7 Bizarre Natural Phenomena Explained

Tap to Read ➤ Ishaan Govardhan

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. In all its glory, our universe has ways of leaving us awestruck. And perhaps even more amazing than those spectacles, are the explanations behind them.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Mammatus Clouds Brilliantly illuminated by lightning, these smooth lobes of lumpy clouds are associated with intense storms.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Mammatus clouds are formed when there's a sharp temperature gradient and wind shear conditions are ideal.

Cold air sinks downwards to meet the cloud puffs that are rising upward through the convection of warm air, which results in the formation of mammatus clouds.

Each lobe has a diameter of up to 3 km. A cluster of mammatus clouds may last for hours.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Maelstroms Larger than whirlpools, maelstroms are formed in narrow straits of rapidly flowing water.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. This is the strongest maelstrom in the world - the maelstrom of Saltstraumen, Norway. Here, water gets funnelled through a very narrow strait (150 m at its narrowest).

Plus, it's driven by the colossal force of the world's strongest tide. These conditions lead to some incredibly turbulent waters that are a sight to behold.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Blue Volcano Electric-blue colored lava emerges from the Kawah Ijen volcano of Indonesia.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. The Kawah Ijen volcano system has some of the highest sulfur levels on Earth. And sulfuric gas burns bright blue when exposed to oxygen and ignited by the hot lava.

These brilliant blue flames - as high as 16 feet - can only be seen during nighttime.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Lenticular Clouds Due to their saucer-like shape, lenticular clouds have been put forth as the scientific explanation behind some alleged UFO sightings.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Air flow along earth's surface may get disrupted by large obstacles like mountains, creating eddies (areas of turbulence).

When moisture flows over huge eddies, large standing air waves are formed along the downwind side of the mountain.

And if the temperature drops, the moisture in those waves will condense to form a lenticular cloud.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Reflective Deserts The world's largest salt flat - Salar de Uyuni (Bolivia) - is also the world's largest natural mirror.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. The surface of the salt flat is covered in salt brine, which imparts a perfect, undisturbed flatness to it.

When it rains, a reflective sheet of water covers that entire surface.

And with nothing but salt flats for 4000 square miles, the horizon is reduced to a straight line. These conditions make it seem like the sky has merged with the land.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Sort Sol (Black Sun) These peculiar, ever-shifting flocking patterns of starlings are downright hypnotic.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Every spring and autumn, up to 1 million migrational starlings gather in Denmark to look for a place to roost.

The birds fly about in these memerizing formations during sunset to stay safe from predatory birds. So great are their numbers, that the swaying flock blacks out the sun. Their synchronized patterns are a well-known balletic spectacle.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. Aurora Borealis The Northern Lights on display in Iceland make for a surreal spectacle that has to be seen to be believed.

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video. This otherworldly sight is a result of the light emanating from collisions between the gas particles of Earth's atmosphere and the electrically charged particles from the sun.

Because Earth's magnetic field is weaker at both poles, more particles from the sun are able to slip through. The color of the dancing lights varies, depending on the gas particles.