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Anyone would assume a column of thick clouds rising high into the sky is from a nearby volcanic eruption. But no volcanoes here! You can see these unusual clouds - along with other rare natural phenomena - no matter where you are in the world!
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00:01Ah, Kiev. You've been dreaming of getting here for years.
00:05Getting out your trusty camera, you start taking pictures of the cathedrals, aviation museum, and the Dnipro River.
00:12When, without warning, there's an enormous boom behind you.
00:16Turning around, you see something towering in the distance.
00:20It looks like a gigantic explosion. Uh-oh! Time to leave fast!
00:24In June 2020, what the people of Kiev were looking at was an anvil cloud, a rare storm formation in
00:32the sky.
00:33Forming when strong air currents carry water vapor upwards, the air expands and spreads out as it hits the bottom
00:41of the stratosphere.
00:42It pushes the dense cloud into the cool anvil shape you see, and sometimes it even gets to be a
00:49mushroom.
00:50Anvil clouds produce some of the most dangerous lightning of all storms, one that's called a bolt out of the
00:57blue.
00:57This lightning strike seems to magically come out of the blue sky with the storm being many miles away.
01:04This type of bolt comes from the top of the anvil and can be 10 times more powerful than a
01:10typical lightning strike.
01:13People got so frightened after witnessing a giant cloud just 60 miles away, thinking something terrible must have happened.
01:20The locals had pictures of the large billow on social media before officials could explain what was going on.
01:28Authorities managed to calm everyone's fears by informing them it was nothing more than a natural phenomenon, and a beautiful
01:35one at that.
01:36Touring around the northern tip of Queensland, Australia, way away from those creepy crawlies, it's time to take a break
01:44and relax at the beach.
01:46Getting comfortable, you notice a great big shadow passes over you, then another, and yet another.
01:53Looking up, this weird weather is simply stunning.
01:57The clouds are called morning glory, a very rare type of cloud that almost seems to roll across the sky,
02:04looking like a massive tube.
02:07These clouds can measure up to 600 miles long, even appearing in large groups as well.
02:14This phenomenon is the result of an updraft pushing through the cloud, creating a rolling appearance,
02:21while moist cooler air at the back causes them to sink downward.
02:27Southern India, between July and September 2001.
02:30People witnessed one of the strangest weather phenomenon in recorded history.
02:35The rain was red.
02:38What many would have thought to be a typical rainstorm left them shocked.
02:42The color was bright enough to stain clothes.
02:45There were other colors too, such as green, yellow, brown, and even black.
02:51In the middle of a monsoon, red rain started to fall, and did so periodically for several weeks.
02:58Researchers have found this unusual rain is stained either by dust or algae, so don't try to catch any on
03:06your tongue.
03:08Scientists aren't entirely sure how the algae got all the way up there.
03:12This does make events like this a little unsettling.
03:16Like to take a bubble bath to relax after an exhausting day, but taking too long to fill the bathtub?
03:23Problem solved!
03:24Head to any coastline after a big storm and take a dip.
03:28Foamy tides aren't native to any one place or location.
03:32They can be formed anywhere in the world.
03:35They're most likely to happen along rocky coastlines, like the coast of San Francisco, Northern Ireland, or the Mooloolaba, Australia.
03:43Each coast has differing conditions forming the seafoams.
03:48If you scoop up seawater into a glass and look at it closely, you'll see it's full of tiny particles.
03:55Many things, like plants, chemicals, and lots of salt and minerals create the perfect formula for foam.
04:03When powerful currents and wind mix it all together, we get something that resembles a cappuccino top floating on top
04:10of the water.
04:12When freezing temperatures hit orchards in Michigan, all kinds of unusual things happen.
04:18Like ghost apples.
04:19No, they're not going to scare you at all.
04:22But if you plan on sneaking away one winter to find one, be warned.
04:27Everything has to be perfect for this to occur, and it's going to be freezing cold.
04:33This is actually a rare weather phenomenon caused by having the apples freeze where they are with rain coating the
04:40fruit in a thin layer of ice.
04:42The apples then thaw and leak out like applesauce, leaving just the beautiful ice shell behind.
