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What is a desert rose and where could you find it? This and other random facts in our new video!
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00:00Hey, ever heard of a fire rainbow?
00:03Yeah, me neither.
00:04How about a circumhorizontal arc?
00:07Didn't think so, but just so you know, they're one and the same thing.
00:11At first glance, it looks like a painting, or like a rainbow-colored splash in the sky.
00:17Despite the name, they have nothing in common with either fire or rain.
00:21This phenomenon happens on rare occasions when the sun shines through a particular type of ice cloud formation.
00:29The rainbow halos are just as unique.
00:32Again, a specific type of ice crystals and clouds needs to be present for the surface of the Earth to
00:38bend light from the sun into a perfect ring.
00:41The same thing can happen with moonlight.
00:43The only difference will be that moon halos are usually white, and sun halos can be rainbow-colored.
00:50When visiting regions with high altitudes, you may be one of the lucky people to stumble upon penitentes.
00:57They're basically naturally formed ice spikes.
01:00For them to be formed, they need a really cold and elevated environment where the air is dry.
01:06The sunlight turns ice directly into vapor, rather than melting it into water.
01:11And that's why these blades of snow and ice start to pop up on the surface of the Earth.
01:16As cute as they may be, they can end up as tall as 15 feet.
01:21Now, what happens when small, individual droplets of lava meet the wind?
01:27Pele's hair, basically.
01:29Let me explain.
01:30The word Pele comes from an ancient Hawaiian symbol for volcanoes.
01:34Whenever the wind picks up little drops of lava, it stretches them into hair-like strands, similar to the process
01:41of glass wire creation.
01:43These delicate strands can stretch as far as 6 feet.
01:47On rare occasions, it can rain without any clouds.
01:51But does it really?
01:53Let's look at the science behind this rare phenomenon.
01:56It's sometimes called a sun shower, just because it looks like the rain is falling straight from the sun.
02:02Let's be clear, though.
02:04There is no way rain can ever come down directly from a star.
02:08Rain clouds are at a bit of a distance from that specific location.
02:12With sun rays being angled, the clouds become out of sight.
02:16Add a little wind to blow the rain in your direction, and ta-da!
02:21You get sun showers.
02:23Located in Bolivia is a place called Salar de Juni.
02:27It's the largest salt flat in the world.
02:30It's also the home of half of the world's lithium, which is a crucial component for making batteries.
02:35But what else is so special about this place?
02:38Well, whenever the rain season comes, it turns this piece of flat land into a perfectly reflective mirror lake.
02:47What comes to your mind when you hear about the Blood Falls?
02:50A horror movie?
02:51Mwah!
02:52Well, they are merely a series of waterfalls located in one of the driest regions of Antarctica.
02:57They emerge from an underground lake filled with a special kind of bacteria.
03:02These little organisms use sulfates as fuel instead of sugars, which makes them very intriguing for scientists.
03:09The water contained in this lake is so full of iron that it basically just rusts when it meets the
03:15air.
03:15Hence, the reddish color of the waterfall, which also gives it its trademark name.
03:21Okay, we all know the song, but it's not really made up.
03:25There is actually such a thing called a desert rose.
03:28It's not a plant, though, but a unique form of the mineral gypsum.
03:32It develops in dry, sandy places that can occasionally flood.
03:36This constant switching between a wet and dry environment lets the gypsum crystals emerge between grains of sand, trapping them
03:44and forming a rose-like shape.
03:47Ever heard of the Eye of Sahara?
03:49Scientists are still trying to figure out how it was formed.
03:53You can only see it if you fly above it, but it's basically a naturally formed dome that dates back
03:59to approximately 100 million years ago.
04:02And no, I wasn't around then.
04:04It has a rough diameter of 25 miles and consists of a bunch of concentric rings.
04:10The biggest one, or the central area, measures about 19 miles in diameter.
04:16Astronauts were some of the first people to notice it, and it's been studied ever since.
