Nature is Awesome

Giant’s Causeway

Nature is Awesome — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:14:07 +0000

The Giant’s Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven or eight sides. The tallest are about 12 meters high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 meters thick in places.

Tiny Jellyfish Create Giant Swarm

Nature is Awesome — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:44:57 +0000

Jellyfish are said to have been on the earth for between 500 and 700 million years and exist in every ocean. The jellyfish in this video are about the size of a human thumb but swarm together to make a huge beautiful underwater cloud.

Ocean Snowflake Flower Meadow

Nature is Awesome — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:35:13 +0000

A team of students from the University of Washington found this amazing site as they were travelling back from an expedition to the North Pole in late 2009. According to the source article on npr.org:

When the air gets that different from the sea, the dryness pulls moisture off little bumps in the ice, bits of ice vaporize, the air gets humid – but only for a while. The cold makes water vapor heavy. The air wants to release that excess weight, so crystal by crystal, air turns back into ice, creating delicate, feathery tendrils that reach sometimes two, three inches high, like giant snowflakes. The sea, literally, blossoms.

Fire Tornado

Nature is Awesome — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 19:19:51 +0000

Watch this astounding video of a fire tornado filmed in Australia.

Massive Iceberg Flipping Over

Nature is Awesome — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:47:48 +0000

Sightseers in Argentina were lucky enough to witness this massive iceberg flipping over near Los Glaciares National Park. Just a spectacular scene!

Source

Kawah Ijen Volcano in Indonesia

Nature is Awesome — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:31:43 +0000

The Kawah Ijen Volcano in East Java, Indonesia has an active vent which is a source of elemental sulfur. The sulfur, which is deep red in color when molten, pours slowly from the ends of these pipes and pools on the ground, turning bright yellow as it cools. Photographer Olivier Grunewald has recently made several trips into the sulfur mine in the crater of the Kawah Ijen volcano in East Java, Indonesia, bringing with him equipment to capture surreal images lit by moonlight, torches, and the blue flames of burning molten sulfur.

Source

Cloud Tsunami

Nature is Awesome — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:12:23 +0000

Warm masses of air are coming from the Gulf of Mexico, meet obstacles and rise above the skyscrapers. And at height colder air turns them into the clouds. Then they “slide” down on the opposite walls of buildings, where the clouds heat and then dissipate.

Source

Cashew Tree of Pirangi

Nature is Awesome — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:21:37 +0000

Maior cajueiro do mundo or Cajueiro de Pirangi (en: world’s largest cashew tree or cashew tree of Pirangi) is a cashew tree in Pirangi do Norte, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. In 1994, the tree entered the Guinness Book of Records. It covers an area of about 7,300 or almost 8,400 square metres. The size of 70 normally sized cashew trees, it has a circumference of 500 meters. It is now difficult to distinguish the initial trunk from the rest of the tree.

Source

World’s Smallest Frog

Nature is Awesome — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:45:55 +0000

Since yesterday we posted the world’s largest insect here is the other side of the spectrum with the smallest frog on the planet (so far).

Field work by researcher Fred Kraus from Bishop Museum, Honolulu has found the world’s smallest frogs in southeastern New Guinea. This also makes them the world’s smallest tetrapods (non-fish vertebrates). The frogs belong to the genus Paedophryne, all of whose species are extremely small, with adults of the two new species – named Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa – only 8-9 mm in length.

Source

World’s Largest Insect

Nature is Awesome — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:39:12 +0000

The world’s biggest bug was found recently by a 53 year old former park ranger on Little Barrier Island, in New Zealand. The insect known as the Weta is found only on this particular island. The insect’s wing span is nearly 7 inches and it weighs 71 grams.

Source