If we asked you if something was natural or not, there’s a good chance that you would find it easy to answer. After all, we have well-defined ideas of what’s man-made and what’s not.

If you dug a bit deeper, though, you’d realize that many things we automatically assume to be natural aren’t natural at all. Instead, they are the direct results of man-made actions at various points in history.

10 The Amazon

Whenever we talk about the Amazon, we refer to it as an untouched tropical paradise that we’re all responsible for ruining. The latter part may even be true as we’re totally doing that. But it’s the “untouched” thing we almost always get wrong. The Amazon is the way it is precisely due to many historical civilizations having extensively transformed it with their ways of living.

The idea that the Amazon was undisturbed by civilization before the “discovery” of the Americas is increasingly being questioned. In the last few decades, plenty of studies have found that many diverse groups of people used to live there long before the rest of the world even knew it existed. These groups completely changed the landscape in their own ways.

It can be seen most clearly in the flora native to the Amazon. Many plant species found there are modifications of their original versions. Take peach palm, for example. The original fruit only weighed about 1 gram (0.4 oz). However, the type found in the market today can weigh as much as 200 grams (7.1 oz), even though we think of it as a naturally occurring variety of the fruit.^[1]

Crops like cocoa beans and Brazil nuts were essentially invented by the different tribes that once lived in the Amazon. For centuries, they domesticated local plants and crossbred them with other species. In fact, studies are ongoing as to how much impact humans have had on the forest, making us question if any of it is in a pristine, natural form at all.

9 Pearls

There was a time when pearls were one of the rarest and most expensive things we could get our hands on. Only a few could afford to own them. The high price was due partly to how good they look and partly to the perilous procedure of having to dive to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve them.

Although jewelry and other ornamental pieces made of pearls are still expensive, they’re now accessible to a lot of us even though they continue to be difficult to find. So, what changed? In a nutshell, we figured out how to make them in the lab by replicating the natural process.

Sure, a tiny minority of pearls are still found in the ocean and picked up as in old times. However, the majority in the market are cultured pearls. These aren’t fakes. They’re made by injecting gold and silver into mollusks and replicating the natural conditions in the lab—a process that was introduced and perfected by Japanese scientists in the early 19th century.^[2]

8 Morning Glory Pool

If you’ve ever visited Yellowstone National Park, you may have come across the multicolored body of water known as the Morning Glory Pool. Although the park is home to multiple hot water springs and pools spread throughout its vast landscape, this one stands out. Its unique pattern of concentric blue, red, and yellow circles is not found anywhere else in the park—perhaps even the world.

It’s a sight to behold, though the reason has almost nothing to do with nature.

The pool was first named Convolutus after a Latin word that translates to “morning glory” and describes a global family of blue flowers. The blue at the center comes from a type of bacteria that thrives in the heat of the pool.

However, the yellow on the periphery is entirely due to man-made reasons. Over the years, people have thrown a variety of things in the Morning Glory Pool, so a lot of the thermal vents have been blocked. This eventually allowed other types of bacteria to move in, producing the red and yellow tinges at the edges that give the pool its unique palette.^[3]

And yes, those bacteria will eventually engulf the whole pool. That’s bad news for people who like the blue color as well as for those who’d like to keep the pool in its natural form.

7 Lemons

If you don’t cook a lot, you probably won’t realize how important lemons are in our day-to-day lives. From marinating meat to adding a bit of flavor to most summer drinks, lemons are a versatile fruit that also happen to be loaded with vitamin C.

Though its most prevalent use is in the phrase “when life gives you lemons . . . ,” which doesn’t sound like a bad thing as lemons are awesome and life is always welcome to give us more of them. However, if we trace their origins, we’d realize that life never gave us lemons in the first place as they’re not a naturally occurring crop.

Lemons were first made by humans by interbreeding naturally occurring citrus varieties like sour oranges and citron to come up with the yellow fruit that we see today. It’s also one of the most mysterious crops as far as tracing its origins, though it’s generally agreed that lemons first showed up in the lower foothills of the Himalayas in Burma and Assam some 2,000 years ago.^[4]

6 Lake Mead

If you’ve ever taken a road trip to Las Vegas, chances are that you’ve come across Lake Mead—a large water body surrounded by beautiful peaks and spanning a huge area in Nevada. One of the largest lakes in the country, Lake Mead has a length of about 180 kilometers (112 mi) and a depth as much as 162 meters (532 ft).

It’s one of the main sources of water for many nearby states as well as quite a bit of Mexico. Lake Mead also happens to be one of the world’s largest man-made reservoirs.

Originally created as an outlet for all the excess water in the Colorado River—as the darn thing used to keep flooding before that—the lake was first formed by the construction of the Hoover Dam. Soon, Lake Mead was one of the most scenic picnic spots for people in the surrounding states. More recently, climate change and a severe water crisis in the area has caused it to shrink by quite a bit, so it’s no longer the largest man-made lake in the country.^[5]

5 Vanilla

The vanilla flavor might have become less popular over time due to better synthetic tastes we can now produce in the lab. But it was one of the rarest and most expensive flavors when it was first discovered in Mexico. Brought to Europe and the rest of the world by Spanish explorers, vanilla was first mixed with chocolate and instantly proved to be quite popular among Europe’s elites.

However, there was a problem because the vanilla plant was from Mexico. Vanilla beans wouldn’t grow anywhere else as bees would refuse to pollinate vanilla orchids unless they were in their native environment. When pollinated, these flowers produce vanilla beans, which are the source of vanilla flavor.

The problem was first solved by Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old slave in Reunion, an island in the Indian Ocean. Working under the supervision of a plantation owner, Albius figured out a way to hand-pollinate the plant, something no one else had been able to do.

The two men soon took this technique to other plantations. Within years, the island inhabitants started exporting tons of vanilla around the world as the demand for the coveted plant was high at that time. All the vanilla in the market today is made by that technique (as the bees are still quite stubborn about not doing it themselves). This keeps the price low and makes vanilla available to everyone instead of an elite few.^[6]

4 Killer Bees

If you live in the Americas and have ever been outside, chances are that you’ve heard of killer bees. They resemble other bee species, which are harmless unless their hives are disturbed. Even then, cases of normal bees attacking people rarely make the news.

On the other hand, killer bees have earned their reputation by having killed around 1,000 people since they were discovered. At first, you’d think all the deaths were due to individuals just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, if you’d read up on the origins of these dangerous stinging insects, you’d realize that nature has nothing to do with the creation of these killing machines. Instead, it was good old human error.

Killer bees were not originally found in the wild. Their very existence is a result of a biology experiment gone horribly wrong. You see, back when European honeybees were first brought to Brazil to amp up honey production, they weren’t doing much except chilling due to the difference in temperature. To remedy that, biologists took a few African honeybees to get them to breed with the existing populations in controlled conditions.

That didn’t turn out well. In 1957, some 26 queens from the African species along with other European honeybees escaped their confinement. In the years since, they have interbred on their own and become an aggressive and murderous species we now identify as killer bees.

They soon spread across South and Central America as well as most of the states in the US that have a border with Mexico—seemingly everywhere that it’s hot enough for them to survive as they die if it gets too cold.^[7]

3 Corn

In case you missed your high school history classes, corn has been the cornerstone of American civilization since organized tribes started showing up across the two continents. It won’t be a stretch to say that the history of the Americas is the history of corn cultivation. It has been an important part of the economies of almost all the most successful empires (including the United States) that ever existed here.

It’s even more surprising if you consider the fact that corn never existed in the form that it does now in the wild. Instead, corn was derived by native populations from a type of wild grass. Known as teosinte, this grass didn’t look anything like the maize crops we see today.

According to studies, native tribes started experimenting to increase the size of the cobs and kernels found on teosinte in Mexico about 6,300 years ago. After millennia of trial and error with farming and breeding methods, they stumbled upon what we now know as corn. It was then taken to places like North America by other tribes around 1,000 years ago. Even today, the crop cannot exist without human intervention and protection.^[8]

2 Dogs

No animal has a more intimate relationship with human beings than the trustworthy dog. Also known as “man’s best friend,” dogs are an indispensable part of human life around the world in a variety of ways—from helping to keep other farm animals in check to sniffing out drugs at border checkpoints.

If we asked you to guess where they came from, you’d likely say wild dogs. However, the only known species of wild dogs (African wild dogs) doesn’t belong to the same family of species as dogs (canines) at all. So, are dogs magic?

Not really. All the dogs we see today—from tiny Chihuahuas to the intimidating-yet-cuddly Tibetan mastiffs—descended from a single group of wolves at some point in human history.^[9]

Although the exact point at which dogs first appeared in our fossil records isn’t clear, scientists have estimated it to be 20,000–40,000 years ago. Whenever it happened, we can say for sure that dogs as we know them never existed before we decided that we needed a cool animal to be friends with.

1 Fly Geyser

The first time you take a look at the Fly Geyser—a unique, seemingly natural formation in Nevada—it comes across as an artist’s visualization of an alien world. Quite unlike any other formation found on Earth, the Fly Geyser is a tiny, multicolored hill that consistently spews boiling hot water throughout the year. It is surrounded by terraces filled with water.

It would be incredible if the Fly Geyser was a natural formation, but all the credit for this one goes to classic human error.

It all started when a geothermal energy company drilled a hole in the ground to find hot water and eventually turn it into energy. They abandoned the idea when the temperature of the water was discovered to be below the required level. Then they tried to cap the well. But they didn’t completely succeed, giving way to one of the best things that man has accidentally created from nature.^[10]

The colors are due to the algae growing on the calcium carbonate deposits, which also gave the geyser its unique conical shape over time. Interestingly, the formation is now a Burning Man property, which somehow sounds appropriate if you think about it.

You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, get in touch with him for writing gigs at [email protected], or just say hello to him on Twitter.

Humankind hasn’t always understood the basic design of nature and the world around him. We know now that lightning is caused by static electricity generated through friction from the innumerable water and ice particles in a thundercloud. But that understanding took hundreds, even thousands of years to be fully realized. Before we had this answer, we still had the question, “What makes lightning?” Before the introduction of scientific reasoning the answers to that question and those like it were only found in mythology and legends. Here are ten examples from all around the world of mythologies devised to explain destructive natural forces.

SEE ALSO: 10 Historical Events With Hilarious Forgotten Details

10 Tsunami From A Sea Spirit

The Moken, a people living on a few scattered islands near the coasts of Myanmar and Thailand, have a legend hundreds of years old. In the legend the sea spirit Katoy Oken sends forth “monster waves” (Tsunamis to us, Laboons in their language) to purify the people spiritually and physically. The people felt the earth shake, knocking coconuts from the trees. They knew this was the ‘wave that eats people’, awoken and sent by Katoy Oken. They collected the fallen coconuts and went out to sea, hopeful that the man eating wave would go to the island and ignore the boats. Shortly thereafter the boats are slightly jostled and a village elder calls out to his people to look to shore. The water had retreated from the beach. What followed was a wave that reached as high up as the tops of the coconut trees. Katoy Oken’s wave had purified the island, but no Moken were consumed.

The legend survived in Moken storytelling for hundreds of years. In 2004 a magnitude 8.9 earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that reached across multiple countries. The waves killed 175,000 people in the region and another 125,000 went missing, presumed dead. One island of about 200 Moken was right in the wave’s path. When they saw the water recede from the beach all of them fled to higher ground immediately, because they remembered Katoy Oken and his people eating wave. Of the 200 Moken there, only a single one perished in the 2004 Tsunami.^[1]

9 Namazu Shakes The Earth

In Japanese mythology the Namazu is a catfish so giant he causes earthquakes with his tail. Originally he acted as a premonition of danger, warning people before a flood or heavy rains or other damaging event. But as time went on the Namazu became one of the Yo-kai, a creature of misfortune and disaster. Namazu is usually said to be contained by the god Kashima under a colossal capstone, but Kashima isn’t always diligent about his duties or grows tired and Namazu is said to be able to shake his tail despite Kashima. His uncontrolled tail causes earthquakes and tsunami.

