Mountains, oceans and streams are beautiful, natural gifts from Mother Nature. But did you know that there are some natural wonders of the world that actually seem as unreal as elements of fantasy fiction? Take a look!
1. Lake Abraham, Western Canada
Located in the province of Alberta, Lake Abraham creates a glass like facade that is actually caused by the freezing of gases released by plants on the bed of the lake. The frozen bubbles create an ethereal effect of a streamer of bulbs.
2. Blood Falls, Antarctica
It may look like flowing tomato soup, but it's actually an outpour of saline water mixed with iron oxide down the tongue of the Taylor glacier in East Antarctica. The source of the blood falls spouts through several fissures in the ice and its source is said to be several metres below the glacier along the bedrock. Its sub-glacial ecosystem is rich in salt, iron, sulphate and chloride.
3. Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India
The Rann of Kutch expands onto the salt marshes of Gujarat, Sindh and Rajasthan. The grassland and deserts of the Rann of Kutch are home to forms of wildlife that have adapted to the often harsh conditions of this vast area.
4. Mendenhall Ice Caves, Alaska
These mystic ice caves seem unreal as a product of Mother Nature. The ice caves are inside the glacier and are accessible only to those willing to kayak to, and then ice climb over the glacier. However, the glacier is depleting fast as global warming heats the oceans and temperatures rise.
5. To Sua Ocean Trench, Samoa
This 30-metre deep trench in the Lotofaga village of Samoa looks like a big hole surrounded by beautiful natural gardens. A step ladder leads down to the swimming area where visitors can splash around and enjoy themselves.
6. Red Seabeach, China
The view of red Chenopodiaceae plants looks like a valley of flowers, but actually it's a landscape of shallow seas and tide lands. In fact, it is the biggest reed marsh in the world. The reeds are used to make paper. The Red Seabeach of Panjin is home to exotic birds like the red-crowned crane and the endangered black-mouth gull.
7. Socotra Island, near Somalia and Yemen
This island has some of the strangest flora and fauna you won't find anywhere else in the world.
8. The Door to Hell, Turkmenistan
Lit and drilled open by Soviet petroleum engineers in 1971 near the village of Derweze in Turkmenistan, the fire continues to burn well into the 21st century thanks to the rich deposits of natural gas in the area. The pit is 20 metres deep but don't expect the devil to be waiting there sharpening his pitch fork.
9. Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park, China
The colourful landscape of the park looks like the hills have been painted with various strokes of colours. But it's actually the product of accumulation of red sandstone and mineral deposits for over 24 million years.
10. Lake Hillier, Australia
It's not a lake into which someone poured a lot of cough syrup, but Lake Hillier is a saline lake on the edge of Middle Island which is part of the Recherche archipelago off the south west coast of Western Australia. A thin shoreline divides the lake from the Southern Ocean.
11. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
The world's largest salt flat with an area of 10,582 sq km, this was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. Its surface is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The sky is, at times, reflected on the Salar and you can capture it when you have the right angle.
12. Tianzi Mountains, China
You might find these familiar, as the movie Avatar was shot here. Tianzi Mountain provides stunning views of peaks, which rise one after the other. It is known as 'the Monarch of the Peak Forest'. At the top of the mountain, visitors can see the full extent of the Wulingyuan area.