04:20In fact, even to this day, when landing in Florida, they know they're almost home when they see the Eye
04:27of Sahara.
04:29One of the most beautifully colored trees in the world is located in the Philippines and Indonesia.
04:35It's called the rainbow eucalyptus.
04:37It got its name because of its bark that switches colors and peels away as the tree ages.
04:43The bright green bark is the youngest, as it contains a substance called chlorophyll, usually found in leaves.
04:50It then switches to purple and then to the color red.
04:53And finally, it turns brown as it grows and loses the chlorophyll.
04:58Now, don't be tricked into thinking that's a whole forest.
05:02It's one single tree.
05:04And no, it's not some sort of optical illusion either.
05:07Let me explain.
05:09Underneath that soil, there is a complex network of roots that connects around 47,000 tree-like shapes you see
05:17above the ground.
05:18It's called the quaking aspen.
05:20Some of these trees are among the oldest and largest organisms in the world.
05:25Now, here's a good destination for all travelers.
05:28Or maybe not so good, after all.
05:31The most lightning-stricken area in the world, according to recent data released by NASA, is Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela.
05:38Out of all the days in a year, 300 of them feature thunderstorms in this location.
05:45What makes this area so unique, though, that storms happen so often?
05:49Well, it's because where cool mountain air meets the warm, moist breeze and generates electricity over the lake.
05:57The Eternal Flame Falls are located in upstate New York, near the Canadian border.
06:03In this region, there is a tiny waterfall with a big secret.
06:07A spark about 8 inches tall.
06:10Turns out there's a natural gas seat that provides fuel to the flame behind the waterfall.
06:15The waterfall provides enough coverage so that it stays lit pretty much every time.
06:20Hikers do enjoy to relight it if they see that it's been blown out.
06:24This phenomenon is actually quite common, but this one gained more popularity because it is younger than most.
06:31And it looks very good in pictures, let's be honest.
06:35I've heard of yellow sand, white sand, and even black sand here or there.
06:39But I've never heard of green beaches until now.
06:43Papakolia, also known as Green Sand Beach, is located in Hawaii and is one of the few beaches in the
06:49world that features green sand.
06:51The unique coloring comes from olivine rock that was formed when a nearby volcano erupted.
06:58Actually, in Hawaii, all the volcanoes are nearby.
07:02Move over green sands because some of the other beaches around the world can even glow at night.
07:08And it's completely natural.
07:10The culprit?
07:11A little thing called photoplankton, or microalgae, as they're sometimes called.
07:16They're basically little plants that contain chlorophyll and need sunlight in order to live and grow.
07:23Most photoplankton kinds are able to float in the upper part of the ocean, where the sunlight can still reach
07:29them beneath the water.
07:30When the photoplankton gets agitated by the movement of waves and currents, they emit light, which looks like some glow
07:37during the night.
07:38These special microorganisms are found on beaches in a lot of places around the world, such as the Maldives, Puerto
07:45Rico, and the Everglades.
07:48At the base of a mountain located just outside of Afton, Wyoming, is a little river called the Intermittent Spring.
07:56There are only three of this kind in the whole world.
07:58But what makes this little string of water so mysterious?
08:02Well, the fact that it starts and stops every few minutes.
08:05Scientists have yet to pinpoint precisely why this happens.
08:09They speculate that it's basically just a siphon effect that happens deep within the ground that causes the river to
08:16just start and stop so often.
08:18Should you ever be interested in checking it out, be sure to do so in the late summer, as that's
08:24when the Intermittent Spring is most active.
08:26Do you see the irony here?
08:28You can only see the spring in the summer.
08:31Okay, I'm done.
08:32People tend to think that the cereal aisle always remains the same.
08:36But let's see how it has been changing over time.
08:39Cereal packs are transforming in line with pop culture and trends.
08:44Gather up, cereal lovers, especially you, millennials.
