On Sunday night, the ocean running alongside the East Coast Road in Chennai lit up with sparkling, luminescent water. Eyewitnesses were shocked and delighted to witness something so magical-looking and dubbed it 'sea sparkle'. But what they saw wasn't an undiscovered phenomenon - it's called bioluminescence and it actually occurs in many living organisms. That doesn't make it any less amazing though. Here's what 'sea sparkle' really is.
nature
Ok get ready for it internet. The zombie snail is back. After bursting onto the viral internet scene back in 2012, when National Geographic posted a video about the species. 2 years later, Wired did an article 2 years later on the natural phenomenon, dubbing these gastropods "Disco Zombies". They have taken the internet by storm, with Twitter blowing up with #nope hashtags after seeing the creepy crawly creature.
Humans have interrupted a lot of natural processes. Highways divide forests, and dams interrupt the migration routes for fish. But that isn't to say that we haven't found solutions to some of the problems that we created. Wildlife bridges have been built over highways allow animals to cross the highway safely. And in a recent Twitter storm, the public has rediscovered an amazing apparatus that scientists released in 2014 which helps salmon migrate. It is called the Salmon Cannon. And as you can imagine, everyone is obsessed with it.
Nature is a cruel beast. If you aren’t doing the eating, you’re the one being eaten.
Wish someone had told this lizard that, though.
Another one doing the eating that night was Melanie Jade Ottaway, who sat down to eat dinner when she noticed this gigantic huntsman spider about to chow down on a gecko. The spider sat patiently on a glass door with the lizard hanging out of its mouth. Nature is terrifying.
She told The Daily Mail, “'We just sat down to have dinner at the dining table and noticed something massive on the glass sliding door. I got up to have a closer look and there it was, a huge huntsman with a gorgeous little gecko in. It was too late to save him, so we let nature take its path.”
Nature, your cruel ways are a mystery to us all. We march on in fear.
Via Caters Clips
A tornado of fire chased firefighters in St. Albert, Canada into a river to escape. When a campfire in the area got out of control, the wind conditions and dry grass led to this terrifying hellstorm. Apparently, it's technically called a "fire whirl" as a helpful meteorologist on Twitter pointed out before providing this GIF explaining how it was created:
via @wxbrad
Once a decade, Death Valley explodes with flowers in a "super bloom". Thanks to October rainstorms, that's exactly what's happening this year. This video explains the phenomenon and shows some footage of the fields of flowers just before they've fully blossomed into this rare spectacle:
This picture was taken at Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park. Apparently this happens every year but it's hard to catch a picture at just the right moment. Photographer Sangeeta Dey explained this on a post about her own picture on Facebook:
Every year for two weeks in February, the sun sets at a certain angle and illuminates the waterfall in luminescent orange and red, making it look like a fluid fire. I’ve met photographers who said that they have been coming for 11 years only to see this happen 2 or 3 times.
via Sangeeta Dey
Via IFL Science
Gotta eat the booty like elephant butt?
One curious hyena got the surprise of its life after finding a dead elephant carcass and shoving its head inside the elephant's anus.
It is actually a common scenario for predators to start devouring an animal starting with the booty. But in this case, the hyena maybe should have started elsewhere.
"He got a little bit of a scare from that," says one of the scientists in the video.
Yes, yes he did. We are all scared of elephant buttholes now.
Via TITANVORTEX
Nature, y'all.
It's tough to believe this isn't some airbrushed design on a 1990s shirt. The world can pull out some crazy beautiful things sometimes.
This group of humpback whales bask in the northern lights of Norway in a super peaceful swim along the coast.
According to the video's description:
This Spectacular footage of a group of humpback whales swimming under the northern lights off the coast of Norway was shot by Norwegian cameraman Harald Albrigtsen, who works for the Norwegian media company NRK.
Large gatherings of whales like this are common in the waters off Norway, and this time of year is prime time to see the northern lights in the country.
The lights most frequently appear between September and March.
Thanks, Earth. This is great.
Via powpowtarkari
We can never get enough of the truly awesome spectacle of nature's destruction.
That's where this new video showing some lightning rattling the sky in one of Patagonia's beautiful volcanoes.
Early this year we were treated to a another dramatic showing when the Calbuco volcano spewed an ocean of ash and smoke into the atmosphere.
Nature is so cool.
Via Porsche Indrisie
Porsche Indrisie was watching a little crab just chill out on the rocks in Yallingup, Australia when terror struck.
An octopus shot out of the water and quickly dragged the creature beneath the surface.
Indrisie captured the entire moment on video, and you can hear her screams of horror as she witnessed the attack.
Who knew these 8-legged beasts could move so fast? Even sharks are no match for them.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
Via Rich German
Rich German has been paddle boarding around Laguna Beach, California for years, but he has never seen a pod of Orcas until now.
Here’s his GoPro footage of the moment as the 5 killer whales swim around him and even underneath his board.
“I’m sharing this to raise awareness for these incredible, magical creatures,” he writes on Facebook.
Via Steve Guntrip
It's moving day for this little hermit crab.
New year, new home!
British photographer Steve Guntrip recently caught the magical moment on camera.
Watch as his pet Pagurus Prideaux slips out of his old shell and into a brand new one.
Warning: there's lots of crab nudity in this video, so WARNING if that sort of thing bothers you.
Via NYPost
A pack of 14 lions was recently caught on camera surrounding a 1-year old elephant at the Norman Carr Safaris Chinzombo Camp in Zambia by journalists on safari.
Odds were not in this baby elephant's favor, but thanks to some quick wit and a nearby stream, it was able to escape and reunite with its herd.
The safari guide was as shocked as everyone else. "In the 30-plus years I have been a safari guide in Zambia at the Luangwe Park, never have I seen anything like this," he told the Post.
WARNING: Understandable profanity is used in this incredibly startling video.
