CRYSTAL CAVE
Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales (Crystal Cave) is home to giant gypsum crystals that are more than 35 ft (11 m) long over one third as long as the cave itself. By studying fluid samples embedded inside the crystals in the 970 ft deep (290 m) cave, scientists believe the mammoth structures developed because the temperature there remained just below 136° F (58°C) for hundreds of thousands of years. Volcanic activity created the Naica Mountain some 26 million years ago and filled it with high temperature anhydrite, which is gypsum without water. Above 136°F anhydrite is stable, but below that it turns to gypsum and, in this case, has formed majestic crystals.
Snow donuts or snow rollers are rare phenomena that form at the base of steep slopes. When a clump of soft snow falls from a tree or off a rock face into hard packed snow, and if conditions and temperature are just right, as gravity takes over, it pulls the snow down the slope and it rolls back on itself. Usually the center collapses and create what is called a pinwheel, but if the hole stays open, it forms a snow donut.
High in Washington Pass, Washington State, avalanche control expert Mike Stanford found a series of perfectly shaped frozen snow donuts. They had rolled down the mountain side and frozen in place, the biggest being about 24 in (60 cm) high, large enough for Stanford to put his head through the hole in the middle.
RAINBOW ROCK
In a stunning natural spectacle, the earth at Chamarel, Mauritius, is divided into seven colors red, brown, violet, yellow, deep purple, blue, and green. The phenomenon, which is at its most vivid at sunrise, is the result of mineral rich volcanic rock cooling at uneven temperatures. Bizarrely, the different colors never merge even when it rains, and if mixed together artificially in a test tube, they separate into seven distinct colors again a few days later.
COLORED POOLS
Scattered along the salt flats on the coast of Senegal are a series of small pools filled with different colored water, including red, orange, black, and white. They have been created by women workers digging for salt, which they collect by hand, load into sacks, and sells to neighboring countries. The variety of colors is a result of high mineral concentration in the soil, the colors being intensified by the shallowness of the water in the pools.
TOWN RESURFACES
Nearly 50 years after being submerged by the creation of an artificial lake, the underwater town of Adaminaby in Australia resurfaced following a prolonged drought in the area. The town was relocated in 1958 when Lake Eucumbene was created as part of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme. Around 100 buildings were moved to the site of the new town on higher round, some 300 mi (480 km) southwest of Sydney, but in Fabruary 2007 the lake's water level fell so much that the ruins of the old town became visible again.
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