08:47I'll talk about the golden era of cereals.
08:50Oh, and don't forget to tell me about your favorite cereal from the 90s.
08:54How about we start with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
08:58In 1991, Ralston Purina made a cereal that was pizza-shaped.
09:02Thankfully, it wasn't pizza-flavored.
09:05It tasted like marshmallows.
09:06It's radical-tasting cereal, dudes.
09:10The same year, Kellogg's Cinnamon Mini Buns cereal entered our lives like Speedy Gonzales.
09:15Not 67 or 68, but 70.
09:19Apparently, eating 70 cinnamon buns can be nutritious.
09:22Did you count them when you put them in your bowl?
09:24Do you remember vintage tricks with lime green puffs?
09:29How about dino pebbles?
09:31The box had a recipe.
09:32Instead of putting the pebbles in a bowl and mixing them with milk, you could prepare cereal treats.
09:38I've mentioned Kellogg's Cinnamon Mini Buns, but it was just one of their products.
09:43They also had Big Mix cereal.
09:45At that time, companies started to emphasize how healthy and nutritious their products were.
09:50For instance, this pack claimed that the cereal inside had no artificial colors or flavors and had less sugar.
09:57Teddy Graham's Breakfast Bears Cereal, a.k.a. The Good News Bears.
10:02They don't produce this cereal today, but you can always buy Teddy Graham's snacks and add milk to them,
10:07and you'll have Teddy Graham's Breakfast Bears back in your cereal bowl.
10:11It's not the same, but it may help to bring back nostalgic memories.
10:20Fruity Yummy Mummy is one of the five monster cereals that made a comeback in 2013-2014.
10:29Yet this time, the cereal returned with an orange flavor.
10:33It isn't the same as the distinct original flavor, though.
10:36Muesli is not exactly a cereal, yet I can't help but mention these fruit muesli from the 90s.
10:42Who would say no to freebies?
10:45Honey Nut Cheerios Cereal with Free Gummy Bees took its place on supermarket shelves in 1991.
10:51Another round with Healthy's Kellogg's Cereals.
10:54Nutri-Green, Kenmay Rice Brand, Product 19, All Brand, Sustained, in the one and only Special K.
11:01I'm now in the year 1992 with Malto Meal Bagged Cereals.
11:06Toastios, Honey and Nut Toastios, Tutti Frutti's, and Crispin Crackling Rice.
11:11Triple Cereal could turn into a treat.
11:14The box had a marshmallow bar recipe on it.
11:17Quaker Oats Square's Cereal is another one that comes with some recipes.
11:21This time, it's a party theme.
11:24Oriental Cashew Crunch and Praline Pecan Crunch were two options.
11:28Honeycomb was another fat-free and nutritious cereal with no artificial flavorings.
11:33Do you remember Post Great Grain Cereal from 1992?
11:37The brand referred to its products released in the 1980s.
11:40They did this to introduce their brand new look.
11:43It's time to discover the hidden treasures.
11:46Shaped like little cushions and filled with cherry, orange, or grape flavors.
11:50The next one is Sprinkle Spangles from General Mills.
11:54This star-shaped cereal came into our lives in 1993.
11:58Did you get that crunch out of your head?
12:00Here is Vintage Crunch Berry Cereal.
12:03Scary cereals.
12:05It was a thing in the 90s.
12:06You know, monsters, ghosts, and many more.
12:09Now, how could I not mention the Addams Family Cereal with its spooky cereal-flake shapes?
12:14The Addams Family Cereal was short-lived.
12:17Maybe it's because of its flavor.
12:20Cookie Crisp Cereal with X-Men trading cards hidden inside.
12:23These little cookies that you can't resist found their place on shelves in 1994.
12:29Gap and Crunch Cereal with a major crunch effect.
12:33How about some home-baked tastes?
12:35Look at these vintage Betty Crocker cereals.
12:38You could pick one of two choices.