Overtime Namazu became known as a punishment for human greed. His earthquakes destroyed the properties of the rich, forcing a redistribution of wealth. In more modern twist of the legend, Namazu is shown less as a force of nature and more of a symbol of cowardly civil servants who would rather hide than fulfill their responsibility to help in disaster relief.^[2]

8 A God’s Baby Trapped Underground

In the Maori creation myth the Sky Father Ranginui and the Earth Mother Papatuanuku were separated to create the earth and the sky and allow the light to enter the world. Still, their separation grieved them greatly and their children, on seeing this, decided to turn their mother over so she wouldn’t have to look at her partner who she could never again be with. However the youngest of her children, Ruaumoko, was still suckling on his mother’s breast when his older siblings turned their mother to face the earth and he was trapped underneath her.

Now in the dark and the cold, Ruaumoko was given fire to stay warm and became the patron deity of volcanoes and earthquakes. When he wakes, he causes terrible eruptions and must be soothed back to sleep by the lullaby of his mother. In another version of the myth Ruaumoko was never even born and its his twisting and stirring in his mother’s womb that causes earthquakes.^[3]

7 Battling Aztec Gods End The World

In the Aztec creation myth the duel god Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl created itself from nothing and because it was both male and female it was able to produce children. These children represented the four cardinal directions: Huizilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca and Xipe Totec. These children then created the world. They realized that the world would need an energy source to sustain it, a sun, but a sun was too powerful for them to create. Instead one of them would have to become the sun. Which of them was the sun changed from era to era, but each time one of these four children became the sun, a natural disaster would strike the world and a new era would begin. This is known as the Myth of the Five Suns.

The first sun was Tezcatlipoca, but he was knocked from his place by Quetzalcoatl and in retaliation Jaguars were sent to eat the inhabitants of the world. During the second sun their bickering continued and Tezcatlipoca turned the newly created humans into monkeys, but Quetzalcoatl sent hurricanes and floods to wipe them out. The third sun was the younger god Tialoc and when Tezcatlipoca again caused trouble (stealing Tialoc’s wife) Tialoc caused humanity to turn into turkeys, dogs, and butterflies. Quetzalcoatl tried to eliminate these new lifeforms by raining fire and ash down on them. The forth’s sun was Tialoc’s sister, but Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatipoca were jealous of her. This time they turned the population of earth to fish and caused a great flood. The fifth and current sun, the god Nanahuatzin, is our age and it is said it will end in an earthquake.^[4]

6 A Vengeful Earth Mother

Across the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia live an indigenous people who revere The Earth Mother or Pachamama. In ancient Incan mythology she is a fertility god, a personification of nature, that helps to nourish and protect animals and plants. In the past, offerings to her included animal and even human sacrifices, but present day offerings are usually limited to dried Llama fetuses, rice, or peanuts buried.

Though known as a fairly gentle and easygoing personage, Pachamama is also said to be responsible for earthquakes, landslides, and lightning which she employs in her anger. These are directed at those who fail to care for the earth or its creatures in a kind way. This vengeful side of hers is reinforced by her frequent depiction as a dragon or a serpent.^[5]

5 Freedom Fighter Trapped Between Mountains

Bernardo Carpio is a mythological figure from the Philippines that is sometimes represented as a giant, but other times is a normal human with abnormal strength. In the tale Bernardo is a kindhearted and courageous person who joins the resistance movement. Which resistance and when depends on the time period the tale is being told, which is mostly remembered through oral tradition, but the common version has him joining against the Spanish. His joining the resistance is a huge boon to their cause, because Bernardo posses superhuman strength. As a child he pulled nails from the floorboard with his bare hands and felled trees with his father while hunting.

Eventually a local shaman used his powers to trap Bernardo between Mt. Pamitinan and Mt. Binacayan. The shaman’s powers and the weight of the earth were too much even for Bernardo’s immense strength, but he refuses to give up. Still trapped to this day, Bernardo keeps trying to free himself and every time he does it causes an Earthquake in the region.^[6]

4 Kagutsuchi’s Corpse Made Volcanoes

A Shinto god or Kami, Kagutsuchi was born from the creator gods Izanami and Izanagi.However as a fire kami, Kagutsuchi’s birth killed his mother in overwhelming flame and heat and she was sent to Yomi, the land of darkness. Izanagi was grief stricken and went to Yomi to retrieve his dead wife, but Izanami could never leave. She had already eaten food in Yomi, which trapped her there. When Izanagi lit a fire it was revealed to him that Izanami was rotting and riddled with maggots. She lashed out at her former husband and he fled Yomi. Once outside he took revenge on his child that had robbed him of his wife and sliced Kagutsuchi to pieces.

From Kagutshchi’s body and the blood dripping from his father’s sword other gods came into existence. Among them Takemikazuchi-no-kami and Futsunushi-no-kami, famous swordsmen and Kuraokami-no-kami a rain god. From his body parts also arose mountain gods, namely volcanoes. From eight pieces of his corpse rose eight volcanoes, which spew flame and heat just like Kagutsuchi did in life.^[7]

3 Plagues from “The Crouching Darkness”

In Ireland, before the introduction of Christianity, worship of a pantheon of gods was more widespread. One powerful deity worshiped was a god named Crom Cruach which means “crouching darkness” or “bent gloom”. One description of his worship paints the picture of a terrible and feared god who required human sacrifices. The Metrical Dindshenchas, a series of ancient oral stories put onto page by medieval monks included these verses about Crom Cruach:

He was their god, the wizened Bent One with many glooms; the people who believed in him over every harbour, the eternal Kingdom shall not be theirs.
For him ingloriously they slew their wretched firstborn with much weeping and distress, to pour out their blood around the Bent One of the hill.
Milk and corn they used to ask of him speedily in return for a third of their whole progeny: great was the horror and outcry about him.
The stirred evil, they beat palms, they bruised bodies: wailing to the demon who had enslaved them they shed showers of tears, prostrate their pouring.

Though morbid in his worship rites, Crom Cruach is sometimes considered a fertility god. If his worshipers failed to please him or failed to offer the sacrifices to him he was thought of as the source of poor harvests, blights, and plagues. In one story, the worshipers of Crom Cruach brought along an idol of him and insisted on sacrifices from the Gael people, namely their firstborns who Crom Cruach’s worshipers insisted must be bashed against the idol as a sacrifice otherwise Crom Cruach would put a pestilence on their harvest and blight their livestock.^[8]

2 Storms Stirred Up By The Thunderbird

The Thunderbird is a reoccurring mythological figure in multiple Native American cultures. In general this giant bird was empowered with the ability to control the weather and its beating wings produced thunderstorms, rain, and gales, but each tribe had their own variations of the myth. Usually rather than the cause of disaster, it used natural forces like thunder and lightning to defend and aid people.

To the Winnebago people the Thunderbird wasn’t singular, but a species and many could be found soaring the skies in their legends, but this species also had the ability to shape shift into human warriors. The Passamaquoddy people likewise believed it was a shapeshifter who could control lightning, but would never use those powers against humans, only villains. The Quillayute people believed it was a benevolent helper sent by The Great Spirit to help after natural disasters. One of their stories depict the Thunderbird arriving at a time when the Quillayute were desperate for food. It arrived from out of a thunderstorm of its own creation carrying a whale. It gave the people the whale as food, before disappearing again into the rolling storm-clouds.^[9]

1 Senseless Cause Of Disease and Pestilence

In Ancient Mesopotamia many gods were worshiped. They believed that the gods and humans were co-workers in maintaining the balance and harmony of the world, but if both men and gods valued peace than why did humans suffer? As a way to explain the senseless death and suffering that humans faced, the people of the Babylonian city of Kutha invented a god that had an uncontrolled temper. His name was Nergal or Erra. Originally those names represented two different gods, but over time they became so closely linked that they began to both refer to the same mythological figure.

Nergal is a god of calamity who senselessly lashes out, not to punish a sin or correct an injustice, but only because of his ill temper. In his wrath he was blamed for of diseases, plagues, and pestilence, but would also inflict senseless death on the battlefield as well.

In one story Nergal, for no reason in particular, decides to attack Babylon, but the city is defended by another god named Marduk. Nergal arrives, pretending to just be visiting the city casually, and expresses feigned shock over how Marduk is dressed. Marduk is embarrassed and says he just doesn’t have the time to get new clothes. Nergal offers to protect the city for him so that Marduk has the time to better outfit himself. When Marduk leaves, Nergal inflicts his wrath on the city—killing people indiscriminately in the streets.

Nergal is called before the other gods to explain his actions and in his defense he simply states the kind of god he is, “When I get angry, I break things.”^[10]

Charles Darwin used his theory of natural selection to explain evolution. That is, organisms are able to adapt and survive in their environment better than their predecessors did. These organisms pass their most favorable features to their offspring, which continue the cycle.

However, technology is already interfering with natural selection—at least in humans. Almost every tech item out there today—from our smartphones to the massive advances in medicine—are altering our lives faster than natural selection could.

People with unfavorable conditions are surviving and passing these traits to their offspring. At the same time, others are developing new health challenges causes by overreliance on technology.

10 Cesarean Sections Make Women’s Hips Narrower

Cesarean sections are leaving women with smaller pelvises. Centuries ago, women with small pelvises died during childbirth along with their children, who could possess the genes for small pelvises.

However, these women are surviving these days as C-sections become mainstream. They are also able to birth children with the genes and even female children with narrow pelvises, who also pass the trait to their offspring. Studies have shown that 36 of every 1,000 children born today have a narrow pelvis. In the 1960s, it was just 30 of every 1,000.^[1]

At this point, some would start to wonder why natural selection did not leave all women with large pelvises. That is because the human body evolved to prefer smaller babies that could pass through the narrower pelvises instead of larger babies that could pass through wider pelvises.

Interestingly, C-sections are slowly changing this. Babies are becoming larger despite their mothers’ smaller pelvises. This means that C-sections will become more common in the future.

9 Mobile Phones Are Causing Horns To Grow In Our Skulls

We frequently bend our necks downward to interact with our smartphones. This is causing the development of a bony, hornlike structure at the lower end of the back of our skulls. Scientists call these little horns “external occipital protuberances.”

The horns are growing because the bent head delivers severe pressure at the point where the neck muscles meet the skull. The skull responds by elongating the bone at its rear tip, causing the extension. People with an external occipital protuberance can often feel it with their fingers. You may even be able to see it on a bald person.

An external occipital protuberance may appear no matter what we have in our hands or right in front of us. The only condition is that we bend our heads frequently, which is what smartphones cause us to do. Books do, too, but not as frequently as smartphones. Besides, not everyone reads books.^[2]

8 Search Engines Are Making Us Forgetful

Imagine you were asked some random question such as when Martin Van Buren became the president of the United States? What do you do? Recall the answer without batting an eye, or fire up your search engine? Most people will use their search engines because they probably do not remember the date offhand. Some do not even know he was a former US president.

This is what researchers call the “Google effect,” the likelihood of forgetting information you could quickly search for on the Internet. The condition was revealed in a 2011 study by researchers Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu, and Daniel Wegner.^[3]

The researchers found that people often considered checking the Internet whenever they were asked questions they could not answer. They were also likelier to forget information if they knew it would be available somewhere—even if it was not the Internet. An example would be your spouse’s phone number stored on your phone.

The Google effect happens because we often remember significant information and forget unimportant facts. However, we can also forget the important info if we can access it somewhere. As to our original question, no need to Google it—Martin Van Buren became president in 1837.

7 Farming Made Our Jaws Smaller

Early hunter-gatherers had large faces with prominent jaws and teeth. However, all these started to disappear when we dumped the hunter-gatherer lifestyle for farming 12,000 years ago. Today, we are left with small jaws without enough space for our teeth.

Hunter-gatherers had large jaws because they did a lot of chewing. They ate uncooked meat and plants that were often tough and required lots of jaw strength to cut and chew. This made their jaws stronger. However, our jaws became weaker as we switched to farming softer crops that did not require superior jaw strength to chew. Our jaws further weakened as we switched to cooking our meals.^[4]

The effects of our newfound farming lifestyle did not stop there. The switch also made our bones lighter and less dense, most especially around the joints. However, this was not caused by the softer food but the less strenuous lifestyle of the farmers who did not need to stalk, chase, and kill prey like the hunter-gatherers.