04:50The Catatumbo River in Venezuela might be the most electric place in the world, with nearly 300 storm days per
04:59year.
04:59The lightning storms are so consistent, they're predicted for three months in advance.
05:05During the wet season in October, you might see 30 lightning flashes in a single minute.
05:11A truly shocking experience.
05:13With each bolt having the energy to power a single light bulb for six months, the impressive display could power
05:20all of Venezuela forever.
05:23At sunset, strong winds flow around the three surrounding mountains, forming storm clouds over the water.
05:30As the water droplets of humid air collide with ice crystals from the cold air, it produces the static charges
05:38that cause the lightning storms nearly every night.
05:42If that wasn't bad enough, some storms have lightning above them as well.
05:47Try to take a picture of this one.
05:49Jellyfish lightning sprites are electrical discharges high in Earth's atmosphere.
05:54They're associated with powerful thunderstorms, but they have nothing to do with rain.
06:00These sprites occur 30 to 50 miles up in the sky, in the mesosphere.
06:06Artificial lights at night make it a lot harder to see this faint lightning.
06:11If you spot one, it'll look tiny, but can be well over 30 miles wide.
06:17The red sprites are a type of cold plasma discharge above a thundercloud.
06:22They're the balance of the lightning charges between the storm clouds and the ground below.
06:28Don't try to find this type of donut at your favorite bakery.
06:32It won't be there.
06:33Snow donuts are one of the rarest meteorological sites to see, with perfect weather conditions needed just to create them.
06:42Found in any snow-covered mountain area like the Rocky Mountains, the wind, temperature, snow, ice, and moisture have to
06:50all work together for us to see these phenomenal rings.
06:54A thin layer of wet snow on the ground.
06:57Under that layer, ice or powdered snow.
07:00Then, a strong enough breeze to roll the donut down a hill, just like a snowball.
07:07Once it stops rolling, it can be the size of a baseball or as large as a car tire.
07:12It all depends on how strong the wind is.
07:15A newly formed snow donut won't stay around for very long, so hurry up with that camera!
07:22Watching the sunset over the horizon, the beautiful purples and pink overhead are nothing compared to the three suns you
07:30see in front of you.
07:31Wow!
07:32Since when did Earth get three suns?
07:35These phantom stars, sometimes appearing beside the sun, are called sun dogs.
07:41Maybe they're called that because they're kind of dogging the actual sun?
07:46Sun dogs often appear as colored areas of light at the same height above the horizon as the sun.
07:53They're mostly observed on a ring or halo, where ice crystals best reflect the light.
07:59There are also moon dogs that appear alongside the moon and are formed by lunar light passing through ice crystals,
08:06though these aren't seen nearly as much as their daytime partners.
08:11Taking photos in the wild, you've finally found the perfect spot to take that dream shot.
08:17The crystal clear water, the pines, the mountains, and the flying saucer!
08:23Wait, a flying saucer?
08:25Oh, aliens are here!
08:28You might be thinking this if you saw a saucer-shaped cloud.
08:33I'm not even going to try to pronounce their name, though.
08:36Put that on the screen, please.
08:37Wait, just kidding!
08:38It's Autocumulus lenticulirus.
08:42Aren't you impressed?
08:43These are really just unusual cloud formations over mountaintops.
08:48When moist air flows over a mountain, a wave is created if the temperature difference is perfect.
08:54As the air passes through the wave, evaporation occurs, and a series of these clouds may form into an oval
09:02shape.
09:03Not aliens at all.
09:06The sky is falling!
09:08The sky is falling!
09:09Well, people who have experienced these clouds say they look like they're coming down from the sky.
09:16Mammatous clouds look like giant white lumpy marshmallows, but it might be hard to toast these ones.
09:22These weird, fluffy clouds can extend hundreds of miles in any direction, remaining visible for short periods at the bottom
09:31of anvil or other thunderstorm clouds.
09:33The strange bubble shapes are formed from turbulence within the storm itself, creating an uneven cloud base and appearing anywhere
09:42in the world.