12:40Dutch Apple or Cinnamon Streusel.
12:42Here is a limited edition cereal.
12:45Lucky Charms Cereal Olympic Edition.
12:48Let's move on with a classic that has been on shelves for decades.
12:52Honey Crunch Corn Flakes.
12:53Kellogg had one of those too.
12:56Mini-sized products and bites are still very popular.
12:59It was a bit unusual to see tiny cereal boxes back then though.
13:04Mini boxes of Kellogg's cereal made their way into our mornings in 1995.
13:09Here is the new version of Honey Nut Shredded Wheat.
13:12It was advertised this way.
13:14Sweet and a little nutty.
13:16Not exactly what you'd expect from shredded wheat.
13:19Look at this.
13:20New great taste.
13:21Razzle Dazzle Rice Krispies welcomed its fans in 1997.
13:26The same year Multi-Grain Cheerios Plus was also produced.
13:30I should also mention Oatmeal.
13:32It came out with the motto,
13:34Dare to be Different.
13:35As the 2000s appeared around the corner,
13:38cereal brands made products referring to the millennium.
13:41Cheerios Millennials Cereal came out in 1999 saying,
13:45Once in a lifetime.
13:46The flakes were shaped like twos and o's.
13:49Another cereal that was in line with the trends was Ralston's WWF Superstars.
13:54Wrestling icons such as Hulk Hogan were the mascots of this cereal.
13:58The next one was a breakthrough, Pop-Tart's Crunch.
14:03Oreo, but in a cereal form.
14:06Luckily, there's a post-Oreo-O's version in stores today.
14:10It's making a comeback.
14:11A bowl full of Oreo-flavored loops for breakfast.
14:15Yummy.
14:16Step aside, Count Chocula is here.
14:19How could one forget its commercials?
14:21Ah, that haunting voice.
14:23This one has also made a comeback.
14:26Unfortunately, you won't be able to eat it again.
14:29Farewell to Reptar Crunch.
14:32Bill & Ted's Excellent Cereal.
14:34This cereal was sold for only a short period of time.
14:37People still remember its giveaways and promotions.
14:40The most memorable one was Hysterical Postcards.
14:43Those were mini postcards about Bill & Ted traveling in time.
14:47Another notable one was a free audio cassette holder.
14:50The next one is Urkel-O's.
14:53Remember those days when you were watching Family Matters and laughing at Urkel once a week?
14:57Did I do that?
14:59Well, we're ever ringing our ears whenever we think of Urkel.
15:03The strawberry and banana-flavored loops of Urkel-O's reminded us of Urkel.
15:08Sugar-coated clusters of Rice Krispies treats.
15:12The cereal tasted just like the packaged Rice Krispies treats you get in grocery stores today.
15:18Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can.
15:23He also had his own cereal.
15:25You would think this cereal would have made a major comeback with new Spider-Man movies.
15:30Sadly, no.
15:31It only existed as a limited edition cereal.
15:34It had marshmallows in it.
15:37Wheaties Dunk-A-Balls was a cereal that young people turned into a game.
15:41They played with it more than they ate it.
15:43The sweetened wheat and corn puffs were designed to look like tiny basketballs.
15:48Those balls literally ordered you to throw them into someone else's bowl across the breakfast table.
15:53First, French toast.
15:55Now, Waffle Crisp.
15:57You can still find Waffle Crisp in a few places, but it's very hard to track this cereal down.
16:03Luckily, the internet isn't the same as it was in the 90s.
16:06If something is produced, you can find and order it from anywhere in the world.
16:10That decade was truly the golden age of cereals.
16:13But let's return to our day.
16:16Snoop Dogg is releasing his own breakfast cereal.
16:18Maybe one day, people will talk about 2022 and look at Snoop Loops with nostalgia.
16:24The cereal is going to be marshmallow-flavored.
16:28Loops' cereal has a cartoon dog mascot.