6 Processed Foods Are Changing Children’s Faces

The food eaten by children often determines the strength and shape of their faces—skulls, jaws, and all. However, the majority of children born nowadays have abnormal faces caused by the massive amounts of processed foods they start to consume right after birth.

This is because natural foods contain enough nutrients required for proper facial development. Besides, as we mentioned earlier, natural foods often force children to chew with their jaws, making their jaws and skulls considerably stronger. Processed foods often reduce the possibility of chewing, leading to considerably weaker jaws.^[5]

Today, our overdependence on processed foods has made our skulls 5–10 percent smaller than those of early humans from the Paleolithic Era. This problem has been observed in animals, too. Young animals reared on processed foods often end up with jaw problems that are similar to those of humans.

5 Social Media Is Destroying Our Lives

Social media has been linked to a myriad of problems including depression, hyperactivity, anxiety, low self-esteem, and loss of concentration. This is worse in teenagers who form the bulk of social media users. They often suffer from the fear of missing out (FOMO), which makes them check their social media handles more than necessary.

However, the link between social media and these health problems is blurred as there is not enough research to establish such associations. Some critics even say that social media only appears to cause depression and loneliness because most users already have those characteristics and only turn to social media to meet people.

The critics say this even though a study has already found that social media does cause depression and loneliness. The study involved 143 University of Pennsylvania students split into two groups. One group reduced their time on social media while the other continued to use it normally.

The study revealed that the individuals who spent less time on social media enjoyed improved mental health and lower levels of depression and loneliness than people who used it more often.

Interestingly, FOMO and anxiety levels decreased in both groups even though researchers expected higher levels in people who used social media more frequently. Researchers believe that this was because the users from both groups became more aware of their use of social media while the study lasted.^[6]

4 Smartphones Have Reduced Our Attention Span

Our brains have a very advanced concept of time. They are able to predict future events as we engage in our daily activities. For instance, the brain determines the best time to stretch your hand for a handshake—just so your hand will meet the other person’s hand at the right moment.

Our brains also apply this concept of time when we interact with our smartphones. For instance, if you check your phone every five minutes, your brain soon predicts this behavior and reminds you to check your phone at five-minute intervals.^[7]

Before long, the habit interferes with your attention span, making you unable to concentrate on whatever you are doing. Instead, you are thinking about grabbing your phone to see the latest happenings on social media. Studies have found that phone addicts make less use of the brain regions responsible for focus. They also require greater efforts to concentrate on a task.

3 The Internet Is Making Us Unable To Cope Offline

In 2011, Professor David Levy of the University of Washington’s Information School coined the term “popcorn brain” to describe the effects of technology on our cognitive abilities (that is, our abilities to think and recall information). People with popcorn brain are so engrossed in their online lives that they become uninterested and unable to cope with their lives offline.

Levy came up with this concept after investigating how the Internet affected our lives offline. In his study, he discovered that we are always interested in reading every new email and message and visiting websites, hoping to find some new information. Our brain soon becomes used to this trend and often wants us to seek some new information every time.

This often leaves us with short attention spans, high expectations of finding some new information, and the inability to live our normal lives offline. Interestingly, Levy’s study supports earlier research that revealed that students who spent 10 hours a day on the Internet have lower cognitive abilities than students who spent just two hours.^[8]

2 Technology Is Causing Nearsightedness In Children

Myopia (nearsightedness) is the latest health problem linked to the infiltration of technology into our daily lives. The statistics are terrible in high-tech countries like China where 90 percent of teenagers suffer from myopia. Sixty years ago, only 10–-20 percent of Chinese teenagers suffered from nearsightedness.

Myopia levels are also rising in Europe, the United States, and South Korea. In Seoul, over 96 percent of 19-year-old males suffer from myopia. Estimates indicate that 2.5 billion people (one-third of the world’s population) will suffer from myopia by 2020.

Teenagers are developing myopia because they spend so much time indoors and away from natural sunlight, which is important for the perfect development of the eyes. This is why myopia levels are low among Australian teenagers, who spend lots of time outside. Researchers believe that this trend could be reversed by exposing children to three hours of sunlight every day.^[9]

1 Smartphones Are Causing Insomnia

Smartphones always get a bad rap for interfering with sleep. Well! That is because they really do. Taking your smartphone to bed is the best way to end up with insomnia.

Smartphones cause insomnia because they are distracting. The sounds and vibrations of calls, notifications, and messages can stop people from sleeping or even wake them from sleep. People who take their phones to bed can also end up checking social media and more, causing them to sleep much later than they intended.

If that was not enough, smartphones and almost every other tech gadget with a screen emits a blue light that the brain mistakes for daylight. This causes the brain to lower the secretion of melatonin—the hormone that tells our body it is time for bed. This is usually not a problem during the day but quickly becomes one when we are trying to get some sleep at night.^[10]

Animals have an uncanny ability to know when a natural disaster is about to strike. Sometimes, they run away or hide, and their humans have no way of finding them in time to evacuate. More often than not, a pet owner has no choice but to leave their animals behind in order to save themselves.

At the end of every natural disaster – whether it be a flood, earthquake, tsunami, fire, or tornado, local shelters have to gather abandoned pets and attempt to reunite them with their owners. Many pets go unclaimed, and other times, people learn that their pets are not among the survivors. But in these next ten stories, pets are reunited with their owners in the most amazing ways.

10 Cadie the Cat

Judy Pugh was an elderly woman sitting in her home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama when a tornado hit. A wall fell on top of her, which held her body down as the rest of her house was sucked up into the twister. Neighbors called her name and lifted the wall off of her, and the storm continued to move on and ravaged the rest of the town. Pugh had three pet cats, and finding them after the storm was her only concern.^[1]

She managed to find two of the cats soon after. but sadly, she could not find her third cat, Cadie. Her family suspected that the 10-year old feline was carried away in the twister. Despite the fact that over a month had passed since the storm, she did not give up hope. Pugh continued to show up to the wreckage of her home and search for the cat every single day. A local TV station found Ms. Pugh standing by the wreckage and interviewed her. In the middle of the recording, Cadie the cat silently emerged out of the remains of Pugh’s house. He found his way home home after all.

Cadie was skinny, dirty, and could not even muster the strength to meow. Pugh walked over to him, gingerly scooping his tiny body into her arms. “I have everything in the world, now,” Pugh said as she began to cry. She cuddled her pet close to her chest. The TV microphone picked up the loud purring emanating from the tired cat.

9 The Farm in Plum Grove

Lester Morrow had no choice but to abandon his farm animals in Plum Grove, Texas during Hurricane Harvey. He was able to bring his dog with him, but they had no time to hitch a trailer behind their truck, and left behind several horses, donkeys, goats, and a potbelly pig named Patty.^[2]

When Morrow returned to his farm, he was recording the devastation on his cellphone, starting at the end of his long driveway. There was still a lot of water on the property, and he commented about the trash and debris that floated onto his land, when he saw in the distance that Patty the pig was so happy to hear Morrow’s voice, she was wading through the water to greet him. He immediately began sobbing, and recorded the animals who had survived the storm.

Many of his horses had broken legs, and over a dozen animals had died, but several of them managed to break down a fence and stand on the porch of the house in order to survive. He posted the video on YouTube to share with friends and family, and it went viral. He made a GoFundMe campaign to help his animals, and he raised $14,000.

8 Ban

On March 11, 2011, Japan was hit by an 9.0 magnitude earthquake that was followed by a tsunami that hit the northern part of the country. Three weeks after the disaster, the Japanese coast guard was still flying over the ocean to search for bodies that may be floating in the water. A mile away from shore, they spotted a dog walking around on top of the roof of a house that was floating in the water. Somehow, it had survived the tsunami. They lowered a man down from a helicopter to rescue the dog, who was later identified as “Ban”. The dog was wrapped in blankets, given food and water, and the rescue team carried him out on a stretcher.^[3]

Ban was reunited with his owner, who wished to remain anonymous in the media, so she wore a medical mask in the video of when they reunited to conceal her face. Ban still recognized her, and jumped up, wagging his tail and snuggling into her chest as she hugged him. “Thank goodness…I’ll never let him go,” she told the press.

7 Izzy

In 2017, wildfires spread across Santa Rosa, California, destroying thousands of homes in its path. The Weaver family was forced to evacuate, and they could not find their dog, Izzy, in time to escape. On October 10th, Jack Weaver and his brother-in-law Patrick Widen returned back to Weaver’s property to see if there was anything left. He began recording on this cellphone, and even from far away, he could see that their home was completely burned to the ground. Even though it was a long shot, they began whistling and calling Izzy’s name, in hope that he somehow escaped the flames.

Their disappointment was almost immediately replaced by joy, because Izzy the shaggy Bernese Mountain dog began walking towards them. Not only did he survive, but the loyal dog was waiting in the ashes of his former home for his master to return. It was totally unexpected, and the brothers began screaming out of joy as their reaction was captured on film.^[4]

6 Rica

Charles Trippy gained Internet fame by daily vlogging every single day for several years. He had continued to do this for so long, he even holds a Guinness World Record. When Florida was expected to be hit by Hurricane Irma in 2017, their town was ordered to evacuate. Charles and his family decided to take their chances by staying at home with their dogs and an electric generator. Since vlogging on YouTube is his job, Trippy recorded the experience of living in a town that was almost completely empty before, during, and after the storm.

Just as Charles and his wife Allie were driving home from with supplies from the hardware store to officially hunker down for the night, they spotted a tiny 4-week old kitten standing in the middle of the street. They got out and took her into their car and refused to leave the baby behind. That night, the amount of damage and flooding caused by the storm was worse than they imagined, and they were lucky that their house survived. They knew that if they had not rescued the kitten, there is no doubt that it would have died. They decided to name her Rica, which is short for Hurricane.

5 Junior

A tornado hit Granbury, Texas in 2013. A man named Jerry Shuttlesworth was living in a trailer park. Without a basement or a place to hide, he had no choice but to shut himself in the laundry room with his dog, a pitbull named Junior. The tornado directly hit his trailer, and Shuttlesworth described it like the home was being crushed down, and then sucked up. He flew into the air, and the wind flipped him upside down. He was desperately trying to hold on to Junior, but the tornado ripped the dog out of his arms.

The tornado dropped Shuttlesworth about 20 feet away, but the dog had completely disappeared in the twister. He laid on the ground with broken bones, looking up at the tornado. He described seeing debris circling in slow motion above his head, and it was so surreal, it was unlike anything he had ever seen in his life. After getting rescued and getting Internet access, Shuttlesworth posted a photo of Junior as a missing pet on Facebook.

By no small miracle, the local animal shelter found him. They called the news, and the best friends were reunited on film. He told the reporters that he was going to treat Junior to a meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken. “I think he flew through the air. Y’know, dogs weren’t meant to fly. But he had an angel with him.”

4 Snoopy and Abbey

After Hurricane Harvey, Texas shelters were filled to the brim with pets in cages, waiting for their owners to find them. In August of 2017, reporters rode along with The Humane Society of Dickinson, Texas. They were responding to phone call from people who were displaced from their homes, and pleaded for them to find their missing dog and cat. They arrived to the flooded neighborhood, whistling and calling the names of the pets, and found two dogs.^[5]

They were a poodle named Snoopy and English bulldog, Abbey. A kind stranger saw the two dogs swimming through the water together. She rescued them and brought them to her house, which was above the flood line. A man named Ryan Johnson showed up to claim Abbey and Snoopy from the shelter. He knew that they belonged to his father-in-law, who was having nightmares and losing sleep over the fate of his dogs. “He can finally sleep tonight,” Johnson said.

3 Odin

Ronald Handel lived on a ranch in California. He owned two Great Pyrenees mountain dogs who took care of their 8 goats. It was their job to protect the goats from predators in the California mountains. In 2017, when the wildfires were approaching in the distance, Handel scrambled to get his daughter and the dogs into the car so they could evacuate.^[6]

One of the dogs, Odin, refused to neglect his doggy duty. He laid down with the goats, and stared at Handel, as if to say, “I’m not leaving.” Handel waited as long as he could for Odin to come around, but they had to leave. He describes a horrific scene of the fire being so close behind him and his daughter as they drove, it sounds like a scene out of an action movie. They could see parked cars a few yards behind them filling with flames, and heard explosions from propane tanks, and the shriek of grinding of melting, twisting metal.

