Nature is a wondrous thing. It can be scary or fascinating, beautiful or ugly, and throughout the centuries has certainly kept mankind on its toes.  Many of the phenomena have, throughout history, been worshiped, feared, or thought of as signs portending disaster or salvation. Modern science helps us understand how and why they occur, but regardless of whether you know their back-story, or are experiencing them for the first time, they’re a wonder to behold.

1.  St Elmo’s Fire

Once considered an omen of ill tidings, the unnatural blue haze that sometimes enveloped a ship’s mast late at night was considered to be a sign from God, or in some cases, a ghost coming back to haunt a wrong-doer.  Often, it heralded bad weather and as such, it was never a lucky thing to have one appear on your ship’s mast. The fantastical flickering is named after St. Erasmus of Formiae, who is considered to be the patron saint of sea-folk. It is not a paranormal event, and is instead formed by electrical charges that are attracted to a tall, sharp object (generally a mast). This is then ionized by air molecules causing it to glow. No magic necessary.

2.  Blue Holes

I’m not sure if anyone reading this has ever dived into a blue hole, but if you have you’ll know first-hand how incredibly deep, and cold, they can be. These strange, perfectly spherical holes situated in oceans across the world, are characterised by being a much darker colour than the waters that surround them, due to the difference in depth. As the oxygen content in these holes is incredibly low, you’re unlikely to see any kind of sea life within them other than fossils, lending a rather eerie experience to your dive.

3.  Northern and Southern Lights

I am going to assume that almost everyone in the world knows about the Aurora Borealis, which appear as if a shimmering cloth is waving across the skyline in flickering colours. Though not as widely known, the southern hemisphere has its own share of incredible lights, the Aurora Australis. They were revered throughout history as ancestors returning, or spirits crossing over, but it is only in modern times that we’ve come to understand what actually creates this phenomenon. In short, these lights are caused by electrons from solar storms, or the sun, colliding and sliding over the earth’s magnetic field.

4.  Fata Morgana

Named after the Italian phrase for fairy (and also considered to be named after the Arthurian character Morgana Le Fay), Fata Morganas often appear as magical ships, cities, or other objects floating above the horizon, sometimes upside down. This phenomenon is caused by light striking the object in question, and fracturing it in the atmosphere into several different layers. From a distance, the illusion appears very, very real, and may have given rise to all the ghost ship stories over the centuries such as the Flying Dutchman.

5. Sailing Stones

Sailing stones are a marvel to behold – they are rocks with trails (some over a hundred metres long) behind them, much like a miniature earth-bound comet. Many, who viewed the indentations in the sand that are left behind the moving rocks, thought of them as creations of mischievous spirits. As it stands, scientists are still unsure why the stones move at all! Even more disconcerting was the discovery that identical rocks were moved at different speeds and distances for no apparent reason. The rocks take several years to move and form their trails, and though suggestions have been put forward that it’s a combination of ice and wind moving them, science still doesn’t buy it. Death Valley is one of the most notable places you can view this.

6. Red Tides

This phenomenon occurs all over the world, whereby the coastal waters rapidly change from the normal blue/grey/green hues, into a deep, blood red – though it can sometimes also be a light pink. This rather terrifying phenomenon is caused by algae blooms (phytoplankton), which gather in the water to form a cloud just below the surface. The algae are often harmless, though toxic algae blooms can also occur.

7.  Basalt Columns

Considered by many to be crystals, when viewed from afar in the sunlight, the basalt pillars that can be found along Giant’s Causeway in Ireland are a wonder to behold. Most basalt pillars are created when lava flows cool, and the cracks form vertically, rather than horizontally. To the untrained eye, the hexagonal shapes look a lot like man-made stepping-stone structures, but this is yet another fascinating natural phenomenon.

Let us know what strange phenomenon you’ve experienced before, or which of the above you’d love to see first-hand.

Main Image Credited to Senior Airman Joshua Strang (Creative Commons)