Sea water, freezing cold and some magic!
Brinicles. What kind of a natural structure would have such a fascinating name? Think of ice stalactites forming inside seawater – it deserves an awesome name, doesn’t it? Brinicles typically form when the sea surface gets frozen, which happens around the South and North Poles. Cold and salty seawater pockets gather on the underside of the sea. This mixture is denser than the seawater and slowly sinks to the bottom while the fresh water below this brine freezes around it as it sinks. Take a moment to picture this beauty.
Three suns?
Popularly called the ‘sun dog’, and considered to be the whacky cousin of the rainbow, this phenomenon is caused by light refracting from the ice crystals in the atmosphere. What results is a halo-like shape around the sun with two spots on either side, making it look like there are three suns.
When nature gives you donuts…
Who said snow rolled down a hill only like a boring ball? It can form a donut shape provided it’s in the right mood, or let’s say, the right conditions. When the temperature is just perfect, a mass of snow gets blown by the wind and catches on to another mass of snow. When the wind or gravity is in favour, the middle section of the snowball collapses and forms a rare donut shape!
A spiky field up in the mountains
Imagine a field of icy spikes, each about 4 metres high! These amazing ice formations called ‘penitentes’, not surprisingly, form in high altitudes like the Andes mountain ranges. How can something like this form? When the sun’s hot rays fall on a field of snow, some of the snow directly vapourizes without becoming liquid. The snow pockets attract even more sunlight and sublimate more. All the spiky snow structures are those that were lucky enough to miss all the heat.
Clouds inspired by UFOs
Called lenticular clouds, these lenses shaped clouds form at high altitudes when air is forced to flow upwards along mountain tops. Sometimes they form several layers and look so awesome that many UFO explanations have been attributed to the sighting of this cloud type.
A deadly combo
What are two phenomena that are really scary? Lightning? Why, yes! And volcanos? Of course. But what about volcanic lightning? No, we’re not kidding. Imagine a lightning storm happening at exactly the same time as a volcanic eruption. The volcano ejects positively-charged particles into the atmosphere that react with negatively-charged particles from the lightning. What you get is a spectacular firework display that’s scary and fascinating at the same time. Makes you glad that you weren’t anywhere close to where it was happening!
Picture Credit : Google
