- [Narrator] There are
some places in our world that are wonderfully weird, like Area 51, The Bermuda Triangle, or Florida. But there are others that icomparison, seem completely impossible; I'm talking about places where
waterfalls exist underwater, locations where lightning strikes more than a million times a year, and even parts of the ocean
that literally catch fire. Have I piqued your curiosity? Then get ready to take a
tour of even more places that shouldn't exist on our
planet, but somehow still do. (bright music) The everlasting lightning storm In Venezuela, something strange hangs in the air over the mouth of
the great Catatumbo river. As it flows into the
massive Lake Maracaibo, a strange static electricity starts to build in the atmosphere. A huge lightning storm
follows soon after, producing as many as 280 terrifying
lightning strikes per hour. This might look like
any other thunderstorm, but this is just one of
up to 300 nights per year lightning rages over Catatumbo. Every 365 days, as many as 1.2
million lightning discharges light up the region's sky. That's so much that just ten minutes of Catatumbo's lightning could
power 100 million lightbulbs enough to illuminate all of South America. The storm, which the locals
call Relámpago del Catatumbo, has raged for as long
as anyone can remember. But how is it possible
for a lightning storm to occur in the exact same
place night after night? For decades, experts came
up with countless theories: from uranium deposits in the bedrock attracting
lightning strikes, to the influence of methane
from nearby oil fields. Rumours even began to spread that Catatumbo produces a
special type of lightning, some of which is coloured
because of the presence of methane. But these myths simply aren't true, and supposed images of
colourful strikes like this are just a product of photoshop. It wasn't until 2015 that
an answer was finally found, when scientists discovered
Lake Maracaibo's basin is surrounded by mountains that trap warm winds coming
off the Caribbean Sea. When these winds collide
with the cool air coming down from the Andes mountains,
they are forced up, condensing into a stream of
never-ending thunderclouds. While that's a pretty
succinct explanation, it doesn't make the
Relámpago del Catatumbo any less electrifying to witness. The ocean's on fire On July 2nd, 2021, a gas
pipe running along the seabed ruptured in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the Yucatan Peninsula. The break sent a stream of gas bubbling up to the water's surface, but as emergency services
began circling the incident, they spotted something truly terrifying. The ocean wasn't just bubbling with gas, it was boiling with bright orange flames. The water was literally on fire. But surely, that's impossible. I mean, how can water catch fire? And if water can catch fire, why were those boats using more water to try and put it out? Well, the methane and
other wet gas components, like ethane and propane,
released from the ruptured pipe are all highly flammable. All it would have taken was a
single spark to set it alight, which could have travelled
up the continuous stream of gas during the explosive breach. So, it's not actually
the water that's on fire, but the gas escaping to the surface. The constant stream of gas
from below then kept feeding the fire, resulting in
the hellish hotspot seen in that footage. Fortunately, the fire was
extinguished a few hours later. Phew! Workers used
nitrogen to starve the area of oxygen which fire
needs in order to burn; a bit like using a huge fire extinguisher. Now, I know scientists are saying that the oceans are warming up, but this is just ridiculous. A Sea of Stars. With its white sands, blue
waters, and sunny skies, the Maldives islands
are pretty enchanting. But during the summer
months, the island of Vaadhoo becomes even more magical. Waves lapping the shores
are fringed with electric, neon blue sparkles that make
it look like the night's sky is breaking on the beaches. This breath-taking phenomenon
is known as the Sea of Stars. and while it does occur
in the summer months, scientists can't currently predict what specific conditions
cause the lapping lightshow. What they do know is that
it's not actually stars in the sea. It's a bioluminescent phytoplankton called Lingulodinium Polyedrum. They produce light using a
chemical called luciferin, which is activated as a stress response to sudden movement in the water. As a defence mechanism, this acts a bit like a burglar alarm, aiming to scare away any
predators that get too close, or attract even bigger
predators to eat its predator. Well, it might scare
