When it comes to Mother Nature, she’s been known to shock us in a number of ways over the years – from rare animal sightings to weird weather phenomenons. And after scouring the internet, we’ve rounded up 15 of the most bizarre discoveries found in nature to date and rounded them up all in one spot for you to see for yourself. 

Read on, and let us know which finding is the most mind-blowing to you.

1. Blood Falls

While the sight of Blood Falls may initially look like a gory murder scene, it’s actually red water pooling outside of a glacier in Antarctica. The phenomenon stumped scientists for years, but they finally discovered that a saltwater lake was trapped under the glacier. The water is packed with iron-rich salts, so it turns red when it meets oxygen and can’t freeze – causing the rare scene. 

2. Bioluminescent Waves 

If you’ve ever seen water sparkling and glowing in the dark, it could feel like you’re in the middle of a supernatural movie. It’s caused by a natural chemical process called bioluminescence, where living things such as algae, fish, squid, and crustaceans can produce light in their body. This is often done to attract prey, mates, or throw off predators. The water can be seen this way across multiple parts of Australia. 

3. Lake Hillier

The picture of this lake might look like it was edited with an overly saturated filter, but it’s just as pigmented in person. Located off the southern coast of Australia, Lake Hillier is extremely salty when compared to the ocean. It’s also mixed with colorful bacteria and algae, which is what creates the bright pink hue.   

4. Waitomo Glowworm Caves

Located in New Zealand, the glowworm caves are best known for their abundance of glow worms and underground rivers. Visitors can schedule boat tours and view nature’s light show from within the caves. One thing to note if you visit is that you must sit in silence on the boat as the glow worms aren’t a fan of noise. 

5. Marble Caves

These unique caves took over 6,000 years to form. They were naturally created from ocean waves constantly crashing against the calcium carbonate, which ultimately led the caves to form smooth stones. The caves can be found on a peninsula in Chile.

6. Cave of the Crystals

Nearly 1,000 feet below the surface in Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico, there’s a cave filled with large selenite mega crystals. The cave’s temperature is 122ºF and has 100% humidity, so explorers can only go down into the cave for up to an hour with specially designed gear.  

7. Danxia Landforms

See nature in technicolor, literally. The Danxia Landform Geological Park in China comprises multiple layers of different colored sandstone and minerals over 24 million years. With a range of reds, yellows, blues, and greens, the mountain formations are covered in colors resembling a rainbow. 

8. Bismuth Crystals

Intricately shaped and colored, the Bismuth crystal is technically a lab-grown creation. However, the natural element used is what makes its creation and appearance so different from any other crystal. Bismuth is a natural chemical element that is brittle and repels magnetic forces. As it oxidizes over time, it’s able to form an iridescent look. 

9. Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees

Seen in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, these trees have vibrantly colored bark — showing colors like maroon, orange, purple, blue, and green. The tree sheds its bark often, causing the wood to oxidize and form bright hues. 

10. A River Beneath Water

Who knew that there could be a river beneath another bed of water? The Monterey Canyon was formed by an undersea river. This type of river can shape areas of the sea floor and can change course over time. There are several undersea rivers found globally such as off the coasts of Greenland, Amazon, Congo, and Bengal. 

11. Lenticular Clouds

Typically found atop mountain peaks, the shape of these lenticular clouds is often thin and can look like saucers or even UFOs. The clouds can form when the air is stable, but the wind blows across a mountain range and the water vapor condenses as its rises in the air.

12. White Rainbows

Known to be much rarer than your average colorful rainbow, “white” rainbows are made of fog. Its water droplets are smaller than raindrops and the light of the sun is shining from behind it. When the sunlight increases it causes a white rainbow, which is much wider compared to a normal rainbow. 

13. Green Flash

In rare cases during a sunset, viewers can spot the sun turning into a bright flash of green right before it completely disappears into the night. The sky has to be incredibly clear for one to see the flash. A sea horizon is one of the more common viewing spots for this reason. 

14. Everlasting Lightning

There is a lightning storm In Venezuela where the Catatumbo River meets Lake Maracaibo that can last for almost 300 nights per year. This occurs from warm air flowing into cold air from the mountains constantly, creating consistent conditions for the storm. 

15. Volcanic Lightning

If you didn’t think volcanoes could be any more dangerous, think again. On top of the flowing molten lava, lightning can form around its large ash plumes. This is due to higher temperature ranges. To date, this has been seen during various eruptions such as Mt. Etna in Italy, Sakurakima in Japan, Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland, and more.