Some landscapes are picturesque, offering the kind of view you'd see in a charming painting. Other locations are far stranger, being more suited to a dream... or nightmare. Let's take a look at...
- The Blood Falls, Where a Glacier Bleeds
- The Diamond Beach of Iceland
- The Rainbow Mountain of Peru
- The Wandering Star Dunes of Morocco
- The Underground World of Hang Son Doong
 |
| Diamond Beach in Iceland combines black volcanic sand with ocean-polished ice... (IdaT) |
The Blood Falls, Where a Glacier Bleeds
Did you know that there's a glacier in Antarctica that seems to ooze blood? The Taylor glacier sits above a trapped lake of ancient seawater, with sporadic cracks allowing some of the water to seep out to the surface. What makes this startling is the orange-red color of the escaping liquid, caused by a very high iron content.
The pool beneath Taylor Glacier is of an unknown size, but researchers believe it sits underneath around 400-500m of ice. The trapped liquid is extremely salty and contains a lot of iron, thanks to the frozen water of the glacier expelling any dissolved substances into the water below.
The resulting iron-rich water oxidizes when exposed to oxygen, giving the escaping brine a rich red coloring. This pigment stains the side of the glacier, forming an apron of refrozen brine that resembles a pool of dried blood.
The salt and iron-rich conditions actually provide a habitat for some particularly resilient micro-organisms, thought to be the descendants of organisms trapped there 1.5 million years ago. These creatures survive by extracting minerals (including even more iron) from the sub-glacial bedrock and consuming organic matter trapped alongside them - there's no oxygen and no light for photosynthesis in those icy, dark waters.
The Diamond Beach of Iceland
If you were to imagine a breathtaking beach, you'd probably picture the pristine golden-white sands of a tropical island. Breidamerkursandur in Iceland doesn't fit that image at all, but the expanse of night-black sand littered with glittering ice crystals is certainly stunning.
The beach owes its appearance to the volcanic conditions of Iceland - the black sand is the eroded remnants of basalt and other volcanic materials. It is also a glacial out-wash area for the Vatnajokull, an enormous ice cap. Ice and icebergs breaking off the cap are ground down as they float through the water, eventually washing up as blue-white crystals on the black sands.
The Rainbow Mountain of Peru
Vinicunca or "Rainbow Mountain" is a fairly recent addition to tourist destinations in Peru, because until 2013 it was covered by a layer of permanent snow. Fast forwards a few years, and one of the most surreal views in the world is on full display... if you can handle the trek to get there.
The mountains themselves are made up of layered colored minerals. Mixtures of clay, mudstones and sandstones laced with quartz, sulfides, magnesium and iron produce fantastically pigmented bands that seem taken straight from a psychedelic or progressive-rock album cover!
 |
| Rainbow Mountain is an appropriate name... (derekchng) |
The Wandering Star Dunes of Morocco
Found in places like the 170 square kilometers of windswept desert known as the Erg Chebbi, star dunes are both rare and mysterious. These sand-structures have at least three ridges coming from their central peak, meaning they can look like a star when viewed from above... but when viewed from the ground, their smooth and seemingly angular faces can resemble those of a pyramid. The fact that they can reach over 90m in height does nothing to dispel that impression.
These dunes only form in areas where the wind direction constantly shifts, allowing them to build their multiple slopes. As a result, the dunes only move a short distance each year (wandering dunes in places with a more consistent wind direction have been known to move as far as 300m in a year) in the direction of the prevailing wind.
The largest current star dune is the 100m tall and 700m wide Lala Lallia, a dune containing sand formed 13,000 years ago. Researchers have determined that the dune lay dormant for 8,000 years after initially forming, then expanded rapidly over the past millennium or so. Curiously, researchers in Scotland have discovered a 250 million year old "fossil" star dune locked in the sandstone of the Moray Firth Basins They've also been spotted on Mars!
The Underground World of Hang Son Doong
Vietnam's Hang Son Doong or "Mountain River Cave" is the biggest cave ever discovered. Survey teams put it at a length of 9km, with a volume of 38.5 million cubic meters, an average height of 200m and average width of 150m. You could have a pair of jumbo jets fly past each other in that cave!
Hang Son Doong features two rivers and sits along a fault line, possibly explaining the sheer size of the passages. A pair of dolines (natural skylights) allow sunlight to flood areas of the cave, resulting in plant and even tree growth under the ground. Massive stalagmites over 70m in height vie for space with phytokarst, rock formations that "point" towards light sources.
The sheer size of the cave combines with warm river water to produce another seemingly impossible effect - the cave has a localized weather system, even featuring rain clouds produced by evaporating river water!
Thanks for reading - for more, try...