13 mysteries of nature and geological wonders

1. 13 Mysteries Of Nature
And Geological Wonders of The WorldAnd Geological Wonders of The World
By Shiva prasadBy Shiva prasad
99thth
AA

2. Contents
 1.The Wave (between Arizona and Utah - USA)
 2.Antelope Canyon (Arizona - USA)
 3.Great Blue Hole (Belize)
 4.Crystal Cave of the Giants (Mexico)
 5.Eye of the Sahara (Mauritania)
 6.Blue Lake Cave (Brazil)
 7.Giants Causeway (Ireland)
 8.Hell Gate (Uzbekistan)
 9.Wave Rock (Australia)
 10.Chocolate Hills (Philippines)
 11.Bermuda Triangle
 12.Sailing stones


3. 1.The Wave (between Arizona
and Utah - USA)
• A red-rock stunner on the
border of Arizona and
Utah, The Wave is made
of 190-million- year-old
sand dunes that have
turned to rock. This little-
known formation is
accessible only on foot via
a three-mile hike and
highly regulated.

4. The Wave (between Arizona
and Utah - USA
• “The Wave” consists of intersecting U-shaped
troughs that have been eroded into
Navajo Sandstone ofJurassic age. The two major
troughs, which comprise this rock formation, are 62
feet (19 m) wide by 118 feet (36 m) long and 7 feet
(2 m) wide by 52 feet (16 m) long. Initially,
infrequent runoff eroded these troughs along joints
within the Navajo Sandstone. After their formation,
the drainage basin, which fed rainwater to these
troughs, shrank to the point that the runoff became
insufficient to contribute to the cutting of these
troughs.

5. 2.Antelope Canyon (Arizona -
USA)
• The most visited and photographed slot
canyon in the American Southwest, the
Antelope Canyon is located on Navajo
land near Page, Arizona. It includes two
separate, photogenic slot canyon sections,
referred to individually as Upper
Antelope Canyon --or “The Crack”-- and
Lower Antelope Canyon --or “The
Corkscrew.”

6. Antelope Canyon
(Arizona - USA)
• The Navajo name for
Upper Antelope Canyon is
Tse' bighanilini, which
means "the place where
water runs through rocks."
Lower Antelope Canyon is
Hasdestwazi, or "spiral
rock arches." Both are
located within the LeChee
Chapter of the Navajo
Nation.

7. 3.Great Blue Hole
(Belize)
• Part of the Lighthouse Reef System, The Great
Blue Hole lies approximately 60 miles off the
mainland out of Belize City. A large, almost
perfectly circular hole approximately one quarter
of a mile (0.4 km) across, it’s one of the most
astounding dive sites to be found anywhere on
earth. Inside this hole, the water is 480 feet (145
m) deep and it is the depth of water which gives
the deep blue color that causes such structures
throughout the world to be known as "blue holes."

9. 4.Crystal Cave of the Giants
(Mexico)
• Found deep inside a mine in southern Chihuahua Mexico,
these crystals were formed in a natural cave totally
enclosed in bedrock. A geode full of spectacular crystals as
tall as pine trees, and in some cases greater in
circumference, they are a translucent gold and silver in
color and come in many incredible forms and shapes. The
Crystal Cave of the Giants was discovered within the
same limestone body that hosts the silver-zinc- lead ore
bodies exploited by the mine and it was probably
dissolved by the same hydrothermal fluids that deposited
the metals with the gypsum being crystallized during the
waning stages of mineralization.

11. 5.Eye of the Sahara
(Mauritania)
• This spectacular landform in
Mauritania in the southwestern
part of the Sahara desert is so
huge with a diameter of 30 miles
that it is visible from space. Called
Richat Structure --or the Eye of the
Sahara-- the The formation was
originally thought to be caused by
a meteorite impact but now
geologists believe it is a product of
uplift and erosion. The cause of its
circular shape is still a mystery.

12. 6.Blue Lake Cave (Brazil)
• Mato Grosso do Sul region in Brazil (and especially
the quiet town of Bonito) boasts many marvelous
underground lakes: Gruta do Lago Azul, Gruta do
Mimoso, Aquário Natural. The world famous "Gruta
do Lago Azul” (Blue Lake Cave) is a natural
monument whose interior is formed by stalactites,
stalagmites and a huge and wonderful blue lake. The
beauty of the lake is something impressive. The Blue
Lake Cave has a big variety of geologicalformation
but impresses mainly for the deep blue colored water
of its inside lake.