off sea-based predators, but that beautiful blue glow is guaranteed to attract tourists. Now, if you can't afford
to take a worldwide trip to see these mind-blowing
sights for yourself, I have a much cheaper option for you: just hit those like and
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you with first-class tours of some of the most
impossible, astonishing, and amazing attractions on Earth. And all from the comfort of your own home. All done? Great, now where
are we heading too next? Bizarre Blue Hole. The coastline of Belize looks
like something straight out of a dream, until you
spot the giant dark spot on the shore that's ominous enough to give you nightmares. Despite what it looks like, this isn't the eye of
some giant sea monster. This is Dean's Blue Hole, a terrifying, waterfilled sinkhole. Though the light blue shores seem shallow and the hole in the middle appears small, it's actually the entrance
to an underground cavern that's 330 feet in diameter, sinking a mind blowing 663 feet down. That's so deep that if you
dropped a 60-storey building in there, it would just about
reach the water's surface. While the idea of such a
bizarre underwater bottle neck would have most swimmers
running to the shore, free divers relish in the
challenges of diving down into the darkness. Without any breathing equipment, they fearlessly leap
off the lip of the hole and dive into the depths below. Though none have ever hit the bottom, one free diver has swum
down an astonishing 331 feet into this hole on a single breath. As badass as that guy makes it look, I just unconsciously
reached for my water wings. But how can such a cavernous, naturally bottle-necked cave exist? Well, scientists believe it
formed during past ice ages, when the sea level was
around 400 feet lower than it is today. Deep groundwater gradually dissolved the surrounding limestone
until a small section of the ceiling collapsed, forming a massive, bottle-necked cavern. Then, as the sea levels rose, they filled the hole with water. After that explanation, I'm not sure whether I'm
more amazed or terrified. Amazing Mount Roraima. We all know that mountains form when two tectonic plates smash together, buckling upwards into big,
jagged spires of rock. Well, if that's the case, then how would you explain
the perfectly flat plateau of Mount Roraima? Aptly called a, tabletop mountain, this amazing ridge of rock
forms the highest point of the Pakaraima mountain
chain in South America. Its super massive plateau is
a staggering 20 square miles in size and juts up more than
9,200 ft into the air. Its elevation is so sudden that explorers, researchers, and even low-lying
clouds have problems trying to scale its peak. But if mountains are
formed by buckling upwards, how come Roraima is flat? That's because Roraima didn't
come up from the ground. Researchers believe that
this square cut mountain started forming when sand
settled and became rock, aka sandstone at the
bottom of ancient oceans, some two billion years ago. For perspective, the Earth is only about 4.5 billion years old,
so this really took some time. After this sandstone
formed, the oceans receded and erosion took over, chiselling down the
areas around the plateau and creating a giant shelf
of super-ancient rock. Like that wasn't mind blowing enough, there are thousands of
animal and plant species on the plateau that
aren't found anywhere else in the world. Woah, could this place be
any more unique if it tried? Monstrous Movile Cave. In 1986, researcher
Cristian Lascu was employed to help find the perfect location for a thermal power station
in South-Eastern Romania. During his surveys, he identified an almost 800 foot long cave which, astonishingly,
didn't link to the surface. It was an underground cavern that formed some 5.5 million years ago, completely separated from
the terrestrial world. Called the Movile Cave, the
air down there is different, containing less than half the oxygen than what we breathe on the surface. In place of oxygen,
its internal atmosphere is rich in hydrogen
sulphide and carbon dioxide, making it a poisonous place for anything that breathes. Life shouldn't exist there. And yet, somehow, it does. Scientists exploring the cave were shocked to discover 48 nightmarish
species including spiders, scorpions, and centipedes; 33 of which aren't seen anywhere else on the entire planet. But how is it possible for life to have developed inside a
sealed, toxic atmosphere? Well, life here depends on
these strange foamy mats that coat the walls,
groundwater, and floors. Unlike the process of photosynthesis
on the Earth's surface, where sunlight is converted into energy, these mats are made of
