The Places On Earth Where Nature Is Most Likely To Kill You

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Most of us have been caught out by the weather, whether we got soaked to the skin in a storm or burned red by the sun. But there are places in the world where Mother Nature really goes in for the kill.

From deadly storms to volcanic eruptions, there are threats everywhere. Of all Earth's danger zones, which is the most deadly?

(via Nag on he Lake)

Glass Beach On Ussuri Bay

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Near the city of Vladivostok, Russia, lies a stunning bay surrounded by impressive cliffs. Not very long ago, the beach here was used as dumping ground of unwanted glass by a local porcelain factory, or so the story goes. According to another version, the waste glass products were washed away by the river and then swept into the sea.

Now years later, the seaside on Ussuri Bay as taken on an unusual appearance. Millions of broken bits of glass, rounded smooth by the relentless pounding of the ocean waves cover every bit of the beach. On a sunny day, they sparkle like lighted candles.

Watch A Lava 'Fire Hose' Stream Into The Pacific Ocean

In this video from the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, a stream of bright-red lava plunges from a sea cliff into the cold seawater below, resulting in steamy explosions.



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When Giant Sequoias Were Sacrificed For Traveling Sideshows

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During the second half of the 19th century, when traveling sideshows were all the rage, the so-called wonders of the world were taken from city to city to be gazed upon by spectators aching to see bearded ladies, tattooed men, and other curiosities that often fed the colonialist fantasies of the Western mind.

But among many of the attractions included in such shows there was, at one point, an unlikely protagonist: the giant sequoia of the Sierra Nevada.

The Sunken Lanes Of Europe

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Appearing as trenches dredged through the earth or tunnels cleared through forests, these ancient pathways called holloways or sunken lanes are found all across the European countryside.

They originally began at the ground level, but over the centuries, under the tread of a million feet and hooves encompassing thousands of journeys, the floor of these roads have worn away and eroded down to the bedrock, creating ditches that lay beneath the level of the surrounding landscape.

The Magnificent Victoria Falls

A bunch of morning flights over the incredible Victoria Falls.



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(thanks Cora)

There Used To Be 4 Billion American Chestnut Trees, But They All Disappeared

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American chestnut trees once blanketed the east coast, with an estimated 4 billion trees spreading in dense canopies from Maine to Mississippi and Florida. These huge and ancient trees were awe-inspiring, the redwoods of the east coast, but with an extra perk - the nuts were edible.

Chestnuts were roasted, ground into flour for cakes and bread, and stewed into puddings. The leaves of the trees were boiled down into medicinal treatments by Native Americans. Finding a mature American chestnut in the wild is so rare today that discoveries are reported in the national press.

The Countries With The Most Volcanoes

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One might be forgiven for thinking there is only a smattering of volcanoes across our planet. It is only ever the big ones that become household names - Etna, Vesuvius, Krakatoa, Eyjafjallajökull.

According to the Natural History's Global Volcanism Program, there are some 1,509 volcanoes on the planet to have erupted at some point in the last 11,500 years, otherwise known as the Holocene period, the current geological epoch and one used to define today's volcanic population.

Japan's Fantastic Emerald Green Algae

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Think of Japanese gardens and candyfloss clouds of cherry blossom, canopies of bronze-leaved maples and arched red lacquer bridges might come to mind. Yet to understated the beauty of Japanese horticulture goes far beyond this random collection of individual elements that are really just a handful of Western preconceptions.

Some Of The World's Biggest Supervolcanoes

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Supervolcanoes are loosely defined as volcanoes that can eject more than 1,000km3 of material during an eruption - around 1,000 times bigger than a normal volcano. These eruptions measure magnitude 8 or more on the Volcano Explosivity Index.

In any given century, there is around a one in 500 chance one of the world's supervolcanoes will erupt. The consequences of such an eruption would depend on where it took place. Not every supervolcano on Earth has been mapped, but there are thought to be several dozen in existence.

World-Class Walks

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When you’ve had enough of the news, the noise, the office, the traffic, there's nothing like a good long walk to clear the hubbub out of your head. And if your local footpath isn't quite enough, here are a few world-class hiking trails you may want to put on your walk-it list.

15 Surprising Facts About Winter Weather

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The start of the winter season is marked by holiday carolers, hot cocoa, and in some parts of the world, blustery weather. Whether you enjoy bundling up in your coziest gear or are already counting down the days until spring, here are 15 facts about what's happening outdoors this time of year.

Photos Of Evolutionary Wonders

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When Charles Darwin examined an orchid from Madagascar with a nearly foot-long nectary, he was certain that a corresponding moth, one with an exceptionally long proboscis must exist. More than two decades after Darwin died, a moth matching this specification was identified.

This moth is one of the fascinating examples of the extraordinary ways in which plants and animals have adapted elegant solutions for survival, collected in photographer Robert Clark's new work, 'Evolution.'

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Winter Solstice

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The winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon marking the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere this is the December solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere this is the June solstice.

Amid the whirl of the holiday season, many are vaguely aware of the approach of the winter solstice, but how much do you really know about it? Whether you're a fan of winter or just wish it would go away, here are 10 things to note - or even celebrate - about the solstice.

Is It Going To Rain?

You walk out the door but you're not sure whether you are going to need your umbrella.
Visit 'Is It Going To Rain?' to find out. Type in your location and you'll now.

10 Of The Biggest Natural Disasters In Earth's History

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The Butterfly Effect principle simply states that, given enough time, whatever event, no matter how small, can and will have tremendous reverberations into the future. And when talking about past disasters we always have to keep in mind that, even though devastating, they are part of what brought us here in the first place.

We may try to speculate on how things would have turned out if any particular disaster from our past didn't happen, but the variables are so small and infinitely numerous, that we may never know the right answer. Take a look at 10 natural disasters from our past, and maybe later imagine how the world would have looked like without them.

11 Real-World Forests That Look Like They're Straight Out Of A Fairytale

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Forests are the lungs of our world, absorbing carbon and keeping our climates stable, and the protectors of some of our most precious resources. They safeguard habitats and wildlife that allow life to move onward and even make us healthier, too; trees clean our air, lower our stress, and can actually make us happier just by being nearby.

But some forests, you might argue, are just a bit more spectacular than others.
Here are 11 otherworldly forests to remind you just how incredible life on Earth really is.

Top 10 Mystifying Mountains

Used loosely, mountain may refer to any large pile, and a few of the mountains aren't exactly natural elevations of their planet's surface. However, they are massive, and they're either astonishing or mysterious. Here are ten mystifying mountains.

Fungtopus? The Fungus That Looks Like An Octopus

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Clathrus archeri is looking every inch the result of a GM experiment gone wrong, it resembles a strange cross between a toadstool and an octopus. Yet this is not the result of some subterranean gene-splicing enterprise to bring the world a spore-bearing cellaphod.

This is exactly how nature intended the Octopus Stinkhorn. The shape and form you see is an integral but short-lived part of its life-cycle. The Octopus Stinkhorn is native to Australia. The fungus emerges from an egg which is called superumpent - this means that rather than hatching or germinating it, effectively, erupts in an explosion of enlargement.

10 Terrifying Facts About Supervolcanoes

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A supervolcano is defined as having the capacity to produce an eruption so big that it can eject around 240 cubic miles of volcanic material in the form of molten rock, hot gases, and ash.

That's roughly one thousand times more than the largest volcanic eruption ever recorded in modern human history. Supervolcanoes are formed when a momentous volume of super-heated magma rises from deep underground, but is unable to penetrate the Earth’s crust and creates a huge, high-pressure pool several miles beneath the surface.