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Immerse yourself in the astonishing natural phenomena showcased in this captivating video compilation.
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00:00When we think of active volcanoes, one region comes to mind, the ring of fire in the Pacific Ocean.
00:07Three-quarters of Earth's volcanoes sit within this belt.
00:10Compare the area to Australia, which doesn't have any volcanic activity.
00:15The old continent of Europe is also calm.
00:18Or at least, we like to think so.
00:20Can you guess what the most active volcano in Europe is?
00:24If you thought of Mount Etna on the island of Sicily in Italy, you were right.
00:30The volcano has erupted about 200 times and has been far from sleeping in recent decades.
00:36The last time this happened was in August 2023.
00:39The highest mountain in the Mediterranean is half a billion years old.
00:44But in Iceland, there is a much younger volcano.
00:47It sprang into action on the 10th of July 2023.
00:51In the afternoon, three fissures appeared in the ground on a peninsula in the southwest of the island.
00:57This was at a base of a small mountain peak.
01:00Its name means little ram in the local language.
01:04The volcano spewed molten lava high into the air.
01:07There were also gas plumes in the area.
01:09But the scientific community wasn't surprised by the event.
01:15They already knew about the volcanic area that stretches between the cities of Reykjavik and Keflavik.
01:21Its name is hard to pronounce.
01:23Hey, I want to buy a vowel.
01:25It had already erupted during the previous two summers.
01:28This activity came after eight centuries of dormancy.
01:32In the days leading up to the latest eruption,
01:35seismologists, the scientists who study earthquakes, recorded over 12,000 tremors.
01:40When the ground opened up in July, the fissures were over a mile and a half long.
01:45The following morning, two of them closed.
01:48All the lava was now coming out of the last fissure.
01:52It grew into an elongated cone, the simplest shape of volcano we are all familiar with.
01:58The lava soon filled a large crater.
02:00It grew almost 100 feet tall during the first week.
02:03And it is still growing.
02:05On the night when the eruption started, lava spread out in all directions.
02:10Its cinders set ablaze the dry moss in the vicinity.
02:13Local authorities closed off the surrounding area.
02:16There were toxic gases from the volcanoes and smoke from the burning moss.
02:21Firefighters flocked to the area.
02:23After a week, they proclaimed the area safe.
02:26Visitors soon came to witness the birth of Europe's youngest volcano.
02:32This form of tourism is quite developed in Iceland.
02:36People come from all over the world to watch active volcanoes.
02:39The land of fire and ice is home to more than 130 volcanoes.
02:44Some 30 of them are active.
02:47Now, I know what you're thinking right now.
02:49Is volcano tourism safe?
02:51In Iceland, it is.
02:52The country's authorities research and constantly monitor all of the hotspots.
02:57The island is dotted with several dozen seismic stations.
03:01These help researchers accurately predict future eruptions.
03:05And emergency services are accustomed to these sorts of events.
03:08They can quickly cordon off danger zones.
03:11This is what happened in 2010.
03:13A volcano in the south of the island, the name of which everyone struggled to pronounce, erupted.
03:19It spewed out a plume of steam and ash that was seven miles high.
03:24This wasn't a fun time to be an air traveler.
03:27Winds carried the enormous plume southeast toward northern Europe.
03:31Many countries closed their airspace for several days for safety reasons.
03:35The volcano erupted in March, but the Earth was shaking from January the same year.
03:40So, seismologists knew that an eruption was approaching.
03:46When it comes to the continent's youngest volcano, the tourist infrastructure is already there.
03:51Visitors can leave their cars at a designated parking lot.
03:55Then, they go on a five-hour-long trek.
03:58This leads to a viewing deck.
04:01Tourists are so close to the epicenter that they can feel the heat haze from the crater.
04:05The site is the most impressive at nighttime.
04:08Safety is never a concern.
04:10Scientists regularly chart out hazard maps that outline the borders of lava fields.
04:15This way, visitors who stick by the rules are never in harm's way.
04:20More than a week after the eruption started, a section of the crater collapsed.
04:24Lava flowed downhill west of the volcano.
04:28This majestic, smoldering hot river is slow-moving lava.
04:31Scientists categorize it as an a-a type.
04:35The term is Hawaiian.
04:37It describes basaltic lava that has a rough and brittle surface.
04:41The flow is composed of broken lava blocks that are called clinkers.
04:45They fall off as the substance flows.
04:48This reveals red-hot areas.
04:50The cooler sections of lava are gray and black in color.
04:53When it moves forward, it produces a distinctive sound like shattering glass.
05:01Nearly a month after the eruption of the new volcano, we got aerial footage of an interesting phenomenon.
05:07A tornado formed directly over the lava flow.
05:11This occurs due to the high temperatures in the area.
05:14When the conditions are right, a column of heated air can easily turn into a mini-tornado.
05:20Scientists observed a similar event happen during the 2018 eruption of Mount Kilauea in Hawaii.
05:26The lava fields of Europe's second-largest island tell the story of the creation of Iceland.
05:32It sits above the place where the North American and Eurasian plates meet each other.
05:37Tectonic plates are huge, rocky chunks of Earth's most outer layer.
