weird & wonderful wonders

Students love a good yarn!  There are many weird and wonderful holiday snapshots and stories that help our students to realise that there is so much more to science than the 4 walls of the lab that they go to a few times a week.  On the first day of a new term I usually ask if any student would like to volunteer a story from their holidays, where possible we link their story to science.

For me, experiencing the solar eclipse at approx 11:15am on 11th of August 1999 while perched on a clifftop at Land's End on the southwest coast of England was the most phenomenal natural wonder that I have ever experienced.  The excitement of the hundreds of people waiting patiently as they gripped nervously onto their overpriced mirrored lenses glued into a flimsy cardboard frame.  The concern at the increasing number of clouds in the grey, gloomy sky on what was a typical English summers day.  The metallic, reflective, calm sea growing darker as the moon started to block the sun's light.  The fast forward effect of only 15 minutes for darkness to fall from daylight.  The birds stopped singing, dogs stopped barking and the mood felt quite errie as silence descended over all of us.  The strange sensation of sitting in complete darkness for what seemed like an eternity but was only really a couple of minutes.  Once the golden rays from that soon to be orb in the sky started to shine through the clouds there was complete joy and excitement accompanied by loud cheers and clapping as we had all shared this magical, one in a lifetime experience of a total solar eclipse.

There are endless tales we can tell of geological areas, nature parks, theme parks that we have visited that all link back to science in the classroom eg. with links to geology, diversity, evolution, forces etc... It makes science so much more real and interesting for our students. 

I have lifted the following images and text from this website http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.  The images of these 7 different natural wonders speak for themselves.

Number 1: Sailing stones

"The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones."

image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 2: Basalt columns

 

"When a thick lava flow cools it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity – in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such examples is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above) though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water."

image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 3: Blue holes

 "Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation – leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths."

image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

 Number 4: Red tides

"Red tides are also known as algal blooms – sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers."

image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 5: Ice circles

"While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above."

image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 6: Mammatus clouds

"True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers – appearing around, before or even after severe weather."

image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/.

Number 7: Fire Rainbows

"A circum-horizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomena"

image & text from http://webecoist.com/2009/01/18/nature-phenomena-wonders-natural-world/. 

 Does anyone have any suggestions regarding unusual wonders of the natural world or must see places around the world?  I'd like to start planning my summer holidays and am need of some suggestions.  Thanks!