bacteria that take their energy from a process called chemosynthesis. This is when sulphur, methane and ammonium from groundwater oxidises, providing a foul yet
bacteria rich food source for all the freaky underground animals. Somehow, the more I learn
about this impossible place, the more I wish I could forget. Grand Prismatic Spring. You usually find rainbows
arching across the sky, but in America's
Yellowstone National Park, there's one laid out on the ground. This is the Grand Prismatic Spring found in Yellowstone's Midway Geyser basin. It's the third largest natural
hot spring in the world, and at 370 feet in diameter, it's bigger than an entire football field. But even though it's not
the largest hot spring in the world, it's certainly
the most colourful. The vibrant blues, greens, yellows, and oranges aren't from
the surrounding rocks, but from a variety of
heat-loving bacteria. As the geothermally heated water erupts from the centre of the spring, it can reach a spicy
189 degrees Fahrenheit. This is too hot to sustain most life, which leaves the middle of the spring a beautifully clear blue colour. But as it spreads out, the water cools, creating concentric circles
of different bacteria that thrive at different
temperatures ranging from 131 to 189 degrees Fahrenheit. I suppose this makes it something
of a living thermometer. As amazing as it is to
observe, it's mind-blowing to think that if the erupting water were just a few degrees hotter, these incredible colours
wouldn't exist at all. So, either this crazily colourful spring is one incredibly natural coincidence, or mother nature is just showing off. Underwaterfall. The island of Mauritius is
home to some stunning sights, like its beautiful beaches and its famous seven coloured sands. But the attraction that sets
this little island apart from the rest of the world is the presence of an unbelievable underwater waterfall. Just off its south-western most point, this impossible subaquatic
cascade of water appears to plunge down into the
depths of the ocean. Even though we're seeing
it with our own eyes, an underwater waterfall like
this defies everything we know about physics, or at least
it would if it were real. Despite all the photos, videos
and even satellite images of it in motion, this is actually the most
impressive optical illusion in the natural world. Sands on the shores are being driven by ocean currents off
the Mascarenes Plateau, and off into the sea, leaving
these curtailing trails that resemble the movements of a waterfall from the right angle. Anyone else feel like they
just got pranked real good by mother nature? Moving Mountains. Did you know that most Mountains, even ones as large as mount Everest, change position every year? Only by a few millimetres as tectonic plates down
below slowly grind together and gradually move layers
of the Earth's crust. But over in Tanzania, there are mountains that somehow move a
phenomenal 55 feet every year. Now, they're known as
the Moving Mountains, but looking at them here, I'm not too sure about that last part of their name. A more accurate title would
be the Shifting Sand Dunes, which are found in Tanzania's Ngorongoro
Conservation area. However, these 33 foot high
and 330 foot wide mounds don't move like normal sand dunes either. As you can see, the sand
is weirdly dark compared to the landscape around it. This is because it contains
a strangely large amount of magnetised volcanic ash. The dune's magnetism is so strong that if you throw a
handful of it into the air, it apparently clumps back
together and re-joins the dune. So as strong winds drag the
dune in different directions, the sand sticks together, leaving the same crescent shapes
dotted over the landscape. But there's almost no other
magnetic ash in the area, so where exactly did these
bizarre magnetic dunes come from? Well, if we zoom out and
follow their drag marks, we can see that they've
trailed down at least 10 miles to the edge of the now
extinct Ngorongoro volcano. It's believed to have erupted around 2.5 million years ago, but even today ash from its eruption is still rolling across the landscape. Talk about leaving your mark on the world. An Island of Ice. If you've seen the Titanic, you'll know that icebergs
can grow to be big and solid enough to
take down entire ships. That one in particular was estimated to be a whopping 100 feet
high and 400 feet long. But alarming lumps that size
are, forgive me for this just the tip of the iceberg. In February 2021, research teams studying the Brunt Ice Shelf in Antarctica witnessed a mind-bending event. A gigantic crack suddenly snaked through the 500 foot thick ice shelf. It came almost a decade after