05:41There are roughly 20 of them.
05:43They rest on a partially molten layer of rock.
05:46All the lava we see on the surface starts its journey here.
05:50You could say that these plates flowed on molten rock.
05:53Their boundaries are unstable.
05:55So, when two plates grind past each other, they release tremendous amounts of energy.
06:01The formation of volcanoes is one result.
06:04These are places where the molten rock travels upward to the surface.
06:09Iceland began to form some 60 million years ago.
06:13The tectonic plates under the ocean drifted apart.
06:16Enough lava piled up on the surface to create solid ground.
06:20This ancient rock is under the waves today.
06:23As new lava reaches the surface and cools down, it pushes the old rock away from the center of the
06:29island.
06:30That's why the oldest parts of Iceland aren't 60 but only 16 million years old.
06:35The country's active lava fields are young in geological terms.
06:40Some of them are under 1,000 years old.
06:43Scientists consider the island a hot spot for volcanoes.
06:47Pun intended.
06:47Nearly a third of the basaltic lava that reaches the Earth's surface in recorded history came from Icelandic eruptions.
06:55Fissure swarms, like the ones before the 2023 eruption, cover 30% of the Nordic country.
07:01For this reason, only a quarter of the island is inhabited.
07:05Norse Vikings were the first people to settle in Iceland at the beginning of the 10th century.
07:10Nature threw them a loud welcoming party.
07:13Just a few years after their arrival, they witnessed one of the greatest volcanic eruptions in history.
07:20Vikings came from a region without volcanoes, so they had no clue as to what was going on.
07:28Today, Icelanders are used to such events.
07:30This is good because their homeland is entering a new era of volcanic activity.
07:36Volcanologists suspect that recent events are an introduction to decades of more frequent eruptions.
07:42The peninsula that is home to Earth's youngest volcano is just 17 miles southwest of Iceland's capital city.
07:50It's been dormant for a long time.
07:53Present-day eruptions there are a reminder that the natural processes that created Iceland are still ongoing.
08:00Recently, scientists discovered that there's a historical link between volcanic eruptions in the north of Europe and glaciers.
08:07Our planet went through at least five major ice ages.
08:11These were exceptionally lengthy periods when the average temperature on Earth dropped.
08:16The result was the expansion of ice sheets across northern Europe and North America.
08:21The last ice age ended some 10,000 years ago.
08:24Researchers are still trying to fully understand how these glacial periods affected volcanic activity.
08:31They suspect that the sheer weight of all that ice disrupts the flow of magma underground.
08:37When glaciers retreat, the pressure is lifted.
08:40This makes it easier for lava to flow upward to the surface where it bursts.
08:49It may seem that today, with our quite advanced technological development, science can explain pretty much any natural phenomenon.
08:57But that's not always true.
08:59Some things still stump experts and make them build exotic theories.
09:04Let's have a look at some of such phenomena.
09:09Hesdalen lights are a puzzling phenomenon you can observe in Hesdalen Valley in central Norway.
09:15The thing is that some highly unusual lights can often be seen over the valley.
09:20They appear mostly at night.
09:23The lights are typically white, but they occasionally turn yellowish or reddish.
09:28Nobody knows what makes them change color.
09:31What's more, the lights can move.
09:35And if at one moment they seem to motionlessly hang in mid-air, the next minute they may travel somewhere
09:41at lightning speed.
09:43There's no certain place where they appear, and you can't predict the duration of their stay.
09:48Despite all the research that has been done since the 1980s, scientists are still unable to explain this phenomenon as
09:56well as such weird behavior of lights.
10:01The sardine run lasts from May to July.
10:05During this time, millions of sardines swim northward along South Africa's east coast.
10:12You can probably imagine a feeding frenzy that starts at that time.
10:17It's believed that the water temperature must get lower than 70 degrees afile for the migration to begin.
10:26This mushroom with a difficult name, Choreoactis geester, is only found in Japan and Texas.
10:32And it makes scientists extremely confused.
10:35Why these two locations?
10:38It's true that they're on the same latitude, but these places are definitely not the only ones.
10:44Plus, they're so far away from each other.
10:48After studying the mushroom's DNA in 2004, experts suggested that the two populations might have been separated into two lineages
10:57around 19 million years ago.
11:03On central Flores Island, there's a 3,000-foot-high volcano called Kelamutu.
11:09At its base, there is a small town.
11:13If you want to see the main attraction of the area, you'll most definitely stay there.
11:18And the attraction I'm talking about is three lakes.
11:21Known as the Lake of Old People,
11:24the Lake of Young Men and Maidens,
11:27and the Enchanted Lake.
11:31Why are these lakes so popular and attract so many people?
11:36They inexplicably change colors.
11:40Ancient legends claim that the lakes are the final resting place of human souls,
11:45and those souls stay in different lakes according to their actions.
11:51As for scientific research,
11:54no one has yet conducted any to discover the cause of the changing colors.
11:59But theorists suppose that it might be due to underwater volcanic activity.
12:06It might be pushing minerals to the lake's surface.
12:10Then, depending on what elements those are,
12:13the lakes can turn blood red,
12:15bright turquoise,
12:17or olive green.