16:31Broadus Foods Company, advertising the cereal, says,
16:34More corn, more flavor, and more marshmallows.
16:38That's what separates us from the rest.
16:41Snoop Loops' website doesn't share any information about when the cereal will be available in stores yet.
16:47Oh, and this isn't the first time Snoop has partnered with a food brand.
16:51He has already collaborated with Dunkin' Donuts, presenting a breakfast sandwich named Beyond D-O-double-G.
16:57It's raining cats and dogs, literally.
17:00Things falling down from the sky can be pretty unexpected.
17:04So, here are some examples.
17:07Residents of Texarkana, Texas once had light rain and fish shower.
17:12No need to go fishing out in the sea.
17:14The fish literally falls down on your head.
17:17In fact, animal rains are not uncommon.
17:20Water spouts or updrafts occurring in different corners of the earth sometimes carry small creatures up with them.
17:27Those could be crabs, frogs, or, indeed, fish.
17:31A water spout is generally a whirlwind that picks up water and grows in size until it connects the surface
17:37of the water and the clouds.
17:39Lightweight critters living close to the water surface often get caught in the vortex and carried up and away.
17:46Thunderstorm clouds are constant companions of water spouts, too.
17:50When the storm reaches a landmass, it starts slowing down, having nowhere to take the new energy from.
17:56It slowly subsides.
17:57The atmospheric pressure drops, and the thunderclouds release the water in them, along with the unfortunate small animals and fish.
18:06Sometimes, it's just a few frogs frozen from the cold up above.
18:10But at other times, it could be hundreds or thousands of creatures raining down upon the land.
18:17A much more unusual rain once happened in Oakville, Washington, and it's still waiting for someone to explain it.
18:24The rain clouds looked perfectly normal, but the rain they released was anything but.
18:30Translucent jelly-like blobs fell on the town, covering a total area of about 20 square miles.
18:36Each of them wasn't larger than a grain of rice.
18:39Researchers who studied these raindrops claimed that the gooey blobs contained human white blood cells.
18:45Some believe they might have been evaporated jellyfish, resulting in rain, or waste from a commercial airplane.
18:54Now this kind of rain is what I'd like to see someday, a money shower.
18:58One such event occurred in a small town in Germany.
19:02A woman was driving when she suddenly saw banknotes swirling down from the sky, so she hit the brakes.
19:08She went out of her car, and later said she managed to collect quite a large amount of money.
19:12After which, as any responsible citizen should, she turned it over to the police.
19:18Strangely, when the officers came back to the scene with the woman, they couldn't find any more cash,
19:23although she claimed she hadn't been able to collect everything.
19:26There's still no explanation for the event, but certainly, no water spout could have caused that.
19:33A pretty unpleasant kind of rain happened back in 1876 in Olympia Springs, Kentucky.
19:39It was a very local kind, too.
19:41Mrs. Crouch said that she had been making soap outside her home when pieces of raw meat.
19:47Suddenly started falling down from the sky around her.
19:50Some of those chunks were pretty massive, reaching over three inches in diameter.
19:55Local newspapers reported that two people who decided to remain unknown tasted the meat,
20:01and concluded it was mutton or venison.
20:04Months later, scientists decided to find out the truth behind the strange event.
20:08It became a matter of heated debate, until one of the researchers came up with the most reasonable conclusion.
20:14The meat rain must have been caused by vultures flying over the town at the time.
20:19These birds sometimes regurgitate food right in the middle of their flight as a defense mechanism,
20:24or to make their bodies lighter to fly faster.
20:27And that must have been what happened, right over Mrs. Crouch's house, unfortunately.
20:34Something totally inedible, but no less sinister, rained down on several villages in India in the middle of May of
20:412022.
20:42Huge black and silver metal balls started dropping from the sky, the first one weighing over 15 pounds.
20:49Astounded residents watched in shock as it hammered the ground, scattering pieces of itself across the nearby fields.
