Part Two. The Odd Earth.
A continuation from yesterday.
Yesterday we looked at some of the world’s unusual corners.
Today, let’s pick it up with even more weird spots on Earth.
First, let’s go to Spain’s Rio Tinto River. It is a swirling ribbon of rust-red water so acidic it can reach a pH of 2. (The ideal pH of water is 7.) The river owes its color and chemistry to bacteria that feast on iron and sulfur. It looks like a stream of oxidized blood running through the mountains.
On to Mount Roraima. This is a giant tabletop mountain perched where Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana meet. Its sheer cliffs and flat summit inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.
The mountaintop hosts unique species found nowhere else on Earth. There is also near-constant rain and a curtain of clouds. People say the whole place feels sacred, haunted, and alive. Travelers often describe a sense of being watched. People get spooked there all the time.
Next, there is a place called Socotra. It is an island group so bizarrely beautiful it is often called “the most alien place on Earth.” Nearly a third of its plant life cannot be found anywhere else. One of those plants is the umbrella-shaped dragon’s blood tree. Its crimson sap has been used for dyes, incense, and medicine for centuries.
Finally, we land at California’s Mystery Spot. This place is upside down, sort of. It is where gravity seems to lean, tilt, twist, and break its own rules. Balls roll uphill. People appear to stand at impossible angles. Psychologists say it is a clever optical illusion paired with tilted architecture. But people feel all wonky when they go there.
All of this reminds us that the world is a big place, and always, always filled with big surprises.
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“Every place is a mystery until we learn its story.” Robert Macfarlane
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“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I have yet to understand.” Albert Einstein
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“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters.” John Lubbock
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“Look closely. The extraordinary is hidden in the ordinary.” Paulo Coelho
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