Top 25 Unexplained Natural Phenomena

Mother nature is a perpetual source of inspiration for enthusiasts while raising questions for scientists. If nature lovers and enthusiasts are grateful to admire and discover the natural beauties, scientists try to explain the reason behind the phenomena. In this article, we are going to discuss the top 25 natural phenomena the science has yet to explain. They are as following:

Sun’s corona
Animal migration
Taos hum
Jellyfish disappearance from the Jellyfish Lake
Ice circles
Bigfoot
Hurricane on Saturn
Monarch butterfly migration
Animal rain
Naga fireballs
Mapimi silence zone
Earthquake lights
Volcanic lights
Moon illusion
Synchronous fireflies
Cat’s purr
Humpback whales singing
Beginning of the universe
Bermuda triangle
Loch Ness monster
Fairy circles
Sailing stones
Whale stranding
Ball lightning
Hessdalen light

25. Sun’s corona

Sun-structure

Extending millions and kilometers into space, the Corona is an aura of plasma that surrounds the Sun. What scientists cannot explain, is why the Sun’s Corona is much hotter than it’s visible surface. While the average temperature at the surface is about 58,000 degrees Kelvin, the Corona reaches a burning temperature up to 123 million degrees Kelvin.

24. Animal migration

Animal migration

Animal migration can be found in all major animal groups including birds mammals, fish, reptiles, and insects. What puzzle scientists, however, is how these animals venture on these amazing journeys without getting lost. There are theories about this phenomenon, but the true cause remains unknown.

23. Taos hum

Taos hum

There are several places known for the Hum, a phenomenon described as a persistent invasive low-frequency hummin, grumbling, droning noise with an unknown source. The town of Taos, New Mexico is probably the most famous. What makes this sound even more mysterious, is that only two percent of the local people have been able to hear it. No matter what the origin of the weird sound is, those who can hear it, find it extremely disturbing.

22. Jellyfish disappearance from the Jellyfish Lake

Jellyfish Lake

Located on the Island of Palau, the Jellyfish Lake is a marine lake connected to the ocean. Every day, millions jellyfish migrate across the lake, but between 1998 – 2000 not a single jellyfish did. There are many theories as to the cause of this phenomenon, but scientists are still not sure the exact one.

21. Ice circles

Ice circles

Also known as ice disks or ice pans, the ice circles are a very rare natural phenomenon that occurs in slow-moving water and freezing temperature. Scientists don’t know exactly how circles originate, but it’s generally believed they form in shallow currents were thin ice cleats rotating gradually freeze together. The diameter of the circles can vary greatly from just a few feet up to 50 feet or over 50 meters.

20. Bigfoot

Bigfoot

For decades, people have been reporting signs of a large human-like hairy creature known as Bigfoot or the Yetty. While the vast majority of scientists are skeptical of its existence, there are few experts who believe that Bigfoot really exists. They suggest it can be a relative population of gigantic creatures that lived between nine million and one hundred thousand years ago.

19. Hurricane on Saturn

Hurricane on Saturn

In 2013, a massive hurricane was recorded on Saturn by a NASA spacecraft. The storm was about 12,150 miles or two thousand kilometers across, with speeds up to 330 miles per hour or 530 kilometers per hour. On earth, warm oceans power hurricanes. However, since there are no oceans on Saturn, the creation of such a gigantic storm remains an unexplained phenomenon.

18. Monarch butterfly migration

Monarch butterfly migration

Ever wondered about animal migration? There’s one whose annual migration is particularly impressive. The Monarch Butterfly only lives about six months which means the butterflies to make the return journey are the children of those that made the first trip. Never having migrated themselves, how can they know where to go? Researchers have proposed many theories and some have identified the butterflies’ antenna as vital to their migratory success. However, certainty has yet to be determined

17. Fish rain

rain fish

There have been several bizarre cases of animals falling from the sky in the summer of 2000. In Ethiopia, Thailand, and Australia for example, it rained millions of fish with some of them dead and another still struggling to live. Most of these animal rains are attributed to tornadoes or other types of severe storms capable of lifting living bodies of water, but there’s one particular fact that challenges this theory. Usually, the storms are of one kind of animal only.

16. Naga fireballs

Naga fireballs

What’s known as Naga fireballs is a strange natural phenomenon seen on the Mekong River in Thailand and Laos. The wide amount of balls naturally arise from the water. There have been several attempts to explain scientifically this phenomenon left, yet no decisive explanation exist.