After the flames were put out, Handel and his young daughter did not expect to find anything when they returned to their property, but Odin was still there. He and the goats were slightly burned in a few spots, but he had managed to bring them all to safety, despite the fact that everything else around them was burned to the ground. He was limping, and very tired, so Handel knew that Odin had been on an adventure of his own to save his friends. If only dogs could talk.

2 Mei-Chan

After the 2011 tsunami in Japan, Fuji TV was filming the damage from the disaster, and they spotted a Brittany Spaniel. She walked up to them urging them to follow her. She walked over to an English Setter who was laying on the ground, clearly injured and unable to move. While the men sounded sad and concerned for the dogs, and they sent a message to “please help” to the Nippon SPCA, the witnesses failed to do anything to help the pups themselves.^[7]

The video made its way to YouTube, called “Stay together dogs”. It went viral, and people around the world were heartbroken and started sending money to the Nippon SPCA to help their rescue efforts. However, the video started a controversy, and the SPCA began to receive threatening phone calls from people accusing them of not working hard enough to save the dogs. Owners of dog food companies created raising money for their own campaigns to save the “stay together dogs”. People were very invested in the fate of the pups.

The dog’s owner saw the video, and recognized her dog, Mei-chan. The second dog, Lee-chan, also belonged to her. It took eight months for the Nippon SPCA to finally find Mei-chan, and she was reunited with her owner.

1 T2

In 2002, a retired K-9 police officer named Perry Martin adopted a ginger kitten and named it T2. Hurricane Jeanne hit Florida in 2004, and everyone lost their power, and they could not turn on the air conditioning in the summer heat. Martin started leaving his windows open to let some air in. The 2-year old cat climbed through a window and out into the hurricane aftermath. Martin searched for a long time, and notified all of the local shelters, but after enough time passed, Martin accepted that he would never see T2 again.^[8]

In 2018, a local animal shelter found a skinny stray cat and brought him in. The scanned him for a microchip, and called up Perry Martin. When they told him that they had the cat that had gone missing 14 years earlier, he did not believe them, but sure enough, he was reunited with his cat, who was now an elderly 16 year old. They have no idea where T2 was for 14 years, or how he managed to survive, but during media interviews, he looks very content curled up in Perry Martin’s lap.

Shannon Quinn (shannquinn.com) is a writer from the Philadelphia area. You can find her on Twitter @ShannQ

When you see the word “natural” on a food label it is often used in a way to suggest that food is healthy, free from preservatives or chemicals, and generally good for you. In reality, the use of the term is kind of loosey-goosey. In America, the FDA lets you use “natural” on a label if there are no synthetic ingredients. A gob of pork fat on top of peanut butter and chocolate is natural by that definition so not healthy or good for you, just not synthetic. So how do you know what natural really refers to?

Turns out there are a lot of things in the world that we probably think are natural and normal just because we’re used to them or expect them to be that way when that isn’t necessarily the case.

10. Farmed Salmon is Not Naturally Salmon Colored

Salmon is the second most popular seafood in America behind shrimp. It’s even more popular than tuna. Americans eat a stunning 918 million pounds of it per year. Because salmon is so popular there’s just no way all of it can be wild-caught. Salmon farming has been a popular alternative for decades now and 70% of all salmon eaten in the world right now is farm raised. 

While there’s nothing wrong with farm-raised salmon, assuming it’s done responsibly and ethically, there are still some notable differences between it and wild-caught. For instance, the color. If you have farm-raised salmon that bears that distinctive orangey-pink color you expect from salmon, that’s not technically natural at all. Salmon color is natural to wild salmon.

Wild salmon eat krill and shrimp which have astaxanthin, a natural red pigment. Much like flamingos, which we’ll talk about shortly, get their pink color from eating shrimp, so does salmon. But farmed salmon rarely eat a diet rich in shrimp and krill, they eat a sort of kibble that keeps them alive and offers basic nutrients. It’s made of some fish but also soy, corn, and other filler material. But they also add artificial astaxanthin.

Natural farmed salmon would have gray flesh, but no one wants to eat that. So they add the astaxanthin to alter the color and make it look “real.” The fish are healthy on their artificial diet and you still get nutrients from eating it, but the color is added to make it more convincing to the consumer. 

9. Broccoli Does Not Occur Naturally, It Was Bred Into Existence

When we think of natural food vs unnatural food, we might hold up a Twinkie as an example of something unnatural while some healthy, green broccoli is natural. But we need to ask what natural means again in this case. Broccoli never occurred in nature on its own, it’s the product of some determined Italian farmers who were tinkering with wild cabbage. 

The vegetable was created through some selective breeding that dates back to the 6th century BC in Rome. The process of turning a kind of wild cabbage into broccoli was a long one but not an unusual one in the world of farming. 

Farmers would grow plants and find ones with the desired qualities. In broccoli’s case, this was probably ones with thicker stems, more flowering buds, and a less bitter taste. They would ignore the other plants and take the seeds from these more desirable ones to plant the next crop. If you keep pollinating only the desirable plants and cultivating their seeds, you can steer the genetics of the plant toward your goal – a tastier, more robust vegetable. 

8. Lemons Are a Hybrid and Didn’t Exist Naturally Beforehand

Speaking of crafty farmers, the humble lemon is an absolute kitchen staple and is used around the world to add brightness, acid, and a pop of color to many dishes. It works in sweet and savory, you can add it to meat, fish, vegetables, and even dairy, drinks, and desserts. Nearly 21 million metric tons of lemons and their green sidekicks the lime are produced every year. 

Citrus seems to have appeared around 8 million years ago out in the wild. Because of the similarities between citrus varieties, you can cross them to make new fruits, much like apples can be tweaked and bred to make new varieties.

Long ago a pomelo and a mandarin were crossed to make a sour orange. That sour orange was crossed with a citron and the result was a sour, yellow citrus that we call the lemon. The difference here seems to be that this was a natural hybrid rather than one forced by farmers. The plants probably grew in abundance near each other, trees got cross-pollinated and new fruit happened. 

So, if it’s a natural hybrid you can certainly consider lemons as natural as broccoli but, just like broccoli, had circumstances not been what they were, the lemon never would have existed. 

7. Flamingos Aren’t Naturally Pink

The one thing everyone in the world knows about a flamingo is that it’s pink. Tall, skinny, kind of weird? Sure. But pink. They make obnoxious lawn ornaments just to drive the point home. But, just like our friend the salmon, all is not as it seems. Flamingos are naturally whitish-gray. 

Flamingos eat a diet rich in carotenoids, the natural pigments found in living things like carrots, shrimp, and algae. The shrimp eat pigment-rich algae and the birds eat the algae and the shrimp, doubling down on the colorful stuff. 

When flamingos eat food rich in beta-carotene, their liver absorbs them and they end up being distributed through the bird’s body to the feathers. Their diet is almost exclusively things that are full of beta-carotene so they absorb enough to give their skin and feathers the pink hue. The more they eat, the darker they get, which is why some flamingoes may just be a pale pink and others are a deep, rich, almost red color. 

6. Cheese is Not Naturally Orange

The world makes over 22 million metric tons of cheese per year. If there are eight billion people in the world, that means we make 5.5 pounds of cheese per person per year. Do you eat five pounds of cheese in a year? Because that’s your share. If you’re American, statistics say you’re eating about 41.8 pounds per year. That’s a heck of a lot of cheese. There’s a good chance some of that is good ol’ orange cheddar, too. But that cheddar isn’t natural. 

Annatto, a dye that comes from fruit, is often added to cheese to make the orange color. It’s added because it doesn’t alter the flavor but changes the color and, at one time, that was a desired outcome.

In 16th and 17th century England there was apparently some desire for yellow milk. Cows put out in certain pastures would graze on plants that had some of those same carotenoids that we saw earlier with the flamingos and the salmon. That made the milk richer, yellow, and more flavorful. 

In winter, when they had to eat whatever stored food was sitting around, the milk was whiter and less desirable. To compensate, farmers added annatto and made the milk and the resulting cheese yellow or orange.

The farmers also realized that the real money was in the fat. They could skim off the fat, which held the color, and make money selling it as butter or cream. Then, with the pale, fatless milk, they could add annatto to make it look rich again when it became cheese. They were essentially committing fraud, making their cheese look like something it wasn’t so it would seem high quality, and probably enjoying some higher profits as a result. 

5. Chickens As We Know Them Never Existed in the Wild

Have you ever seen a wild chicken before? Keep in mind that a chicken that gets loose and runs to the woods is not a wild chicken, it’s a feral one. Like puggles and other animals that have been bred by humans for many generations, chickens are not actually wild animals and never were. Their ancestors were, but we bred them into something new that never existed in a wild state.

Modern chickens came from jungle fowl. Archaeologists put an incredible amount of effort into trying to trace chicken origins because their bones don’t lend themselves to fossils well. What they discovered is that chickens follow rice. 

Where rice was cultivated, chickens appeared. The belief is that rice drew out the wild chicken relatives and they grew accustomed to humans who eventually domesticated and bred the birds. This first happened around 3,600 years ago in Thailand, then slowly spread across Asia, the Middle East, and finally into Europe 2,800 years ago.

Earlier theories suggested chicken domestication was much older, as much as 8,000 years, but that doesn’t follow the evidence. 

4. Sleeping for 8 Hours Straight Isn’t a Natural Sleep Cycle

Most of us have heard that you need a solid 8 hours of sleep per night to be well-rested. That idea is not something that has a lot of historical precedence and it seems like it’s not a natural sleep cycle at all. Biphasic sleep is more natural and involves two sleep periods in a day rather than one. The idea is you sleep for a short period during the day and a longer period at night, but never just one eight-hour block.

In one experiment, subjects naturally fell into a pattern of sleeping three to five hours, then waking and doing various tasks for a couple of hours, then sleeping again for another three to five hours. This same pattern can be seen in various animals and in pre-industrial societies where people don’t have access to artificial light. 

It’s speculated that this kind of sleep, where you wake and then sleep again, would have had advantages in the distant past when you were vulnerable to predators and couldn’t afford to konk out for eight hours at a time. 

3. Being Tolerant of Lactose is Not Natural

If you’re lactose intolerant, there’s a chance you’ve felt like there’s something wrong with you because of it. Look at everyone else loving cheese and ice cream and there’s you not having any of it. Truth be told, that is a backward view of the situation. Lactose tolerance is statistically not the norm at all. 

About 68% of the people in the world can’t absorb lactose. It’s not even the norm in the rest of the mammalian world where, after weaning, animals no longer drink milk and they’re not well suited to digest it as adults because they stop producing lactase to allow for it. 

Humans basically forced themselves to tolerate lactose as well as they currently do. Evidence shows that Europeans were not having a good time with milk as recently as 5,000 years ago but a mutation developed around that time that allowed them to digest it and spread through the population. Odds are that things like disease and famine were putting pressure on survival and those that couldn’t digest lactose died off leaving only those that could behind.

2. Brown Sugar is Not a Natural Form of Sugar

Have you ever heard that brown sugar is healthier than white sugar? It’s sometimes claimed that white sugar is refined too much or bleached or whatever to make it an unhealthy kind of sugar compared to brown which is presumably somehow more natural. Oddly enough, the opposite is true.

Brown sugar is refined the same way white sugar is. Not just similarly — exactly the same. It starts as white sugar and then molasses is mixed in to make it darker in color and alter the flavor. But it’s not a natural state for sugar by any means and is definitely not healthier. It just offers a different flavor profile. 

1. Cats Meow Almost Exclusively for the Benefit of Humans

How often does your cat meow at you? How often have you seen a video of a cat meowing about something or other and wondered what it was saying? Research suggests that the cat really is saying something, but it’s only for your benefit. Cats don’t naturally meow all that often unless a human is there to hear it. They do it for us. 

