemical reaction is known as bioluminescence, and it can happen in different situations.

14:44One example is when tiny algae organisms migrate near the seashores.

14:48When these algae are disturbed, they try to defend themselves by glowing and just happen to create the most beautiful spectacle.

14:57There's also a specific place in the world where you can see a similar phenomenon.

15:01It's in New Zealand.

15:02Hidden deep within the country's caves lie the so-called glowworms.

15:07They are the larval species of a fungus that happen to be luminescent.

15:11If you're lucky enough to tour around these caves, you'll feel like you're floating inside an underground galaxy.

15:19The sky can create lots of different cool phenomena, and this specific one is called a crown flash.

15:26If you were seeing it with your own eyes, you'd see a column of light jumping or dancing near the top of a cumulus nimbus cloud.

15:34Think of cumulus nimbus as massive, towering clouds that look like fluffy mountains.

15:40These are the clouds that usually announce thunderstorms, lightning, and heavy rain.

15:45Now, although you'd probably think crown flashes looked like some supernatural energetic door opening to the heavens, this is a very scientific phenomenon.

15:57It happens when sunlight reflects off tiny ice crystals inside the cloud.

16:01But here's the cool part.

16:03Those ice crystals aren't just floating around randomly.

16:07They're moving because of shifts in the cloud's electric field.

16:11As the field changes, the ice crystals realign, and the light they reflect moves too.

16:17That's why the crown flash looks like it's flickering or waving.

16:21Crown flashes don't happen all the time.

16:23You need a thundercloud with the right conditions, lots of sunlight, ice crystals, and a strong electric field.

16:30If you ever spot one, consider yourself lucky.

16:33It's like nature showing off a rare light trick.

16:36We usually see ever-burning hills in sci-fi movies, but this one is real.

16:42Located in the Arctic region of Canada, the so-called Smoking Hills is an unmatched site on our planet.

16:49And here, things get even a little science fiction-y, since some minerals that exist in these hills were only ever found in a few places on our planet and outside it, like on the surface of Mars.

17:01The ground of Smoking Hills has been releasing smoke for at least a couple hundred years, non-stop.

17:09Explorers thought the area was home to an active volcano, but that was not the case.

17:14As science explains, the soil in the area is formed by sulfur and coal, and when they're in contact with oxygen, they spontaneously ignite, releasing constant smoke.

17:25I just warn you, don't be getting any touristic ideas.

17:29The environment is extremely hostile to human life, as the smoke is toxic, and its temperatures are dangerously high.

17:38That's it for today.

17:39So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

17:44Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.

17:47So let's say that it's the one that jumps on us and a little grid.

18:04Okay, let's hope.

18:04Go ahead.

18:05So let's see.

18:06Go ahead.

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