15. Mapimi silence zone

Mapimi silence zone

The Mapimi silence zone is a desert patch in Durango, Mexico that’s alleged to be an extremely silent place where bizarre phenomena occur. In nineteen seventy, a test missile launched from a US military base near Green River Utah lost control and fell into the area. Parts of the boosters used for the Apollo project also broke up and landed here as well as the world’s largest carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Maybe it’s just a coincidence

14. Earthquake lights

Earthquake lights

For centuries, people have been observing strange flashes preceding major earthquakes. The lights have been reported many times, but it wasn’t until the nineteen sixties when people took the first pictures. Since then, scientists have started to take it seriously and have created many theories for their origins including electricity, frictional heating, and electrokinetic.

13. Volcanic lights

Volcanic lights

Scientists have found that similar lights also occur in areas where the large volcanic eruption is about to happen. The latest study suggests that the lights might be caused by elements that awaken the natural electrical charge of rocks, causing them to sparkle and glow.

12.Moon illusion

Moon illusion

We’ve all noticed that when the moon is on the horizon, it appears much larger than when it’s higher in the sky but try to hold a small object like a coin at arm’s length with one eye closed, position it next to the same large moon. When the moon is higher, putting that same object near the moon reveals that there is no change. In science, those theories abound, but there’s no concrete explanation for the solution.

11. Synchronous fireflies

Synchronous fireflies

Living in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the synchronous fireflies are the only firefly species in America who can synchronize their flashing light patterns. They do so for only a few weeks every year, but the reason for this behavior remains unknown.

10. Cat’s purr

Cat's purr

Did you know that cats purr ranks among the most mysterious sounds in the animal kingdom? Scientists argue not only about the way the sound is produced, but also its purpose. Cats purr when resting but also when eating, and sometimes even while giving birth. Therefore, the main reason cats purr remains unknown.

9. Humpback whales singing

Humpback whales singing

Humpback males can produce long and very complex songs that were originally thought to attract females, but studies have shown that the sound often attracts other males too. Moreover, individuals can learn the songs from each other and spread among other populations. So the humpback singing remainS somewhat of a mystery.

8. Origin of the Universe

Beginning of the Universe

The Big Bang Theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the birth of the Universe. It states that at a moment some 14 billion years ago, all the space was contained in a single point from which the Universe has been expanding ever since. However the theory does not provide any explanation for the initial conditions of the Universe, it only describes and explains the general evolution going on from that point. What had existed before? We don’t know.

7. Bermuda triangle

Bermuda triangle

Is there a place known by the occurrences of mysterious phenomena that scientists have trouble explaining? It’s the Bermuda Triangle. In this loosely defined regions in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean, a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Scientists tend to explain the disappearances as a result of several incidences such as violent weather, ocean currents, human error, and even methane bubbles.

6. Loch Ness monster

Loch Ness monster

The Loch Ness monster mystery is somewhat similar to Bigfoot. There have been many sightings of this creature reported, but most have been proven false; yet there are some speculations that the Scottish Lake might be home to a marine reptile thought to have died of some 66 million years ago. A chance that any member of this family has survived until now is close to zero

5. Fairy circles

Fairy circles

Down in the grasslands of southern Africa, the fairy circles are patches apparently it the diameter which vary between two and 15m, 47 and 49 ft. Their origin in history have long been a puzzle and even now scientists are still not sure who or what created them.

4. Sailing stones

Sailing stones

The Sailing Stones refer to an unusual geological phenomenon in which rocks moved and inscribed long tracks along smooth valley floor without any human or animal intervention. There have even been cases of stones turning over, exposing another side to the ground, and changing direction. Their origin is unclear, but scientists suggest that movement might be caused by a strong wind that pushes the stones on a thin layer of clay

3. Whales stranding

Whales stranding

Every year, up to 2,000 whales beached themselves and in most cases die. It is also known that they’ve been committing a strange suicide for at least 1000 years. There have been numerous theories about why they do it, but none of them has been conclusive enough so far.

2. Ball lightning

Ball lightning

Ball lightning is probably the most famous unexplained electrical phenomenon. The term refers to blazing spherical objects which vary in diameter. It’s usually associated with thunderstorms but lasts considerably longer than regular flashes of lightning.

1. Hessdalen light

Hessdalen light

Since the 1940s, there has been a strange light phenomenon observed in the Hessdalen valley in Norway. The spectacle takes the form of a light floating above the ground level. Between 1981 and 1984, the lights were observed some twenty times per week but ever since the activity has decreased and now the lights are observed about 10 to 20 times per year. Despite ongoing research and numerous working hypotheses, there is no convincing explanation for their origin.

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