12:20But the coolest thing?
12:22The lakes are never all the same color at the same time.
12:26This phenomenon is unique and hasn't been observed anywhere else in the world.
12:33Those who have ever heard an annoying noise a kettle makes to inform you the water inside is boiling
12:39can imagine what the whistle sounds like.
12:42Even though this noise isn't as blood-curdling as some other unexplained sounds,
12:46it doesn't make the whistle any less mysterious.
12:49It's incredibly elusive.
12:52In 1997, only one underwater microphone was able to pick it up.
12:57At that time, researchers didn't manage to pinpoint the source of the noise.
13:02The most likely cause of the unusual sound is an eruption of one of the submarine volcanoes.
13:09But once again, there's not enough proof to make sure.
13:15There's probably no person on Earth who doesn't marvel at the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.
13:21But not everyone knows that there is another triangle.
13:25Not so famous, but just as dangerous.
13:30Dragon's Triangle, or the Devil's Sea, lies in the area between Japan and the islands of Bonin.
13:39It covers a big part of the Philippine Sea as well.
13:42That's why people also call this place the Pacific Bermuda Triangle.
13:48Surprisingly, or not really,
13:50The Devil's Sea is situated exactly opposite the Bermuda Triangle.
13:57Ships and planes tend to disappear here with the same regularity as in the North Atlantic Triangle.
14:04People also report seeing ghost ships in the open sea.
14:09And while scientists provide logical reasons for the vanishing vessels and aircraft,
14:14most people still believe in the paranormal nature of Dragon's Triangle.
14:21For the first time,
14:23a bizarre sound later called the upsweep
14:26was registered in 1991 in the Pacific Ocean.
14:30One of the most unusual things about the sound
14:33is that it's constantly changing.
14:35It varies from high to low frequencies,
14:38and then back again.
14:40You can hear it better in the spring and fall
14:42than in the winter and summer.
14:44The sound travels from the bottom of the ocean toward its surface.
14:51Scientists do have a theory explaining this phenomenon.
14:55They think it might be the activity of undersea volcanoes that causes the sound.
15:00Hot lava that's pouring into the ice-cold ocean water
15:04can theoretically produce such noise.
15:07But researchers haven't found any evidence to confirm this theory yet.
15:15On the thin Cuaronian spit splitting the Baltic Sea from the Cuaronian Lagoon,
15:21there is one of the most bizarre places on Earth.
15:24Locals call this area the Dancing Forest
15:27because pine trees in this forest have shockingly unusual shapes.
15:32They twist in spirals and circles along the ground.
15:35There are some theories why it could be happening, of course.
15:39Some people claim that huge amounts of positive and negative energies
15:43once clashed in that spot.
15:46More down-to-earth individuals believe that the reason is geological.
15:50Sandy soil in the area is too unstable to hold trees growing upright.
15:55The most popular is the idea that strong winds blowing from the water
15:59influence the shape of the trees.
16:02In any case, experts haven't come to the final conclusion yet.
16:10Potomsky Crater is described as a mount with a perfect shape.
16:15Its size is more than that of a 25-story building.
16:19It sits in the middle of the woods with its top chopped off
16:22and presents quite a sight.
16:25In fact, the shape of the crater is pretty unusual.
16:28It has a rounded inner dome that is about 40 feet high.
16:33At first sight, this formation looks like a volcano.
16:37But after a closer examination,
16:39you might realize that it's not the case.
16:43The dome in the center of the cone
16:45is extremely unusual for a volcano.
16:48In addition,
16:49there haven't been any volcanoes in this region
16:51for millions of years,
16:53while the age of the crater
16:54is estimated to be about 250 years.
17:00The weird shape that the crater has
17:03is like nothing scientists have ever seen.
17:06This, as well as the fact that any theory
17:09fails to explain the origin of the formation,
17:12adds to the mystery around it.
17:15And that's not the most terrifying thing.
17:18After researchers analyzed the growth rings
17:21of the trees near the crater,
17:22they found out that the trees experienced
17:25a period of strangely accelerated growth
17:28that lasted for 40 years.
17:31After that, they began to grow as they were supposed to.
17:34The level of radiation near the crater
17:37is also higher than in the nearby areas.
17:40No one has an explanation for this fact.
17:45On top of that,
17:47nothing grows on the blood-chilling formation.
17:49Perhaps because the crater
17:51also has a lovely habit of constant shifting.
17:54It rises and falls,
17:56influenced by some inexplicable force.
18:00Locals believe in the evil
18:02that dwells in that place.
18:07While exploring the Amazon rainforest,
18:10researchers discovered gigantic geoglyphs.
18:13Their geometrical drawings
18:15carved into the ground.
18:18The trenches were as large as 36 feet wide
18:21and 13 feet deep.
18:24They were created at different times,
18:27most between the 1st to the 15th century.
18:30There are more than 450 geoglyphs
18:34in the north of Bolivia and Brazil.
18:38The most ancient of them
18:39could have been created
18:40around 3,000 years ago.
18:44The huge earthworks were likely used
18:47for common meetings and discussions.
18:49But scientists haven't found enough proof yet.
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