On this particular #ImmortalMonday I am catching a flight home from what was an amazing writers’ conference in Dallas. While I’m waiting in long airline security lines, and seating in cramped quarters for several hours, you get this fun video to contemplate. History is full of events that have left us wondering. There are artifacts that create more questions than they ever manage to satisfy with answers. Here are a few you may not have heard of until now…
Which one of these top ten made the biggest impact on you? Is there another mystery you feel should have made the list?
Interesting facts: (in order of the video)
- The waters of the Rio Tinto River flow red due to the high concentration of ferric iron. The concentration is at its highest between June and September. It’s 100km long (roughly 62 miles) and runs from the city of Pena de Hierro in Southwestern Spain out to the Atlantic Ocean in Huela.
- Salar de Leonie in Bolivia is the largest desert of salt in the world. There is a thin layer of brine covering the salt’s surface reflecting its surrounding. This is because the Salar was formed by the transformation of several prehistoric lakes.
- The unique spotted feature of Lake Kliluk Osoyoos is due to the rich concentration of minerals that led the Native Americans to view the area as sacred. Indians used the healing waters and muds to soak away their ailments. The color of each individual pool will vary depending on the type and concentration of the minerals present.
- Socotra is one of the most isolated landforms on Earth of continental origin. In the 90’s a team of United Nations biologists conducted a survey and counted nearly 700 endemic species not found anywhere else on earth. The dragon’s blood tree is one worth noting. It’s a strange-looking, umbrella-shaped tree. The ancients once thought its red sap to be the blood of a dragon.
- The dry valleys of Antarctica are some of the coldest and driest places on our planet. Ice free zones such as these allow geologists to collect fossils of ancient life and rock samples, providing them peaks into multi-million year’s worth of history.
- The Blood Pond Hot Springs in Japan are natural hot springs that are a wondrous red due to the iron content of the water. It is also considered one of the hells in Beppu, Japan. The temperature runs very hot, making the springs unsuitable for bathing.
- Vale da Lua (Valley of the Moon) is a culmination of unique smooth rocks formed by river and lava flow. On private property in Brazil, it’s near Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park. Many think the stones actually look like lunar rocks.
- The Richat Structure, also known as the Eye of the Sahara became a landmark for shuttle crews. At one time it was thought to be the result of a meteorite impact. Scientist now believe it’s a natural, symmetrical uplift laid bare by erosion.
- China’s stone forest, Shilin National Park, rises out of the ground like hardened trees. It covers a 350 sq. km area (almost 217.5 miles). Over the years the stone has become hollow. As a result, one finds many caves, sinkholes and areas with springs.
- The Eisriesenwelt ice caves in Werfen, Austria is the largest ice cave in the world. Eisriesenwelt is German for “World of the Ice Giants.” Only the first Kilometer of the cave is covered in ice. It’s this area that is open to tourist. Beyond that the cave is limestone.
~oOo~
Thanks for stopping by! I truly appreciate your support. Until next time, au revoir.
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Hope you had a great time at the conference. Would have loved to have been there. I hadn’t heard of half of these until now.
I did have a great time. Thank you, Emma. I wish you could have been there, too. I’m glad I could widen your education on amazing places. 🙂
The earth does some amazing things, doesn’t it? We really shouldn’t be so surprised by now. 😉
The conference was fun, and I’m thrilled that we finally met in person! You are as sweet and thoughtful in person as you are online.
That is does. 😀
Thanks, Diana. The same right back at cha! You are super fantastic. I loved spending time with you. I hear your new profile picture turned out amazing! I can’t wait to see it.
Very cool video. Some of those places are on my bucket list. Especially Madagascar and Antarctica. Glad you had such an amazing time at the conference. Someday I know we’ll meet up at one. 🙂
Sounds like you have a pretty great bucket list. I really need to write mine down. It’s a jumbled mess in my head. I would love to meet up someday. Everyone I have met has been so fantastic. Can’t wait for the day when it’s our turn.
Amazing Deborah. I cannot say that I have been to any of those places, nor have I heard of them. I know, I need to get out more often. Hey, it sounds like you had a wonderful time in Dallas. And I’m sure you’re a wee bit wiped out from the whole thing. So glad you got to go. Take care and hope to see you soon! :0
Thank you, Karen. I haven’t been to any of the places listed here either, but you can bet I’m adding some, if not all, of them to my list. I have been trying to get a lot of rest this week. I think I’m fighting something. Seems to be the case quite too often lately. Hmm. I need to make time this weekend to pop around and read a few blogs. Yours included. I started yours with the fun analogy of our busy lives and the bee. Deborah means busy bee. 🙂
Hmm. I think I’m a boring person because I don’t know that I’d want to visit any of those places (my idea of a cool vacation is Maine, Montana, Alaska…basically anything I can drive to 🙂 )
I don’t think it makes you boring. Everyone is different. They have a right to be so. Do you prefer those places because you can drive to them? Is it your fear of flying that drives you? I’m curious about that.
You got it. It’s not the fear of flying so much as it is a paralyzing fear of heights. It will always be a factor in the places I visit, I’m afraid. Someone once told me there were ways to get over fears like that. I just laughed. I can barely deal with the third floor of a building, so I don’t see any therapy working for that. 🙂
I was especially intrigued by the different colored pools of Lake Kliluk Osoyoos. One of the loveliest places I’ve been is Barton Springs, a sacred pool in Austin, Texas, fed by cold, clear springs. The local Native American tribes viewed the waters as sacred, and people still treat the place with reverence today. What a great compilation of places! Thanks for sharing this.
I imagine the pictures I saw on Google don’t the location justice. Pictures rarely do. That’s neat that you’ve been there. I love the colors on Lake Kliluk Osoyoos. I hope to see a bunch of those places some day. My bucket list keeps getting longer. Sigh. Thanks for adding more great locations for our readers to check out. 🙂 I really appreciate you stopping by, Laura.