Top 11 Most Unbelievable Geological Wonders (You Need To Visit)
Top 11 Most Unbelievable Geological Wonders (You Need To Visit)
From giant caves full of crystals to magical mountains, here are 11 of the Earth’s most beautiful geological wonders!
11. Arashiyama Bamboo Grove
Located in Kyoto, Japan, this Bamboo Grove is one of the most photographed sights in the city!! A little in the outskirts, this place has been a popular relaxing destination since the year 794AD, when nobles would come to enjoy the natural setting. Arashiyama is very popular during the fall and during cherry blossom season!
10. Antelope Canyon
If you think water and rock don’t mix, you’d be wrong. In fact they combine to produce the most stunning geological results, as Antelope Canyon shows! Located a stone’s throw – see what I did there? – from the city of Page in Arizona, it’s both ancient and modern. What do I mean by that? Well, the site, lived on and owned by the Navajo Nation, is not only part of history but also a popular tourist destination. On top of that, it’s also Insta famous!
9. Blue Hole
When sinkholes are mentioned in the news, it’s typically to do with some kind of disaster on land. However marine sinkholes are different, and the amazing Great Blue Hole of Belize is a treasure trove of marine life and ancient history! This bluest of blue wonders, formed from limestone and measuring 984 ft across and over 400 ft deep, is thought to have been created around the last Ice Age. That makes it approx 14,000 years old!
8. Cretaceous- Paleogene Boundary
Geological wonders can really surprise us. They aren’t all huge chunks of rock or eye-catching fossils and stuff like that. Some can be pretty small, but highly significant to our understanding of what goes on with planet Earth. A classic case is the K-Pg boundary, or Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.
7. Crystal Cave
The Sierra de Naica mountain in Mexico is an impressive enough geological spectacle as it is. But it’s what’s beneath the mountain that interests us most. At the start of the century a mining company went down there to drain the area looking for stuff to make a profit on. Situated in Chihuahua, Mexico, the underground mine is highly automated.
6. Door to Hell
The Darvaza crater, or the Door to Hell, is located in the country of Turkmenistan. Most of Turkmenistan is made up of the Karakum Desert – what better place for such a fiery geological marvel? We should say the Door to Hell isn’t a door as such. It’s a blazing pit that’s been burning for decades! The crater is 230 ft wide and 98 ft deep.
5. Fumaroles Yellowstone
There’s a lot going on beneath the Earth’s crust. For example, intense heat generated at Yellowstone comes from volcanic forces underground. Wyoming didn’t know what hit it a whopping 600,000 years back. A huge explosion resulted in the Yellowstone fumaroles. They’re a beautiful sight to be sure, but Mother Nature made them in an extremely dangerous way!
4. Giants Causeway
County Antrim in Northern Ireland features the most magical piece of geology on our list. The famous Giants Causeway is so called because of Finn McCool. He wasn’t a giant, but a medieval warrior chieftain. And in case you’re thinking “Finn McCool” sounds a lot like a cartoon dog, his alternative handle is Fionn MacCumhaill. Either way, he was a formidable opponent.
3. Kilauea Volcano
Found in the Pacific Ocean on the so-called ‘Big Island’ of Hawai’i, Kilauea is one fiery little shield volcano. What’s a shield volcano? It’s where a continuous flow of fluid lava creates a volcano with a low, shield-like shape. Part of Kilauea has been erupting for several decades, meaning that the majority of the outside is made up of new lava.
2. Mount Roraima
Natives of the area think that Mount Roraima is the stump of a mighty tree that once held all the fruits and most of the vegetables in the world! They also believe that it was knocked down by Makunaima, the trickster god. This is the beginning of life as we know it as when the tree crashed to the ground, life was released.
1. Tibetan Plateau
Our last pick is arguably the most awesome. This mighty plateau in Western China holds the region of Tibet and is populated by over 4 million people. Living at a height of 16,400 ft, there’s few people that are hardier than the Tibetans, who’ve faced both environmental and political hardship over the decades.
