The weird, wild, and amazing natural world

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

That's... wow. You could have told me it was lava and I'd have completely believed it.

Same here. *Whistles slowly*

[mwhittington]

When I originally saw the pics, that's what I thought at first, "Oh, great, first Yellowstone, now Yosemite!", but yeah, it's a waterfall, and the conditions for those shots have to be piss perfect.

[Mikey]

I think when Yellowstone goes again, it's going to be a hell of a lot bigger than that.

[mwhittington]

Oh, just a tad...

[Lighthawk]

Natural nuclear reactor

[Tsukiyumi]

Natural nuclear reactor

Wow. I had no idea that was possible, but after I think about it, it was bound to happen in certain unique places.

[GrahamKennedy]

Brittlecone pines, some of the oldest organisms on Earth, against starlight which is vastly older still.



The Aurora Borealis.

[SolkaTruesilver]

Is that from Canada, Scandinavia, or Russia?

[GrahamKennedy]

Haven't a clue.

[GrahamKennedy]

F22... taste the rainbow

[stitch626]

Its Turn-A Gundam, transformed!!!


Sorry.

[Mikey]

Well, this is nothing so grandiose as a bristlecone pine, aurora, or contrail; but I was walking along the tide flat at the beach last weekend and noticed these funky dendritic patterns that the ebb tide had left in the sand. Eminently predictable, but pretty cool nonetheless. I apologize for the quality of the pictures, I just had my phone and no camera handy.

[Mikey]

PS - also saw some arctic terns on their way to Argentina for the winter, but they were too fast for me.

[GrahamKennedy]

Those are cool. Fascinating that they look so much like the branching of a tree... makes me wonder if there is some deep mathematical law that somehow governs both how trees grow and how water flows. Something to do with chaos, or fractals, or something? It's a pretty amazing idea that such mundane things can hint at such deep mysteries, don't you think?

[Mikey]

fractals

Sort of what I was thinking at the time... then my daughter had a question about oyster shells, and ghost crabs, and sandpipers, and Uillean pipes (I don't know where she got that from, either... they're not common over here.)