In the wild, cats communicate by marking their territory. Most aren’t pack animals and even those that are don’t need to communicate with loud noises. Vocalization requires close contact, but scent markers are more efficient for cats. Kittens meow at parent cats until they’re old enough to be independent and then it usually stops. But cats will meow at humans their whole lives. 

Anyone who owns a cat will probably joke that their cat can be manipulative, and it’s kind of true. They developed vocal communication to get our attention after they were domesticated because scent marking doesn’t tell us much.

Nature breaks records all the time but there are events so unique that they deserve their own list.

Some are creepy. Like when fog killed thousands in London and the aftershocks of an earthquake rattled Washington State for a century. When not making people run for their lives, the weather can also brew events like electrical lakes and rain that lasts for a million years.

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10 The Lighthouse Of Catatumbo

During Colonial times, navigators relied on the Lighthouse of Catatumbo to find their way. It flashed white, blue, purple, red, and orange lights. But the disco show did not come from a tower. It came from lighting.

The Lighthouse of Catatumbo is the name given to an area near Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. Roughly 1.2 million lightning bolts zing the place every year, making it the most electric region in the world.

Some people love to call the Lighthouse by another name—the Eternal Storm. Some also claim that the lightning has no thunder. Neither legend is true. Lake Maracaibo only gets flashy about 160 nights of the year but then things get impressive. One can expect to see 280 strikes per hour. The reason behind the “silent lightning” is simple. Most people are standing too far away to hear the thunder.

Nobody knows why this patch in Venezuela is so volatile. The leading theories suggest that the lightning could be attracted to uranium deposits and methane in the area or that humid air has something to do with it.

9 Smoke That Stayed For 6 Months

When the Australian fire season settled down in 2020, the relief was palpable. The scale of the bushfires and the damage had been immense. To understand what had happened, scientists studied the disaster from all angles but those who gazed upwards found a couple of interesting things.

The fires had pushed more smoke into the atmosphere than anyone had expected. In fact, it was a record for any bushfire. To put it into perspective, the last time something ejected so much smoke was in 1991 when the second-largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century occurred in the Philippines.

The smoke produced by the Australian fires also circled the Earth, having departed from the eastern coast and arrived back at the continent from the west. The journey took two weeks which was a speed record for an event that size.

Smoke also stay in the atmosphere for a few days or weeks. The 2020 fire plume stayed for 6 months.

8 The Coldest Cloud

Scientists love to measure stuff, even the temperatures of clouds. In 2018, they found one for the record books. The world’s coldest cloud was hovering over the Pacific Ocean and it was messing with satellites. Indeed, the cloud was so frosty that normal weather satellites could not take its temperature.

An infrared sensor aboard a NOAA satellite did the honors.

The cloud, which was part of a severe thunderstorm, measured minus 167.8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 111 degrees Celsius). The reason for this extreme number was partially explained by a phenomenon called “overshooting tops.” This is when the top of a cloud overshoots the lowest layer of the atmosphere and enter the next layer, a bitterly cold realm known as the stratosphere.

The Pacific cloud had an overshooting top. But even the stratosphere’s freezing nature could not explain why the top of this storm was 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) colder than any other cloud on record.

7 The Longest-Lasting Aftershocks

In 1872, a big earthquake shook central Washington State. The epicentre was never located and for decades, scientists wondered why Entiat, a town in the area, kept experiencing earthquakes after the 1872 event. It was over a century later, so nobody thought that these might be hundreds of aftershocks.

That view changed as seismologists began to find aftershocks all over the world that lasted longer than expected. Aftershocks also behave differently from earthquakes and after researchers gathered data on the 1872 quake, the subsequent shakes matched aftershocks in almost every way.

The Entiat phenomenon could be the longest-lasting aftershocks in the world. They have been going strong for nearly 150 years and counting.

6 The World’s Largest Storm

Typhoon Tip is not a household name. But as the world’s biggest storm, Tip deserves a mention. Born over the Pacific ocean, it grew into a Super Typhoon. With a diameter of 1,380 miles (2,220 kilometres), it officially became the top dog of all storms. Besides its record size, Tip also surged with unsurpassed intensity.

The good news was that the typhoon lost some of its power before it slammed into Japan on October 19, 1979. The bad news? It was not enough to avoid disaster.

Almost 90 people were killed and hundreds were injured. The flooding caused countless mudslides and destroyed 20,000 homes. A gasoline tank also exploded and torched a US Marine Corps base, injuring dozens more and claiming the life of another victim.

5 The Truth About Beijing’s Sandstorm

In 2021, gale-force winds scooped up sand from the Gobi desert and moved through Mongolia. The huge sandstorm caused 341 people to go missing and killed at least 6. Then it arrived at the capital of China. The city of Beijing faded away as the sandstorm hid skyscrapers and turned the skies orange.

But the news agencies had it wrong. This was not a sandstorm.

It was a dust storm. The difference sounds insignificant but in reality, the situation was alarming. Dust consists of smaller bits than sand, stay in the air for longer and can be inhaled far deeper into the lungs. This was bad news. When the dust arrived in Beijing it mixed with the city’s terrifying air pollution levels and turned the storm into a thick toxic haze.

4 Black Sunday

During the 1930s, the community living across the Great Plains in the US was familiar with something called “black blizzards.” These dust storms were so dense that they darkened everything around them. But in 1935, a storm bestowed April 14 with an ominous title and also gave the region its famous name—the Dust Bowl.

Black Sunday started out like any other day. But then a blizzard arrived. It soon became apparent that this one was different and people began to panic. The dust storm was a beast that measured 1,000 miles (1,609 miles) long. It blocked out all light including street lamps. Families sheltering at home could not see each other in the same room. Precious farming land was destroyed, a lot of animals died, and one man was blinded. People were trapped inside their cars for hours.

The aftermath of the storm inspired federal aid. But despite being offered money and advice by the government, many families gave up farming and left the area.

3 The Tri-State Tornado

In 1925, a deadly tornado cluster touched down in the United States. Twelve major twisters appeared over a large area but one was about to take destruction to a whole new level. Called the “Tri-State Tornado,” it tore through 3 states and left behind the longest track made by a twister—235 miles (378 km).

The statistics were horrifying. The tornado’s diameter swelled to more than a mile (1.6 km) and it sped along at 70 miles per hour (113 kilometres per hour). It destroyed 164 square miles (425 square kilometres) of land and wiped out 15,000 homes. In today’s estimates, the damages totalled $1.4 billion.

The storm was never graded but most experts believe that the Tri-State Tornado was an EF-5. On the tornado scale, an EF-5 is the biggest and the most dangerous thing you can ever hope not to see. Whatever its true grading was, the Tri-State Tornado remains the deadliest tornado in US history. The death toll numbered 695 people including 69 students who attended some of the 9 schools the tornado hit that day.

2 London’s Killer Fog Solved

London is a foggy place. But in 1952, the fog turned on everyone. The haze, which appeared in December and stayed for 5 days, hospitalized over 150,000 people.

For decades, the deadly fog remained a mystery. But in 2016, researchers agreed that they had enough evidence to blame one of the earliest suspects in the investigation—burning coal. Tests showed the air pollution caused by coal emissions led to chemical changes in the weather that ultimately laced the fog with sulphuric acid.

At the time, the death toll was thought to be 4,000 people. Tragically, the real number was closer to 12,000. Thousands of animals also perished in the fog. It remains the worst air pollution event in Europe’s history.

1 A Million-Year Rain Storm

The Triassic era came to an end around 233 million years ago. During that time, raindrops began to fall leading to a storm that would last for a million years. This deluge became known as the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE).

What opened the floodgates, so to speak, had always been a mystery. But in 2020, a study found the two likeliest suspects—climate change and volcanoes going nuts. Truly, the eruptions went beyond epic. They left behind lava fields that stretched uninterrupted for thousands of miles.

There was a lot of death. The downpour killed a third of all the species that lived in the sea. Meanwhile, on land, countless plant and animal groups became extinct as well. But the study also found that the CPE created the world as we know it today. It changed the environment so much that new species emerged, including some of the first coral reefs, reptiles, trees, and the dinosaurs that would rule the earth for the next 150 million years.

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According to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N.), natural disasters are now occurring three times more often than they were in the 1970s and 1980s, also increasing in scale and intensity. This means they are wreaking a disproportionately large amount of havoc and destruction in the least developed and low- to middle-income countries, where people are least able to cope.

What happens when we combine Mother Nature’s propensity for reminding us who’s really in charge every now and again with the massive increase in the use of security cameras, dash cams, and camera phones around the globe? We get to experience—now more than ever—what it is like to really confront one of these disasters for ourselves (from the safety of our own homes, of course!). So here is a list of 10 home videos that recorded deadly natural disasters.

Related: 10 Myths Humans Have Used To Explain Natural Disasters

10 Earthquake—Luzon, The Philippines

The Philippines is an archipelago in southeast Asia that regularly experiences volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, typhoons, and all the terrible things that generally accompany them, such as tsunamis, flooding, and landslides. Given its location in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Philippines is subjected to over 2,000 earthquakes every single year. Since 1951, they have claimed more than 4,800 lives without even counting the tsunamis that often follow them.

This video has no audio but shows a group of friends enjoying some free time in a local swimming pool when a magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes their home of Luzon. The group struggles to evacuate the churning water as the tremors roll through, clearly shaking the trees and structures in the background before eventually subsiding after about a minute.

This was only a small rumble compared to some of the more destructive quakes the Filipino people have had to weather over the years, but the waves created in the pool really highlight how violently the ground moved. Unfortunately, eighteen people lost their lives in the quake, although everybody in this video escaped unharmed.^[1]

9 Volcano—Whakaari, New Zealand

Whakaari, also known as White Island, is a privately owned islet located off of the northeastern coast of New Zealand. It had been a popular tourist attraction for many years, despite being New Zealand’s most active volcano, before disaster struck in December 2019.

An increase in seismological activity had been recorded in the weeks leading up to the event. Still, no official warnings were issued, so two separate tour groups visited the island by boat that afternoon. Just after the first group completed their tour and their boat was leaving the island, Whakaari exploded, spewing a massive plume of rocks, steam, and burning gas across the island and 12,000 feet up into the air.

The video, recorded by Allessandro Kauffmann, shows the tour boat he is traveling on returning to the island immediately after the eruption to try to help any survivors. Official rescue efforts were delayed because of the risk of further eruptions, but three heroic helicopter pilots launched their own rescue efforts, only to later be charged by the New Zealand health and safety authority, WorkSafe.

Unfortunately, a total of 47 people were stuck on the island when the superheated gas enveloped them, 22 of whom lost their lives. Many survivors suffered life-changing injuries as a result of their burns.^[2]

8 Tsunami—Indonesia

Indonesia, like its neighbor, the Philippines, can be considered pretty unlucky geographically. It consists of over 17,500 islands—most uninhabited, though—which are home to 120 active volcanoes. Also located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, it is regularly subjected to earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, and soil liquefaction. In late 2018, the Indonesian people would experience all of these cataclysmic possibilities within a two-month period.

At 6 pm on the 28th of September, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Palu on Sulawesi Island, causing a huge underwater landslide that, in turn, triggered a tsunami. As early warning systems malfunctioned, people were completely unprepared when a 23-foot high wave smashed into the city of Palu. At the same time the wave hit, soil liquefaction occurred over vast areas, swallowing entire buildings whole. In total, more than 2,000 people died in this disaster with more than 4,200 injured. Some news reports included home video footage.

Then, just two months later, on December 22, the Anak Krakatau volcano erupted, which caused another landslide as the southwest flank collapsed into the sea. This massive displacement of water created a tsunami in the Sundra Strait that was also not picked up by early warning systems. At 8:30 pm local time, the tsunami crashed into the shores of western Java and southern Sumatra.