20:57Similar balls later fell in the other two neighboring villages.
21:01Luckily, no one was harmed during the strange metal rain, but the issue remained.
21:06We're on Earth, and it usually rains water here.
21:09The local authorities weren't sure what it was about,
21:12but astronomers soon voiced a theory that it could be debris from a space rocket.
21:16One that fits the description had launched in September of 2021, aiming to put a communications satellite into orbit.
21:24Upon its re-entry into the atmosphere, it might have been damaged,
21:28causing several chunks of it to detach and fall down on the ground in India.
21:35Sometimes it rains birds, too.
21:38One such event occurred in Arkansas in 2010.
21:41Weather conditions might cause things like that to happen, but there are simpler reasons, too.
21:46Loud noise and confusion, or even collisions with aircraft.
21:50In the case of Arkansas, it was the noise and flashing lights from the New Year's Eve fireworks.
21:56The show startled thousands of birds and made them start into the air.
22:00They were panicking and disoriented, so they collided with buildings, cars, and trees.
22:06Many of them eventually fell to the ground, making lots of people believe it was actually raining birds.
22:14Now, if anything could startle me out in the sky, it's a rain of spiders.
22:19And if you wonder whether it's a real thing, well, yes, it is.
22:23In Australia, spider rains actually happen quite often.
22:27They even have a name for this, ballooning.
22:30It goes like this.
22:32Spiders that can balloon, climb up trees and tall bushes, trying to reach the highest point available in the area.
22:38When they've climbed up to the very top, they spin their web in such a way that it allows them
22:43to be carried by the wind.
22:45And there it goes.
22:47Clutching the strands of the web with its tiny little feet,
22:49the brave spider lifts off into the air and flies to whatever awaits it out there.
22:55Normally, ballooning goes unnoticed by us humans because spiders don't travel in large groups.
23:01You might have a shocking experience when a spider suddenly lands on your face out of nowhere.
23:06But otherwise, it's a rare occasion to meet more than two ballooners at once.
23:11Still, when the weather gets particularly bad, with lots of rain or wind,
23:16thousands or even millions of spiders might decide it's time to move to somewhere friendlier
23:21and take to the sky all at once.
23:24That's when spider rains occur.
23:26Those who witnessed the most recent ones back in 2012 and 2015 say it looks like a snowfall.
23:34Spiders slowly drifting down on their web parachutes that settle on the ground and turn it white.
23:40Remember water spouts?
23:42Well, those things can lift not only fish and frogs into the sky
23:46and make a spectacular show of them falling back on the ground.
23:48Golf balls sometimes become their cargo, too.
23:52And I'm not speaking of golf ball-sized hail, but actual balls.
23:57The town of Punta Gorda in Florida witnessed a rain of golf balls in 1969.
24:04Newspapers reported dozens upon dozens of those things pummeling the ground and buildings for a short while.
24:10Since it's a coastal town with lots of golf courses, it wasn't hard to explain the event.
24:15A water spout must have formed near the shore, traveled to some course,
24:19grabbed a few dozen golf balls, and then released them over the town.
24:25Rain can be pretty refreshing, as long as it's not mud rain.
24:30On April 12, 1902, the town of Easton, Philadelphia, experienced an unusual shower.
24:36It made all those unfortunate enough to go outside, take an actual shower, and wash their clothes to boot.
24:43The raindrops looked dirty to the eye, and they were.
24:47People, buildings, and streets looked really wanting to take a good bath after it stopped pouring.
24:53The witnesses reported a considerable amount of dust in the air before the rain started,
24:57which probably explains the event.
25:01In 2011, a town in Scotland saw another weird rain variety.
25:06It was showered with worms.
25:08The rain didn't cover a large area.
25:11It seems only some local academy students were unlucky enough to get invertebrates falling on their heads while playing soccer.
25:18There was a significant change in the weather at the time,
25:21so scientists believe it might have resulted from some meteorological anomaly.