12 Unusual Phenomena Don’t Seem Natural at All

You’re hiking in the wilderness, looking for a safe spot to set up camp, all you can hear are leaves and branches cracking under your footsteps... Some squirrels are running up a tree over there! But suddenly, something unexpected happens.

You notice something weird in the distance in between the trees, it kinda looks like a concrete structure of some sort! Weird... At this point, you’re at least 20 miles deep into the woods and there are no nearby towns or villages...as far as you know.

So, you decide to go off the trail with your friends to get a closer look. But as you get nearer you realize that it’s leading to... Nowhere? Hmm. What’s it doing there, in the middle of literally nowhere? And it doesn’t even lead to anything. You put on your Sherlock Holmes cap and investigate.

So...maybe there used to be an old house or mansion here that collapsed over the years and the only thing left is this staircase? But weirdly enough, after circling the bizarre structure you realize there’s no trace of any ruins or even foundations! It’s like someone just sliced a staircase off their house, cake style, and plopped it here, for no reason. Ok...

You and your friends aren’t really into getting a whole lot closer. Something feels wrong... the longer you look at this weird structure, the more you feel a super creepy presence... something tells you you should probably leave the area, as fast as possible. As weird as this sounds, discoveries of random staircases, illogically found in the woods, are surprisingly common!

Some are made of wood, others of bricks or stones. Some look ancient while others...look like they were finished yesterday! The one thing they all have in common... they all lead to absolutely nowhere, and they’re all found in super-mysterious locations!

One of the most famous ones is in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. A long medieval looking staircase made of stones with roman arches in the middle of the woods. It’s believed to have been part of Madame Antoinette Sherri’s Castle. She was a big singer back in Paris. The castle dates back about 100 years... and it was later discovered again in 1962. This time, there was nothing but a staircase.

Another mysterious ancient staircase dates back to 9,000 years ago. It’s in a forest in Italy. It looks like a series of stairs that lead to a tiny platform at the top. Why go through all the trouble of building the thing if it leads to...nowhere? Well, some experts think it could have been some sort of ritual tower, but your guess is as good as... theirs.

There’s an anomaly in the Indian Ocean, known as the Indian Ocean Geoid Low (IOGL). It produces the largest distorting natural gravitational force in the world. Heavy mineral deposits, many deep-sea trenches, and magma reservoirs disturb the magnetic field in this area.

Earth’s gravity changes in different places around the planet. It allows researchers to look for patterns and figure out what’s happening beneath the surface. Higher gravity fields usually mean denser materials below and vice versa. Some scientists believe that the anomaly might be a dent in the planet’s mantle that is working its way up to the crust.

The Niihau Island actually rejects the fruits of today’s advancements. There are no cars in sight since the locals get around on foot or by bicycles. No wonder their legs have great definition. They thrive without running water, internet, or shops. The only school on the entire island is powered by solar energy with a backup generator.

And what’s awesome is that it’s the only school in the state that’s powered by the sun. Being a resident of the island, the local explains some ground rules the permanent residents must abide by. If they do break these rules, they can be evicted. Now, not far from Bangkok, in Northeastern Thailand, there’s a 75-million-year-old rock formation. These rocks look like three whales swimming together. The beautiful design created by nature became known as “Three Whales Rock.”

Millions of years ago, this area was just a desert. But the land was changing. Gradually, sandstone got pulled apart by the movements of tectonic plates and erosion. That’s how these spectacular formations were created. If you decide to explore the system of trails around Three Whales Rock, you’ll find waterfalls and an abundance of fauna and flora there. Located on Yamal and Gydan Peninsulas, these expansive pit holes were discovered in 2014. They seem to be still changing and evolving.

The pits grow wider, and people find them more often. Of course, there’s no shortage of theories about how they appeared. Suggestions range from meteorite impacts to the activity of other civilizations. But the most common explanation is that methane gas reacted to water molecules after the planet’s permafrost started to melt. This resulted in bubbles of methane bursting through the ice. The craters could be thousands of years old, but nobody knows for sure.

You’re driving to the state of New Mexico, to the small town of Taos. 2% of the locals hear a strange buzzing in the air every day. Some residents believe the sound is somehow connected with technologies used by guests from other galaxies. Also, there is a theory that something sinister lives in the town. They say Taos is cursed. An evil spirit or a phantom punishes people for something their ancestors did in the past.

Scientists still can’t explain the nature of this sound. Another theory says it’s caused by unusual acoustics of the location, while others think the buzzing is a hallucination. Some can hear it because everybody talks about something, and our minds create an illusion of the sound that doesn’t really exist. The sound isn’t the same for everyone, either. For some, it’s a low hum, for others, it’s more of a buzzing sound. But this is not the only place where you can hear the strange noises.

It’s called The Hum and people worldwide claim to have heard it. Some dwellers of a small village in Scotland describe it as a low “thick” hum. While some residents of Florida heard a similar sound too. It’s not known exactly when this phenomenon appeared, but the first time the media started talking about it was in the 1970s in England. Also, there are written records of a mysterious buzzing dating back almost 200 years [ago].

According to some estimates, only about 2% of people on the planet can hear the hum. Perhaps their ears pick up some low-frequency waves, or the reason is something else entirely. (Maybe they hear humming, because the person doing it, doesn’t know the words to the song. Yeah, that joke is also 200 years old.)

A volcano in Indonesia spews bright-blue lava and produces electric blue and purple flames. This phenomenon occurs because the volcano has some of the highest levels of sulfur in the world. (You can also know you’re near it by its foul stench. But I digress.) And when sulfuric gases interact with scorching hot air and get lit by the molten lava, they turn blue. You can also find the world’s largest acid lake inside this crater. Yep, it’s a real stinker.

Underwater rivers and lakes are called brine pools for a reason. High salinity makes the water in them denser than the seawater around. That’s why it sinks to the bottom, forming rivers and lakes. Those have waves of their own. And these waves can sometimes lap against the “shorelines.” If you went down there in a submarine, it would easily float on the surface of a brine pool. But without a submarine, swimming in such a lake would be too risky. They contain too much toxic methane and hydrogen sulfide. Yeah, I’d pass on that too. But hey, be my guest.

Cave of Crystals in Mexico is home to the world’s most unique crystal formations. Thanks to super-rare conditions in the cave, crystals there grow to unbelievable sizes. The air is incredibly humid. The water contains tons of minerals that boost the growth of the milky-white giants. Some of them are longer than telephone poles.

Cylindrical snow donuts occur when a wind gust starts to roll some snow across a snowy area — as if making a snowball. If it was a real thing, it would eventually become too heavy for the wind to move. But a snow donut’s center is hollowed out. This happens because its inner layer is too thin and is blown away when the donut is formed. This makes the thing lighter than a snowball. That’s also why it rolls further. Unfortunately, snow donuts are rare because they need very precise conditions to appear.

The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is probably one of the most bizarre-looking places you’ll ever see. It’s dotted with neon-colored hot springs, lava pools, and vast salt flats. You’ve got to be especially careful there.

Toxic gases are swirling over hydrothermal fields. And many pools are super-acidic. So don’t go swimming. Until at least 30 minutes after lunch. Just kidding.

And finally, there’s nothing mysterious about 28,000 rubber ducks found in the sea in 1992. That’s when a ship transporting bath toys got lost in the ocean while traveling from Hong Kong to the US. Some of these ducks are still floating in the ocean several decades later. They’ve been spotted in South America, Alaska, Hawaii, and even Australia! (And they make bath time lots of fun. Oooh, rubber ducky!)