scientists detected a growth of vast cracks in the ice, but what happened next took even the most experienced
scientists by surprise. Instead of the ice breaking
off in small sections, a staggering 490 square mile
iceberg snapped off in one. For perspective, this
menacing mound of ice is bigger than the entire
city of Los Angeles. Since it snapped off in February, research teams have
been keeping a close eye on this island-sized
iceberg, naming it A74. Icebergs naturally break
off from Antarctica into the ocean as the seasons change, but one this size is something else, it's a gigantic,
city-sized floating island. How impossibly large does that sound? Currently, it hasn't drifted too far from its Antarctic location. Even so, I don't think any
ships will risk travelling through those waters any time soon. Phenomenal Fingal's Cave. Scotland is famous for
its world class whiskeys, but it's also home to a
sight that's so strange, you'll wonder if it's a
drunken hallucination, even if you're sober. This is the Isle of Staffa,
an island with a plateau that appears to be impossibly perched on top a jungle of
hexagonal shaped stilts. But it wasn't man that
propped up this lump of land. Entirely volcanic in origin, the hexagonal stilts are
actually columns of basalt that were created some
50 million years ago. As the island was being
formed, a layer of very smooth, well mixed lava began to cool evenly, probably thanks to its
exposure to the sea. As it cooled, each part
of the lava contracted and shrank into itself, pulling the lava into
evenly spaced centres. This created fractured
chunks of cooled lava that are all impeccably hexagonal. This is known as Columnar Jointing, the most fascinating example of which can be found inside one of the island's otherworldly caverns. This is Fingal's cave, a sea cave that opens like a mouth lined
with hexagonal basalt teeth into the heart of the island. In reality though, the
cave was formed when a tilt in tectonic pressure
forced a crack to open in the otherwise
impenetrable basalt armour. The sea has slowly eroded
parts of the cave within, producing a perfect path around the edge. Couldn't look like it
was more perfectly built for tourists if it tried. Desert Boat Graveyard. In the far reaches of northern
Uzbekistan lies Muynak; a city that really shouldn't exist. Even though it's in
the middle of a desert, countless abandoned boats and ships can be found scattered
throughout the place. Rusted beyond repair, the
presence of these old boats in such a sun scorched land is enough to make anyone scratch their heads. But if we rewind 100 years, Muynak's situation begins to make sense. Believe it or not, back then Muynak was a bustling fishing port. It was perfectly situated on the shores of the salty Aral Sea, the 4th largest salt sea in the world. Many other port towns grew around it, but in the 1960's a series of
Soviet dams began diverting the sea's two main water sources. The Amu Darya and the Syr Darya Rivers. This extensive irrigation
greatly reduced the amount of water flowing into the Aral, and by the year 2000 it
had lost a staggering 75% of its volume. A quick look at google maps
now shows the faint silhouette of where the sea was, and what
dismal amount remains today. The devastating dams put
10,000 fishermen out of work, leaving many with no choice but to abandon their boats
and find work elsewhere. Thousands of people
still call the city home, but without the vital Aral Sea, it's likely Muynak will one day be as abandoned as its ships. The Brutal Bolton Strid. If I ask you to imagine
the most dangerous stretch of water in the world, what comes to mind? Maybe some white-water rapids, perhaps a 1,000 foot waterfall, or even one of those
deep, dark, blue holes. Well, what about a strid? More specifically the Bolton Strid in Yorkshire, England. At a glance it looks like a
lovely little babbling brook that's probably a few feet deep at best. You must be mad to think
there was any danger that could compare to a
raging waterfall here. You're wrong, just 30 feet upstream, the wide, rushing river Wharf barrels towards this exact brook. So where does this immense amount of water go exactly? Well, instead of remaining wide, the bottleneck of the
brook forces the water to flow vertically as
it travels down a tight, natural shaft in the rocks. Years of erosion have deepened the channel further down, so while the strid may
look like a little stream from the banks, there's a river's worth of force flowing beneath the surface. And it's this deceptive looking surface that's dragged down many