This home video was shot at a seaside concert in western Java. Popular local group Seventeen were performing to over 200 people, mostly families, when the wave struck them from behind. While the singer survived the terrifying ordeal, in later interviews, he claimed he wished that he had died too. He lost all of his bandmates and his wife in this tragic event that took more than 400 lives.^[3]

7 Flood—Henan, China

The term “once in a lifetime weather event” is being thrown around a lot these days, especially when it comes to flooding in areas that may have seen little in the way of disasters in recent years, such as New York or Germany. In July 2021, the flooding in Henan Province, China, though, really can be considered once in a lifetime. The provincial capital of Zhengzhou received an entire year’s worth of rainfall in three days, and as you might expect, the entire city was submerged.

This was a terrifying event for everyone living in the province, but those who faced the most immediate danger were the people who found themselves trapped underground in the city’s metro system as water levels began to rise rapidly up to their necks. In total, 14 people lost their lives in the city’s subway, and many more are thought to have died throughout the province as videos emerged of people being washed away all over the city.

This video shows passengers stuck in a train carriage with the doors closed as brown water quickly rises all around them. Fortunately, they were eventually able to evacuate to safety, although many others were not so lucky that day.^[4]

6 Wildfire—Manavgat, Turkey

Today, Americans are so used to experiencing wildfires in the summer that news of them happening in other countries really doesn’t garner much attention. However, the huge increase in the number of wildfires across the planet over the last few years has meant that people have begun to recognize that this isn’t just an issue in California.

Australia, Brazil, Turkey, Greece, Algeria, Italy, India, Russia, and Cyprus all had millions of acres of land reduced to smoldering ash due to huge forest fires over the last few years. This video comes from Turkey as some restaurant workers are trying to return home following a food delivery to firefighters tackling blazes in the Manavgat countryside. The hellish landscape of blazing forest seems to close in around them until they have nowhere to go and are forced to turn back. Fortunately, they were able to escape the flames unharmed, but many were not so lucky, with at least eight fatalities and hundreds injured across the country.^[5]

5 Hurricane—Florida, USA

Hurricane Michael struck Florida on October 10, 2018, and meteorologists soon realized that they were dealing with one of the biggest category 5 storms to ever make landfall in the eastern United States. Overall, it caused $25 billion in damages and was directly responsible for the deaths of 16 people. Still, despite all this mayhem and destruction, one plucky Callaway resident decided he would make a home movie documenting the damage caused to his community in this incredible video.

In just 15 minutes, you can watch his entire neighborhood get shredded by 150mph winds, and at the end, you get to see a walk-through of a residential street that has been reduced to nothing more than a pile of branches and shattered roof tiles.^[6]

4 Landslide—Kachin, Myanmar

This video was recorded at an illegal jade mine in the Kachin state of northern Myanmar. Kachin state has a long history of resistance against the oppressive Tatmadaw (Burmese Army). As such, the region is in many ways free from centralized Burmese control, meaning drug production, smuggling, and illegal mining are all common in the area.

One such illegal mine was experiencing unseasonably heavy rainfall when a miner decided to pull out his phone and begin recording. The landslide he captured on video sent a wave of mud and rock rolling down the valley like a tsunami and was responsible for the deaths of more than 162 people.^[7]

3 Sinkhole—Florida, USA

The idiom “I wish the ground would swallow me up” was obviously never meant to be taken literally. After all, the idea that you could just be minding your own business, carrying on with your life, and then, in a split second, the ground could open up and swallow you whole would be downright terrifying, no matter how embarrassed you are. Sinkholes happen more often than you might think, though, and every now and again, somebody ends up inside one.

One such unfortunate person was Jeffrey Bush, a 36-year-old Florida man who had just turned in for the night when the ground below him simply collapsed and swallowed him up. He screamed out for his brother, who rushed to his aid, only to find Jeffrey and all the contents of his bedroom had crashed through the floor into a sinkhole below.

This video was made as rescue workers tried to communicate with Jeffrey using a camera and microphone on a long pole to check on his whereabouts and condition. Unfortunately, he didn’t survive, and his body could not be recovered, so the sinkhole was filled in, the house and two neighboring properties were demolished, and the whole area was fenced off. That wasn’t quite the end of the story, however, as just two years later, the sinkhole opened up again, although this time nobody was hurt.^[8]

2 Avalanche—Mount Everest base camp, Nepal

Avalanches can have a variety of causes; sometimes, snow can just gradually pile up before collapsing down the side of the hill under its own weight. Often they are created deliberately with explosions, but sometimes they can be made by other natural disasters that occur many miles away. In the case of the Everest avalanche of 2015, it was the latter, as an enormous earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck Nepal on the afternoon of April 25, 2015, killing over 9,000 people. A video shows just how strong the tremors were, hurling people back and forth as the city of Kathmandu was violently shaken by the quake.

Way up at Mount Everest base camp, the shock waves were not strong enough to hurt anyone, nor were there any buildings to collapse on top of the 2,000 people gathered there. However, minutes after the deadly earthquake struck Kathmandu valley, a huge avalanche of ice and rock came crashing down Mount Pumori, completely burying the campsite at its base.

At least 20 people died, and hundreds were injured by the falling debris. This video shows the ferocity and intensity of the icy blast created by the avalanche and just how lucky the cameraman and his friend were to survive, ducking into their tent just in time.^[9]

1 Tornado—Illinois, USA

This final video shows probably the most terrifying video of a tornado that has ever been recorded. (Please add a link in the comments if you know of any contenders!) It was filmed by 84-year-old Clem Schultz from his bedroom window after he and his wife noticed the twister forming behind their home in Illinois.

Living in an area that sees numerous tornadoes every year, the couple considered their options but decided that they were confident that the tornado would pass by their home to the west, leaving them unscathed. Assuming the power could go out at any time, Clem headed upstairs to grab a lantern when he noticed from his bedroom window that the tornado was gathering pace and growing bigger by the second. He decided to begin filming, and even when he realized that the tornado would not just pass them by, he said nothing at all as it smashed into him with a deafening roar before everything turned black and the video ended.

Somehow, Clem actually survived this incredible encounter with one of the biggest tornadoes that Illinois has ever seen. His wife was not so lucky, though, as she was one of two people killed. Many more were injured, and 24 homes were completely destroyed.^[10]

When thinking about extraordinary foods, most minds would conjure up images of obscure cuisine, and elaborate dishes with unpronounceable names. However, remarkable secrets lie hidden in foods we eat on a daily basis, with fascinating scientific explanations behind them. From nuts to fruits, to vegetables, here are 10 Bizarre Natural Phenomena in Everyday Foods.

10 Foods That Have Been Genetically Modified Beyond Recognition

10 Brazil Nuts

Anyone who has ever had a container of nuts has unknowingly witnessed a strange effect that no scientist has been able to fully explain. In nearly every package of nuts, the Brazil nuts will appear at the top, with the smaller nuts at the bottom. The same applies to cereal, with all the largest cereal at the top of the box and nothing but dusty shreds all the way at the bottom. But why? Common knowledge tells us that larger nuts would sink to the bottom, with smaller nuts rising to the top. Well, nobody quite knows. Dubbed the “Brazil Nut Effect” but more professionally known as “granular convection,” this phenomena has stumped experts for years. The concept refers to when various pieces of small, similar mass objects rotate in a way similar to how fluids move.^[2] The process a package of nuts goes through to get from the factory to the hands of a consumer requires lots of jostling.

When the nuts are all pushed upward, the smaller ones will fall below the larger ones, pushing them upward. This will repeat in a cycle because the nuts are continuously shaken around. However, the Brazil Nut Effect provides a slight wrinkle to this logic. See, the Brazil nuts will reach the top of the container and just stay there, thus ending the cycle. Scientists aren’t sure why they aren’t able to move from their position on top. Of course, many theories have been presented. Perhaps the nuts are too big to fit into any smaller spaces in the container after that shake, or perhaps the density of the nuts play a role in pushing it towards the surface. Either way, the science has applications beyond this nutty predicament (get it)? Dr. Douglas J. Jerolmack and his team have even found a link between this phenomenon and the reason why rivers can resist erosion, because rivers too have larger rocks near the top with sand and gravel further down in the river.^[2]

9 Cranberries

Nobody would think to compare an ordinary cranberry with a popular children’s toy, but there is a surprising similarity between the two. Though commonly cooked and softened in order to reduce the natural tartness of the fruit, a raw cranberry has a very different texture. When ripe, it will be able to bounce in the same fashion as a bouncy ball. This is due to the small air pockets inside of each cranberry, as well as the firm texture that allows it to bounce up off the ground. In fact, cranberry farmers even use this as a ripeness test for their berries. It is common for berry farmers to bounce each cranberry over a wooden barrier, where the berries that clear the barrier will go into circulation, while the ones that don’t, go into separate bins to become juice. Interestingly, this was discovered by accident, when an old farmer from New Jersey known as John “Peg Leg” Webb poured his supply of cranberries down the stairs. Due to his wooden leg, this was his best method of transporting them. However, he noticed that the more firm cranberries would bounce to the bottom, while the softer and more battered berries would sit limply at the top of the staircase. This discovery took place in 1880, and farmers have been using bounciness to test cranberry ripeness ever since.^[3]

8 Corn

Corn has been around for thousands of years, yet few realize that every ear of corn has a unique similarity about it. See, corn will always have an even number of rows. This is due to the fact that a corn ear is not just a vegetable, but an inflorescence, meaning that it produces nearly 1000 female flowers. These flowers, otherwise known as the future kernels, will be ordered into rows, forming the common image of an ear of corn. An average ear of corn has 800 kernels, organized into 16 rows. The even number comes from the fact that each spikelet (basic grass flower) will produce two florets, which are the small flowers that make up a full flower head. It will produce two because one floret must be fertile while the other must be sterile. Interestingly, this applies to foods other than corn. Watermelon, for example, supposedly has a consistently even number of stripes. No matter the case, this stems (no pun intended) from the fact that a cell will always divide into two cells that in turn each divide into two more cells. As this cycle continues, the number will always stay even. How odd!^[4]

7 Pistachios

Pistachios may seem innocent enough, but little did we know that they have a sinister side. That’s because pistachios, when stored in large quantities, are at high risk of spontaneously combusting. It is a known fact that fat burns very easily, and each pistachio nut is nearly 50% fat. Furthermore, pistachios have almost no water in them, and if they are kept in a high-moisture area, then they become moldy. With their total absence of water and a high concentration of fat, pistachios are at risk of becoming flammable. This risk turns into reality when pistachios are packed close together in large amounts, as the oils of the nuts can heat themselves up, causing them to burst into flames. Because they can self-heat, this pistachio-fueled nightmare can occur with no warning, with no human contact. This has led to many strict guidelines as to how pistachios are shipped, as most of the world pistachio production comes from the Middle East. This means that ships are required for transport, and nobody wants to see a boat burn down from improperly packaged nuts.^[5]

6 Nutmeg

Nutmeg is a spice most commonly used around the holidays, as a sweet garnish to drinks or an ingredient in desserts. However, just like the pistachio, there is a dark secret behind this festive spice. This is because nutmeg is really a hallucinogen, capable of causing powerful highs and unpleasant side effects. Sudden bursts of panic, trouble urinating, and constantly dry mouth are just a few consequences of the hallucinogenic trip. Nutmeg itself is actually a seed, and it contains a compound known as myristicin. Myristicin is used in many drugs that are used to affect mental state, and it is the reason why nutmeg produces hallucinogenic effects.

Though this may shock all of us, it wouldn’t have surprised anyone in 12th century Europe. Back then, it was considered a drug rather than a garnish, and people would use it frequently in order to induce hallucinations. It is even believed that famous physician Nostradamus ingested nutmeg in order to gain visions that led to his scientific discoveries. Nutmeg remained a popular drug for years to come, but somewhere along the way its status shifted into the innocent spice, we know it as today.^[6]

10 Bizarre Origin Stories About Your Favorite Foods

5 Mushrooms

There is often a fine line between a food being undercooked, overcooked or cooked to perfection. Luckily, for those of us who can’t easily navigate this line, there is one risk-free ingredient that we can use: The mushroom. You see, it is close to impossible to overcook a mushroom because their cell walls have a different molecular structure than that of meat or vegetables. While the cell walls in meat and vegetables contain protein and pectin respectively, the mushroom contains a polymer called chitin. Chitin is extremely heat stable, which means that when it is cooked, the heat has little effect on the molecular structure of the mushroom. This is different than meats and other veggies, because heat causes proteins in the meat to tense up (causing overcooked meat to be chewy) and it causes pectins in vegetable cells to break down; resulting in a mushy clump of green.