14. 7.Giants Causeway
(Ireland)
• An area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt
columns, the Giants Causeway is a result of
an ancient volcanic eruption. Located on the
north-east coast of Northern Ireland, most of
its columns are hexagonal, although there are
also some with four, five, seven and eight
sides. The tallest are about 12 meters (36 ft)
high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28
meters thick in places. In a 2005 poll of Radio
Times readers, the causeway was named as
the fourth greatest natural wonder in the
United Kingdom.

16. 8.Hell Gate (Uzbekistan)
• Called by locals The Door to Hell, this place in
Uzbekistan is situated near the small town of
Darvaz. When geologists were drilling for gas, 35
years ago, they suddenly found an underground
cavern that was so big, all the drilling site with all
the equipment and camps got deep deep under the
ground. None dared to go down there because the
cavern was filled with gas, so they ignited it so that
no poisonous gas could come out of the hole, and
since then, it has been burning. Nobody knows how
many tons of excellent gas has been burned for all
those years but it just seems to be infinite.

17. Some photos of Hell Gate
(Uzbekistan)

18. 9.Wave Rock (Australia)
• The Wave Rock is a natural rock formation located in
western Australia. It derives its name from the fact
that it is shaped like a tall breaking ocean wave. The
total outcrop covers several hectares; the "wave" part
of the rock is about 15 meters high and
approximately 110 meters long. One aspect of Wave
Rock rarely shown on photographs is the retaining
wall about halfway up the rock. This follows the
contours and allows rainwater to be collected in a
dam. It was constructed in 1951 by the Public Works
Department, and such walls are common on many
similar rocks in the wheatbelt.

20. 10.Chocolate Hills
(Philippines)
• Composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills
of about the same size spread over an area of more
than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi), this highly
unusual geologicalformation , called Chocolate Hills,
is located in Bohol, Philippines. There are a number
of hypotheses regarding the formation of the hills.
These include simple limestone weathering, sub-
oceanic volcanism, the uplift of the seafloor and a
more recent theory which maintains that as an
ancient active volcano self-destructed, it spewed
huge blocks of stone which were then covered with
limestone and later thrust forth from the ocean bed.

21. Some photos of Chocolate
Hills (Philippines)

22. 11.Bermuda Triangle
• The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's
Triangle, is a loosely defined region in the western part of
the North Atlantic Ocean, where a number of aircraft and
ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious
circumstances. According to the US Navy, the triangle does
not exist, and the name is not recognized by the
US Board on Geographic Names.[1]
Popular culture has
attributed various disappearances to the paranormal or
activity by extraterrestrial beings.[2]
Documented evidence
indicates that a significant percentage of the incidents were
spurious, inaccurately reported, or embellished by later
authors.[3][4][5]
In a 2013 study, the World Wide Fund for
Nature identified the world’s 10 most dangerous waters for
shipping, but the Bermuda Triangle was not among them.[6]

23. BERMUDA TRIANGLE

24. 12.Sailing stones
• Sailing stones, sliding rocks, rolling stones,
and moving rocks are a geological phenomenon where
rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley
floor without human or animal intervention.
• Stones with rough bottoms leave straight striated tracks
while those with smooth bottoms tend to wander. Stones
sometimes turn over, exposing another edge to the ground
and leaving a different track in the stone's wake.
• Trails differ in both direction and length. Rocks that start
next to each other may travel parallel for a time, before
one abruptly changes direction to the left, right, or even
back to the direction from which it came. Trail length also
varies – two similarly sized and shaped rocks may travel
uniformly, then one could move ahead or stop in its track

26. 13.Mono lake
• Mono Lake is a strange lunar-like wonder of nature
located in eastern California, about 190 miles east of San
Francisco about 300 miles north of Los Angeles.
• Its history began more than 760,000 years ago. It is one of
the oldest lakes in North America and the second largest
lake in California.
• Today Mono Lake looks like an alien world.
• The microbe seems to be able to replace phosphorus with
arsenic in some of its basic cellular processes —
suggesting the possibility of a biochemistry very different
from the one we know, which could be used by organisms
in past or present extreme environments on Earth, or
even on other planets, reported the journalNature. in
2010.