happy-go-lucky wanderers over the years. It's so dangerous that
local records indicate it's claimed the lives
of every single person who's ever set foot in it. Knowing that, I think I'll
go find a bridge, thanks. Ridiculous Rocks. Unless you're an avid geologist, you might not think that rocks are all that interesting. However, there's one
mega rock that appears to defy nature and
physics in equal measure, and just by looking at
it, you can see why. This is the Al Naslaa Rock formation of Tayma, Saudi Arabia. Even though it looks like someone has carved this thing
straight down the middle with some sort of ultra-precise laser, that super straight slit is astonishingly all natural. But that's not its only amazing feature, if you look at the base,
two small pedestals are all that separate the bizarre
boulders from the ground. I mean, the entire thing
looks like it was built in Minecraft rather than real life. So how exactly was this
precariously balanced rock split so perfectly without toppling over? Well, leading geology theories suggest that the split was likely caused by some sort of huge tectonic
motion 1,000s of years ago. The ground shifted underneath
one half of the rock, causing it to split in two. Another theory is that
this rock was once a part of an underground fault line, as the material surrounding
faults tends to be weaker and erodes more easily from
forces like water and wind. While this makes a lot of sense, it's not enough for some non-geologists, who claim that the perfect split could only have been achieved by, let me make sure I get this right, aliens with laser beams. I don't know about you, but I think aliens probably
have more intelligent things to do than sawing a desert rock in half. With that being said, what do you think caused
this incredible crack? Let me know down in the comments. A Peculiar Pond. The colour of ponds is
usually limited to deep blue, murky green or dull brown, though there's one
incredibly coloured exception to this rule over in Hokkaido, Japan. Here, the aptly named
Blue Pond is such a rare, vibrant shade of blue that it looks like it's
made from Kool Aid. And just like Kool Aid, there's
nothing natural about it. It was artificially created
in 1988 after a dam was built on the Biei River. This was to stop volcanic mudflows from the erupting Mount Tokachi from reaching the nearby town. However, the reason why
the colour is so vibrant is something of a mystery. Scientists believe it has something to do with the high concentration of aluminium hydroxide in the water, which doesn't dissolve easily and so reflects the
sunlight in a unique way. This means, depending on the weather, the water can appear bright blue or jade green. Sulphur in the water from the
nearby volcano also bleaches the rocks lining the bottom, giving the pond a kind of blank canvas that only increases the vibrancy of the incredible coloring. I don't know about you, but this pond really blue me away. The Eye of the Sahara. The Sahara Desert is
the largest hot desert in the entire world, with a total area of 3.6
million square miles. But not all of it is made up of parched Earth and sand. In West-African Mauritania, the sands of the Sahara give way to a supersized structure
that looks unbelievably, like a single giant eye,
emphasis on the giant. This thing stretches roughly
25 miles in diameter, making it so huge that it
can be seen from space. But what is this thing doing out in the middle of the desert amidst seemingly endless sand dunes? Well, for a start, it's
not actually the eye of some continent-sized
slumbering monster, so we can all rest easy on that front. Scientists believe this weird wonder is actually an old volcanic dome that formed around 100 million years ago. A slow build-up of pressure
from a growing pocket of magma forced this part of
the Earth's crust to bulge, like a giant pimple. However, it didn't explode like a volcano, and so after 100 million
years of being eroded by the desert sands,
the bulge was worn down. This has gradually revealed
the onion like layers of rock beneath, which has
ended up looking like a set of concentric circles chiseled into the landscape or at least,
that's the leading theory. Scientists aren't 100%
sure this is the case, and some believe it's actually
the impact site of a meteor that fell to Earth. Well, whatever it is, I'm
just happy it's not the eye of some massive, desert dwelling monster. Which of these amazing places
blew your mind the most? And have you ever been lucky enough to see one of them with your own eyes? Let me know down in the comments below and thanks for watching. (bright music)