In an attempt to scientifically prove this phenomenon, Dan Souza, the executive editor of America’s Test Kitchen put mushrooms to the test once and for all. Souza took a mushroom, a piece of zucchini, and a hunk of beef tenderloin, and steamed them all for forty minutes. Every five minutes he put each item through a texture analysis that calculated the amount of force that would be required to bite into the said item. Not very surprisingly, the mushroom outperformed its competitors by remaining within 100 grams of force to bite into throughout the whole testing period. In comparison, the tenderloin shot up 500 grams of force and the zucchini went down almost 200. In other words, the mushroom remained texturally consistent while the tenderloin became tough and the zucchini became limp and chewy.^[7]

4 Chili Peppers

With a quarter of the world’s population eating chili peppers on a daily basis, it is clear that many people enjoy the jolt of spiciness that has become the trademark of these peppers. While people around the world have chosen to embrace the chili pepper and feel the burn, few people have stopped to wonder the cause of this sensation in the first place. All chili peppers contain an active ingredient called capsaicin, which activates the heat-sensing protein in our brains when bitten into. When the protein senses heat, it causes the brain to send a shot of burning pain to the pepper eater. This means that peppers are tricking our brains into feeling a burning sensation since we will not actually be burned from eating a pepper. Scientists have determined that pepper plants actually evolved this way in order to keep predators from eating their fruit. Interestingly, birds do not feel any burn when eating peppers, and peppers actually evolved this way on purpose. This is because unlike mammals, birds eat pepper seeds whole, so when they excrete these seeds, they spread the pepper plant and ensure its survival.^[8]

3 Rhubarb

The rhubarb is a perennial plant that is similar to celery, but it is commonly classified as a fruit due to its sour and fruity taste. Stuck in between these two categories, the rhubarb seems to be somewhat ignored in society, with the more traditional apple or broccoli thrust into the limelight. However, there is a unique phenomenon that occurs with the humble rhubarb plant, and it has to do with the way that it is grown. You see, since the 1800s, rhubarb farmers have harvested these veggie/fruits in a method called “forced rhubarb.” In this method, rhubarbs are grown in the dark, which causes them to mature at an alarmingly rapid rate. When rhubarbs grow this fast, it causes them to make a loud popping noise as they burst out of their initial buds and begin to grow upward. As they continue to rise, they begin to rub against other rhubarb stalks, which creates an interesting squeaking and creaking noise. Rhubarb farmer Brian French says about the noise, “I have heard the noise before. Growing against each other. You really have to listen for it.” The reason behind this musical method of rhubarb growing is that the dark room makes rhubarb plants unable to photosynthesize, which results in a less stringy and more tender rhubarb. You can listen to the sound of rhubarb growing here.^[9]

2 Cashews

Of all the nuts on this list, cashews have perhaps the strangest trait of all. When asked what grows on a cashew tree, most would probably assume that it would be, well, cashews. Though that is correct, the nut is actually not the primary fruit of a cashew tree. Native to the coastal areas of northern Brazil, cashew trees actually grow apples. The actual nuts sprout from the bottom of each apple. Most of us have likely never heard of a cashew apple, or seen them being sold anywhere. This is because, though they are perfectly safe, the thick skin of cashew apples make them difficult to transport. Cashew apples don’t go to waste though; the pulp is frequently used in juices and other apple-related foods. Even more surprising is the fact that the cashew “nut” is technically not a nut at all, but a seed. The cashew seed is covered by many highly toxic layers in order to scare animals away. Don’t panic, though, because only the shell is toxic. Any pack of cashews bought from a store will not have the shell, thus making them perfectly safe for consumption.^[10]

1 Carrots

Carrots have become almost synonymous with the color orange, but carrots did not always have this distinctive hue. Originally, carrots were actually purple, but a mutant gene spread among these plants led to the creation of the yellow carrot. The transition from the harvesting of purple and yellow carrots to orange carrots is a bizarre and interesting tale. The origin of orange carrots began in the town of Arausio in Southern France. The classical pronunciation of this town was “Aurenja”, and with the French word for orange being naranj, the citizens of Arausio eventually changed the town’s name to Orange. A man named William The Silent gained rule over Orange in 1544 and was from then on known as William The Orange. After gaining rule of Arausio, William The Orange went on to lead the Dutch to their independence from Spain, thus creating the Dutch Republic.

At the same time as this revolution, another revolution was taking place. A carrot revolution. Around the time of the Dutch independence, a carrot breed was created by Dutch carrot farmers that contained a plant pigment called beta-carotene. This pigment caused an orange color in the carrot, and the Danish people began mass producing it in honor of their hero William The Orange. It got to the point where the other colors of carrots became no longer convenient to grow, which led us to the orange carrot that we know and love.^[11]

10 Fruits, Nuts, And Vegetables You Did Not Know Were Man-Made

Our visual panoramas of our countries’ and territories’ terrains and vistas shape our sense of belonging, yet the world is always transforming. Tectonic activity, air currents, moisture, heat, and people all work together to reshape what we accept as familiar terrain, stripping away immense ravines, creating new land with steaming molten rock, and moving the paths of great river systems.

Large numbers of famous attractions all around the world have dramatically changed shape—or, worse, vanished—over the last five decades. The famous Darwin’s Arch in the Galápagos Islands disintegrated into the ocean in 2021, joining a multitude of other natural wonders that have been lost to time. Serving as a reminder that our world is constantly changing, here are a few of the world’s natural wonders that have been lost forever.

Related: 10 Beautiful And Bizarre Natural Wonders

10 Chacaltaya Glacier, Bolivia

Glaciers all over the world have shrunk rapidly in recent years, with several disappearing completely. In South America, climate change, specifically increased temperatures, steadily increasing humidity, and changes in rainfall patterns, are being blamed for the extremely rapid demise of the Andean glaciers. In the tropical Andes region, the average annual temperatures have been steadily rising at a rate of 0.33°C (0.6°F) every ten years since the 1990s. The accompanying high humidity levels also significantly contribute to the reduction of the Andean glaciers by causing the ice to melt instead of being turned into vapor via a process scientists call sublimation.

The Chacaltaya glacier, located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the northeast of La Paz, managed to lose over 60% of its mass from the 1940s to the 1980s and over 90% at the turn of the century. At that point, scientists predicted that the Chacaltaya glacier could very well disappear completely by 2015. However, rapid temperature increases due to global warming hastened the process, and the glacier vanished in 2009, leaving the slopes once overwhelmed with skiers dry and empty.^[1]

9 Azure Window, Malta

In Malta, the Azure Window was carved into Gozo Island’s limestone cliffs over hundreds of years. It withstood thousands of storms during its existence, but on March 8, 2017, it was pummelled into the sea forever during the worst storm of the season. Before its collapse, the instantly recognizable site in Dwejra Bay was one of Malta’s most popular tourist spots. In fact, most of us saw it during the Game of Thrones series.

However, four years later, it seems quite possible that the Maltese people’s shared broken heart might very well soon be patched up. The renowned architect Svetozar Andreev, in collaboration with the designer Elena Britanishskaya, has created a phenomenal concept for the restoration of this long-time historical landmark in the form of a massive artwork. The two Russian artists have already submitted the conceptual design to the relevant authorities. The remarkable project has already crept into the hearts of the locals who refer to it as the “The Heart of Malta.”^[2]

8 Hillary Step on Mount Everest, Nepal

Since the day during 2017 when climbers announced that the “Hillary Step” vanished, the status of the rocky outcrop, christened after Everest’s famous summiteer Sir Edmund Hillary, has been a source of considerable controversy. Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay successfully reached the summit after taking the steep step to the top, becoming the first climbers in our known history to reach the summit in 1953. After that first prolific climb, all climbers attempting to summit by way of the southern route have been using ropes to best the fearsome challenge before they reach the top, where they have to swing one leg over the “saddle” to get to the other side.

Experts believe that a 2015 earthquake may have dislodged the vertical outcropping. However, the Nepalese government maintains that it is just buried in snow—but they have admitted that all guides have been forbidden from discussing the Hillary Step due to the matter’s sensitive nature. As of 2017, numerous before and after photographs showing an obvious lack of the rocky protrusion have circulated. Despite the government’s claims, climbers have already started to refer to the Hillary staircase rather than the Hillary step when discussing the area.^[3]

7 Slims River, Canada

In the early summer of 2017, an entire river in the Yukon territory of Canada vanished within a mere four days. The trigger to the event was the rapid retreat of the enormous Kaskawulsh Glacier, which redirected the meltwater from the Slims River toward another river. According to scientists, the event marked the first incidence of “river piracy” in contemporary times. These shifts are also effectively reducing the size of Kluane Lake, the Yukon’s largest lake.

The Slims River’s demise has had an immediate and profound influence on the environment, disbursing fish stocks, completely changing the composition of neighboring lakes, and causing a rash of novel dust storms to hit the province. Many other glacial-fed rivers in the area, such as those that provide water and hydroelectric power to higher populated areas, may also be impacted. Geologists describe it as a previously unseen side-effect of global warming. This could also come to occur at other glacial-fed rivers throughout the world, placing river-dependent communities and environments at grave risk moving forward.^[4]

6 Sequoia Tunnel Tree, California

The glorious Pioneer Cabin “tunnel tree” in Calaveras Big Trees State Park in California was one of several colossal trees cut in the 1800s to boost California’s tourist industry. By the time it toppled over in 2017, it was California’s last giant sequoia featuring a drive-through arched doorway in its trunk. Although the true age of the Pioneer Cabin tree is unknown, several Sequoia trees within the area are well over 1,000 years old. And even older trees (dating back more than 3,000 years) have been discovered in nearby Yosemite National Park.

Only a few Sequoias were “tunneled-through” to serve the tourism purpose, the most famous of which was Yosemite’s Wawona Tree, estimated to have been around 2,100 years old when a storm brought it down in 1969. Today, the only lingering sequoia tree tunnels that can be found are either made up of stacked logs or trees that have long since died.

However, some drive-through “tunnel-trees” still exist. You can still visit three coastal Redwood trees (which are even longer but slimmer than the Sequoias) with tunnels cut through them. Although all three are owned by private companies, according to the Forest Service, they still allow cars to pass through and make for an incredible photo opportunity should anyone be passing through Northern California.^[5]

5 God’s Finger, Spain

The symbol of Gran Canaria, El Dedo de Dios, also known as “God’s Finger,” used to be a 98-foot-tall rock formation to the north of Gran Canaria, an island in the chain that makes up the Canary Islands. The rock’s distinct shape has inspired numerous artists over the years, and many believe that the famous writer Domingo Doreste was the first to pen its name.

In November 2005, tropical storm Delta created havoc all along the coastline, and the ensuing immense waves finally toppled the top part of the 300,000-year-old rock feature. After “God’s Finger” was destroyed, a team of experts investigated the possibility of rebuilding the famous landmark. However, the majority advised against its restoration and outlined a plan to conserve what remained of the iconic rock. Today what remains of the rocky feature is known as Roque Partido. Although the landscape has lost a little bit of its magic, it is still one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world.^[6]

4 Old Man of the Mountain, New Hampshire

The legendary granite rock face of New Hampshire’s Old Man of the Mountain collapsed in 2003. The 6,530 metric ton angular rocky outcrop stood nearly 45 feet tall and 30 feet wide on a mountainside in a climate prone to freeze-thaw corrosion. As a result, it was widely anticipated that the state emblem, also known as the Great Stone Face, would eventually collapse. Several previous efforts to preserve the natural wonder had been made beginning from the early 1900s. However, the news of the Old Man’s demise still surprised many geologists.

