25 Natural Phenomena You Won’t Believe Actually Exist

17. Waterspouts

Waterspouts look like liquid tornadoes, but while they can form during storms, they can also develop on calm, open ocean — swirling towers of wind climbing up from the water to the sky.

They are most common in the Florida Keys, although they’ve also been spotted on the Great Lakes.

18. Clonal tree groves

That looks like a forest, right? All those trees you could walk between? Wrong. It’s all one tree.

Underneath the soil, a dense network of roots connects all the shoots that look like 47,000 trees from above.

Called the quaking aspen for its fluttery leaves, it usually grows into groves of identical clones, although it can reproduce sexually on special occasions.

This grove, nicknamed Pando, is one of the oldest and largest organisms in the world, although the original stem is long dead by now.

19. Lake Maracaibo, lightning capital of the world

Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela sees more lightning strikes than anywhere else on Earth: In fact, there are thunderstorms here 300 days out of the year, according to a recent NASA study.

The area is so stormy because of cool mountain breezes and warm, moist air clash over the lake, creating electricity.

20. Eternal flame falls

In upstate New York, near the Canadian border, there is a small waterfall hiding a big surprise: a shoot of fire about eight inches tall.

Behind the waterfall is a natural gas seep that feeds the flame.

It’s sheltered enough by the waterfall to stay lit pretty reliably, although hikers do re-light it if they see it’s been blown out. (We should note that it’s not 100% natural — but too cool to skip.)

These burning gas seeps are actually fairly common, but this one is more interesting and younger than most — and very photogenic.

21. Spotted Lake

Canada’s Spotted Lake is famous for its summer style, which is heavy on the polka dots.

That’s because the lake’s water actually evaporates every summer. It leaves behind large spots, colorful deposits of a dozen minerals.

Further proof Spotted Lake is out of this world: Scientists are using it as a model for how ancient Martian lakes may have worked.

Fly over Spotted Lake, also called Kliluk Lake, in this video:

22. Goats! In trees!

Moroccan goats have learned to climb trees in order to better snack on their tasty Argan fruit.

Local farmers like the goats so much (and their Argun-nut-filled poop, which the farmers turn into oil) that they’ve brought more goats in to enjoy the buffet.

23. Nacreous clouds

Usually spotted only near the poles, nacreous clouds form very high in the atmosphere (twice as high as commercial airplanes fly), where the air is particularly cold and dry.

The colorful shine actually comes from the setting sun being lower in the sky than the clouds, so they reflect sunbeams back toward Earth.

Unfortunately, while they’re beautiful, nacreous clouds also destroy ozone, the compound that protects us from the sun’s most dangerous rays.

24. Green sand beaches

This probably isn’t what comes to mind when you dream of tropical beaches. Papakolea, also known as Green Sand Beach, in Hawaii is one of only a couple beaches in the world with green sand.

The remarkable hue comes from olivine rock that was formed during eruptions of the nearby volcano.

25. A starling murmuration, aka a ‘black sun’

An individual starling isn’t much to look at. But put hundreds or thousands together and these birds turn into an incredible dance known officially as a murmuration and nicknamed a “black sun.”

The flocks can be seen in the US and Europe, particularly in England, although the bird’s British population is now only a third of what it was 40 years ago.

The flock’s complex choreography boils down to just a couple simple rules, like follow your neighbor.

Credits: businessinsider.com

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