09:44Mammatous clouds form when moist air sinks into dry air.
09:48The air must be cooler than its surroundings, cooled with ice, or be heavy with water.
09:56It happened in Iceland on Friday, March 19, 2021, at 8.45 p.m., about 20 miles southwest of the
10:05capital.
10:06Molten rock suddenly burst through the surface from below.
10:09Bright lava fountains then lit up the night sky.
10:12A volcano in this valley finally woke up after almost 800 years of sleeping soundly.
10:20We divide volcanoes into three categories.
10:23Active, dormant, or extinct.
10:25Around 1,900 of them around the globe are considered active.
10:30That means they've erupted in the recent past and will likely do it again in the possible near future.
10:36Dormant volcanoes haven't popped off for a long time, but they still may in the future.
10:41You could say they're sort of sleeping.
10:44As for extinct ones, those guys haven't done anything in more than a million years.
10:50The eruption in Iceland wasn't super explosive, and this all happened six miles from the nearest town.
10:56So everyone was perfectly safe.
10:59Many even came to see it up close.
11:02While other brave visitors tried to fry eggs and bacon on the lava.
11:06Just be careful not to burn your breakfast black.
11:09Lava can be over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
11:13It burns everything in its path.
11:15Yet it also produces some of the most fertile land for agriculture.
11:19You can never really predict how fast a lava flow will be until you see it.
11:24It all depends on how thick it is and how steep the mountains slope.
11:28Lava can ooze slowly at about 20 feet a minute, a fraction of the average person's walking speed.
11:36Or it can flow as fast as 30 miles per hour, which even the fastest person on Earth can't outrun.
11:43But the lava isn't even the most dangerous thing about volcanoes.
11:47That would be the toxic gases spewing from the eruption.
11:51And those spread faster and further than the lava flow.
11:55Luckily, in Iceland's case, the wind has been blowing these gases away from residential areas.
12:02Scientists weren't surprised this volcano erupted.
12:05They knew it was coming.
12:07Increasingly stronger earthquakes had been shaking this area for the past 15 months.
12:12There were 50,000 earthquakes within just the three weeks leading up to the eruption.
12:18That's 100 per hour.
12:20The volcano has been active since March.
12:23And geologists say this could last for weeks, months, years, or even decades of constant eruptions in the area.
12:31Mount Shasta is in the top 5 most dangerous volcanoes in the U.S.
12:36So geologists are keeping a close eye on it.
12:39The last eruption was in 1250.
12:42I wasn't around then.
12:43But this volcano erupts every 600 to 800 years.
12:47Which means, tick-tock, we're due any day now.
12:51About an hour from Portland, Oregon, there's an active volcano that last erupted in the 19th century.
12:57Next time it goes off, scientists think it'll produce larger amounts of ash and dust.
13:03This could cause an electrical blackout and make water unsafe to drink in the area.
13:09But the experts pay close attention to Mount Hood.
13:12They'll be able to give plenty of warning so people can react in time.
13:18Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world.
13:21It's been erupting almost constantly since 1983, making it also one of the longest eruptions known on Earth.
13:29It's the youngest land volcano in Hawaii.
13:33Volcanoes can take thousands of years to form.
13:36But others can pop up practically overnight.
13:39A volcano in Mexico just erupted in an open field in 1943.
13:45It started growing from there.
13:46Within a year, it was almost 1,500 feet tall.
13:51When the eruptions finally stopped nine years later, the mount had reached a height of over 9,200 feet.
13:59Mount Fuji is an iconic symbol of Japan.
14:03The last time it erupted was in 1707.
14:06And it sent a shower of burning rocks as far as 60 miles away.
14:10If a similar eruption happened today, Tokyo would be within that vicinity.
14:17Mount Fuji is right on the Ring of Fire, that horseshoe-shaped region in the Pacific Ocean, full of active
14:23volcanoes and earthquakes.
14:25From one end to the other, it's almost 25,000 miles long.
14:30It could wrap all the way around the Earth's equator.
14:33In January 2020, tall volcano in the Philippines started spewing lava, sending huge plumes of ash half a mile up
14:42into the sky.