As with many of the other lost natural wonders on our list, local residents wished to reconstruct the lost monument. Arguments against such a project, such as the remaining rock mass’s volatility, the threat to workers, and the potential for environmental harm, eventually put an end to any such plans. Instead, the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund spearheaded a new project to honor the Old Man of the Mountain. If you go to the spot today, you’ll find yourself in a plaza with special viewers or profilers that create a perfect optical illusion of the mountain’s former rockface.^[7]

3 The Aral Sea, Central Asia

The Aral Sea used to be among the five largest landlocked stretches of water in the world. Today its shallow remains can be found in Central Asia’s climatically hostile geographical area, not far from the Caspian Sea. The disappearance of the Aral Sea is of keen importance and rising concern to researchers due to the enormous reduction in its surface area, which began in the second half of the twentieth century and has continued to this day. The redirection of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya river systems for irrigation purposes when the area was under Soviet control was pretty much exclusively responsible for this change, as both were primary contributors to inflowing water to the Aral Sea.

By 1989, the Aral Sea had shrunk into two distinct bodies of water, the “Lesser Sea” in the north and the “Greater Sea” in the south, with salinities nearly three times higher than in the early 1960s. By the end of the last century, the Aral Sea had disintegrated into three different lakes: a long, slender western lake, a larger, wider eastern lake, and a small remnant of the Lesser Sea to the north. NASA satellite images from 2014 confirmed that the Aral Sea’s eastern lake had disappeared completely. Today, the eastern basin has been renamed the Aralkum Desert. The disappearance of the Aral Sea has been dubbed “one of the world’s worst environmental disasters.”^[8]

2 Valley of Geysers, Russia

The Valley of Geysers in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula used to be the world’s second-largest concentration of natural geysers—the first being Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. About 90 geysers could be found in the 6-km-long (3.7-mile) basin. Tragically, the Valley of Geysers was struck by a massive landslide in 2007. A mudslide containing snow, water, stones, and shards of rock swept down at 20-25 miles per hour, engulfing everything in its wake. The mass flooded the river and produced a dam, consuming the Valley of Geysers’ most spectacular features: boiling springs, thermal fields, and waterfalls.

The water eventually receded over the next few months, but the landscape was irrevocably altered: a new geyser, Mladenec, emerged, and a few ancient geysers, notably Pervenets geyser, were submerged by the newborn Geysernaya Lake, which came into being after the landslide. Luckily, the Valley of Geysers had a surprise in store. Six years after the catastrophe, it began to heal itself. The water levels of Lake Geysernaya started dropping in 2013, allowing previously undiscovered geysers to erupt. Even though it’s improbable that the area will revert to its pre-2007 beauty, it’s far too early to abandon its charms.^[9]

1 Ténéré Tree, Niger

For hundreds of generations, a single acacia tree thrived amid the sands of Africa’s Sahara desert. The lonely tree provided shade for years for all its weary visitors. But it also offered so much more. It functioned not only as a landmark along a lengthy trade route through the desolate countryside but also as a testament to life’s tenacity, as it was the only tree that could be found for 250 miles. In the 1930s, European military campaigners who came across the tree in the wilderness dubbed it L’Arbre du Ténéré (The Tree of Tenere), and its placement on cartographers’ charts highlighted the tree’s exceptional peculiarity as the world’s most secluded tree.

The loneliest tree in the world met its end in 1973, when a truck driver traveling along the ancient caravan route smashed into the tree, tearing its trunk into two. In the blink of an eye, a solitary careless deed terminated a connection to a history that was so firmly ingrained in the desert sands and the ideology of generation after generation who had come to deeply love and treasure it. The truck driver, who has never been publicly identified or named, was rumored to have been intoxicated when the accident occurred.^[10]

Once Covid-19 is a thing of the past, we will once again be allowed to travel unencumbered, to exotic far-off places. (This is the ongoing hope, at least.) On this list are just some of the most unusual, challenging, and awe-inspiring natural wonders of the world that are truly a must-visit for those who love exploring new and strange places.

Top 10 Places Famous For Bizarre Reasons

10 Smoking Mountain

Monte Fitz Roy lies in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and stretches 3375 metres above sea level. In 1877, Francisco Morena named the mountain Fitz Roy in honor of the captain of the HMS Beagle, Robert Fitz Roy. This majestic mountain is also called Cerro Chaltén, with Cerro meaning ‘hill’ and Chaltén meaning smoking mountain. The smoking mountain moniker comes from the belief that the mountain was a volcano as its peak is mostly covered by clouds. At sunrise Fitz Roy takes on the color of pink roses.

Yvon Chouinard summited Fitz Roy in 1968 and was so in awe of this breathtaking natural wonder, that he used the shape of the mountain to inspire the logo of his clothing brand: Patagonia. If you are feeling adventurous and up to climbing a mountain on your next holiday, you might want to try Fitz Roy, but be warned, it is considered one of the most challenging climbs in the world.^[1]

9 Luminous Lagoon

Jamaica, famous for being the birthplace of Bob Marley and Usain Bolt, Jamaican rum, and Blue Mountain coffee, is a hugely popular tourist destination. Here you will experience excellent local cuisine, be enlightened on the history of pirates, and discover fantastic beaches. When the weather is good, you can also take a boat trip out on the Luminous Lagoon at night and wait for magic to happen.

When the water of the lagoon is stirred, it lights up in shades of luminescent blue. This is because of a thriving population of microscopic dinoflagellates that live in the lagoon. Boat tours depart from the Glistening Waters Marina, and you are even allowed to jump into the water and swim while surrounded by the luminous glow.^[2]

8 The Troll of North-West Iceland

Sea stacks are geological landforms that protrude from the sea and are continuously formed by wave erosion. These formations make for dramatic viewing, especially the large ones. Some of the most awe-inspiring sea stacks include Ball’s Pyramid in Australia, the Sleeping Lion in Ecuador, and the Old Man of Hoy in Scotland.

If you are planning a trip to Iceland, you should include a trip to the Troll of North-West Iceland on your itinerary. This imposing sea stack stands 50 meters offshore on Vatnsnes peninsula. Some tourists have likened the structure to a massive animal drinking water, with many saying it resembles a dinosaur.

Legend, however, has it that the sea stack, formally known as Hvítserkur, was a troll who lived in Strandir in the Wesfjords. The troll had one goal and that was to tear down the bells at a nearby convent, as Icelandic trolls hate churches and their bells. Before the troll could manifest his evil plan, he was caught by the first rays of the sunrise and turned into stone.^[3]

7 The Needles

While The Needles is not the most exciting sounding name, it does belong to one of the most beautiful natural wonders in the world. The Needles is the name of three chalk stacks that crosses the centre of the Isle of Wight. Unfortunately, travel is not permitted to these extraordinary rocks, because of dangerous tides, but they make for fantastic viewing from the headland.

Originally there were four rocks, but one collapsed during a huge storm in 1764. The Needles were so named because of that fourth rock that was shaped in the form of a needle and called ‘Lot’s Wife’. The name stuck, even though the remaining three rocks don’t remotely resemble needles. The gap where Lot’s Wife protruded from the sea, is easily discernible and looks like a missing tooth from a very large mouth.^[4]

6 Psychedelic mine

If you ever find yourself in Russia (and if you’re not claustrophobic), get yourself a special government permit and take a tour of the abandoned Yekaterinburg salt mine. Inside you will find psychedelic natural formations of carnallite layers along the walls, floors, and ceilings in yellow, white, red, and blue. Millions of years ago, a very salty sea completely dried up and left behind these carnallite mineral deposits. https://www.miningglobal.com/smart-mining/slideshow-stunning-photos-salt-mine-russia

The stripey formations lie 650 feet below the surface and were first introduced to the public when photographer Mikahil Mishainik spent more than 20 hours exploring the mine and taking several pictures. He described the experience as ‘being constantly thirsty and losing all track of time.’^[5]

Top 10 Iconic Places Pictured From Behind

5 Highest island peak in the world

Jutting out at 16,024 feet above the Indonesian jungle, the Carstensz Pyramid is the highest and probably most exotic island peak in the world. The Pyramid is a large limestone escarpment located in Western Papua and the most remote of the Seven Summits. (Link 6) Its height has been the source of some controversy with some navigational air maps stating it to be 16,503 feet. There are several glaciers on the slopes of the mountain, with many having retreated and disappeared over the past 20 years. Back in 1623, the people of Holland didn’t believe John Carstensz, a Dutch explorer, when he told them he had seen ice and snow near the top of the Pyramid. This was because of the mountain’s proximity to the equator. Carstensz and his crew were the first Europeans to lay eyes on the mountain.

Climbing the mountain is a challenge that the adventurous will savour, as it takes quite a long time to get through the tropical jungle just to reach the base. For this reason, the best time to attempt a climb, is between April and November. The mountain was first conquered in 1962 when Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer led an expedition to the top. Harrer was also the author of the best-seller, Seven Years in Tibet.

These days, access to the mountain is only permitted through adventure tourism agencies and a government permit is required.^[6]

4 Yellow Dragon Gully

Should your travels lead you to China, the Yellow Dragon Gully (Huanglong national park) is a must-visit. This exquisite travertine spreads through the forests and glaciers in Huanglong Valley, some say like a huge golden dragon. The starting point is at the Buddhist temple at the top of the valley and it ends at the Guest Welcome Pond. Throughout the year the natural pools here, formed by calcite deposits, change color from yellow to green or blue and even brown. The valley was declared a World Heritage Site in 1992.

While exploring the Yellow Dragon Gully, you may encounter Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys or even giant pandas. A cable car is available during high-peak tourist seasons and there is a wooden boardwalk along the travertine which is accessible to visitors.

Just keep in mind that the temperature on average is 7 degrees Celsius throughout the year, so you might want to pack a very thick jacket or two.^[7]

3 Alien landscape on Earth

Sulphurous hot springs, salt mountains, and acid pools might not sound very inviting, but they attract a huge number of visitors to Ethiopia each year who want to see the Danakil Depression in person. These include tourists, salt miners and scientists. In fact, salt miners still travel by camel caravan to extract salt slabs from the flat plans around Lake Afar. It is one of the hottest places on Earth and one of the lowest, at 400 feet below sea level.

The Danakil Depression landscape resulted from the ongoing divergence of three tectonic plates and has a complex geological history that includes volcanic activity, erosion, inundation by the ocean and rising and falling of the earth. The vast plain is so ‘alien’ that researchers did a study in 2016 to determine whether microbes would last in the hot and inhospitable environment. It turned out that they did, and this led scientists to wonder whether they would also be able to survive on Mars.

The sulphur springs of Dallol form part of the Depression and are a great tourist attraction as people love looking on while neon green and yellow liquid is discharged from the rocks.

If you are looking for a holiday with a difference (and love waking up early), this might just be the destination for you. Be sure to take sturdy footwear along.^[8]

2 Alofaaga Blowholes

High tide is the best time to visit the Taga village in Samoa and ask the residents to accompany you to the Alofaaga Blowholes. These blowholes are the result of lava flows that created underwater caves. Over time these caves grew upwards until they became tunnels that allowed the ocean to connect to the rock face above. As the sea water breaks at the end of one of these tunnels, it rushes through it at high speed, erupting through the hole at the top in a waterspout that reaches 20 meters and more.

To add to the fun, the residents of Taga village will throw a coconut in the hole in the rock face and watch the tourists in amusement as they gasp when the water shoots the coconut at least 100 feet into the air.^[9]

1 Where the cliffs meet the ocean

As far as beach vacations go, islands are at the top of the wish list for most travellers. White sand beaches and aquamarine waters never get old. For this reason, Hawaii is a favoured travel destination with its emerald green hues, sparkling seas, excellent cuisine, and beautiful culture. It is in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai, that you can have the vacation of a lifetime visiting the NaPali Coast.

Here you will find fantastic beaches, hiking trails and dramatic cliff faces, not to mention archaeological sites. You can hike to the NaPali coast via the Kalalau Trail or drive to Polihale Beach or Kee Beach where you will have a stunning view of the coastline. You can even hire a kayak or motorized boat to explore the coast via the sea, taking some time to snorkel on the way there. If you want a truly all-round experience, you can take a helicopter tour which will allow you to see several of the major valleys along the NaPali coast from an aerial perspective.^[10]

10 Beautiful And Bizarre Natural Wonders