14:43The eruption even triggered a rare phenomenon, a dirty thunderstorm.
14:49That's when the smoke cloud above a volcano produces its own lightning.
14:54The chance of volcanic tsunamis was also high.
14:57Those are usually caused by tectonic movements that occur because of volcanic activity.
15:03Tall has erupted more than 30 times in the last 450 years.
15:08This volcano in Ecuador last erupted in 2016.
15:13Scientists think it might be showing some early warning signs of magma on the move.
15:18This is an active stratovolcano, a specific cone-shaped type with steep sides.
15:23They form from sticky lava that doesn't flow that easily.
15:28That lava goes around the vent, cooling and piling on itself to form these steep walls.
15:34These types are more likely to produce explosive eruptions like the ones we see in movies.
15:41Ruapehu is the oldest national park in New Zealand.
15:44A volcanic wonderland where you can closely see all those steaming craters, magnificent lakes, and unusual rock formations.
15:52It last erupted in 2007 and has had 10 eruptions since the mid-19th century.
15:59But eruptions, lava flows, and toxic gases aren't the only danger coming from volcanoes.
16:05There's also a thing called lahar, a kind of volcanic mud flow of debris.
16:10In between eruptions, snow melts and a lake forms in the caldera.
16:15If the last eruption brought mud, ash, and rocks in the lake, it becomes dangerously full.
16:21In that case, only a temporary dam holds it back.
16:26Indonesia has the biggest number of active volcanoes in the world, including one called Anak Krakatoa.
16:33It means child of Krakatoa, and its famous parent isn't far away.
16:38A huge tsunami in 2018 partially woke Junior, a scary thought since Senior had one of the most powerful eruptions
16:46ever seen on this planet in 1883.
16:50Krakatoa's boom was the loudest sound ever heard.
16:54People over 2,000 miles away could hear the explosion.
16:58The sound wave circled the globe seven times.
17:02And scientists say it's hard to predict this volcano's eruption patterns.
17:07Mount Yassir in Vanuatu is one of just a few volcanoes in the world where you can see a lava
17:14lake.
17:15Tourists even go there to peer over the edge and get a look at the burning, bubbling lake below.
17:20Well, except for when the volcanic activity goes to levels 3 and 4 out of 5,
17:26that means there are more intense earthquakes, volcanic tremors, or steam, gas, or ash ejections.
17:32Then, this place is off-limits, because, duh.
17:37This volcano in the DR Congo has the most active and largest lake volcano in the world.
17:44And all that lava is unusually fluid, meaning it travels faster and further than the stuff coming out of most
17:50volcanoes.
17:52It's certainly not amongst the tallest ones, but Ethiopia's Erta Ali is unique in that it has a lava lake
17:59almost constantly,
18:00which is pretty rare.
18:02The locals call it a smoking mountain, because its lava lake often causes eruptions.
18:07This volcano is near the Danikil Depression, one of the hottest places on our planet.
18:14Marupi has been erupting on a regular basis since the mid-16th century.
18:19This volcano helps scientists do crucial research on how eruptions work, and how they can warn people in time.
18:27After it was dormant for a while, this volcano in central Mexico sprang back to life in 1994.
18:34Ever since then, it's been producing huge mud flows and strong explosions in unpredictable intervals.
18:40In the past, enormous eruptions coming from this giant buried entire cities in pyramids.
18:47Imagine staying in a hotel and waking up to the magnificent view of a massive volcano covered in glowing rivers
18:55of lava and clouds of ash.
18:57When it lets off heat, visitors to this area in Guatemala take a chance to roast some marshmallows there.
19:04One of the most active volcanoes on Earth is on a small island north of Sicily.
19:11Stromboli has regular explosions, together with glowing lava coming from vents inside the crater.
19:18Not too far away is Etna, Europe's most active volcano and one of the biggest continental ones in the world.
19:26By the way, Earth definitely isn't the only planet with volcanoes.
19:30The largest one in our solar system is on Mars.
19:34It would cover the entire state of Arizona, and it rises nearly three times higher than Mount Everest.
19:40Ooh, don't look down.
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