The Strange Design Of Mother Nature | Secret Of Earth
Minster, design a world. Of extreme weather. Alien. Landscapes, and. Bizarre. Phenomena. Is the most complex, system, we know of in the universe. That. Planet. Is, Earth. And we, are only beginning to. Unlock, its secrets. Even. With what's already known about, this world, it, continues, to surprise and, mystify. Beneath. Its surface a bizarre. Underworld, operates. By its own rules with. Its own climate, it's. Extremely, hot if, you are in there unprotected you would have about 10 minutes before you die. What. Strange forces caused. Towers. Of rock to, rise from this lake. What, secret creatures, are, remaking, these earthly, landscapes, into, alien, worlds. These. Are, the strangest, places and. They, hold the deepest. Any. Visitor, passing, through the solar system, would. Notice how strange, planet, Earth appears, and. A. Closer look reveals, only. More. Strangeness. I'm, not saying that such places don't exist elsewhere, but. I think that they're very very rare looking. At our solar system, and other exoplanets. We. Do not yet know of, anything quite like Earth, and so, in a sense Earth is the strangest, of all. One, of the strangest, sights on earth exists. In. Mexico's, Chihuahuan, Desert. 1,000. Feet under, naica mountain. Giant. Mysterious. White crystals, crisscross. A dark cavern. Creating. A real-life. Version of Superman's. Fortress of solitude. Few. Humans have experienced, the crystals, in person. NASA. Planetary, scientist. Chris, McKay is one who adds. The. Crystals, are really, quite amazing, awe-inspiring. Walking. Into this room you see. Absolutely, spectacular. Perfectly. Shaped crystals. That. Are this big around, and as long as a telephone, pole. Beautifully. Formed, crystal clear.the. Crystal, cave has, its own extreme, climate. With. A temperature blisters, at, 120. Degrees Fahrenheit. This. Comes from the heat emanating, up, from, a magma, chamber below, the cave. It's. Extremely, hot very. Very high humidity in. Fact if you're in there unprotected you, would have about ten minutes before you die so, when we go in the cave we wear special, suits sharing, ice packs to, allow us to stay in the cave for 30-40.
Minutes. How. Did these giant, crystals end up here, in this hellish environment. The. First secret is gypsum a common. Mineral that's also, the main ingredient, in drywall. Gypsum. Rich water once, filled this cave completely. And the, presence of heat and water some, minerals dissolved. But. Gypsum, turns, brittle and crystallizes. For. Half a million years the gypsum crystals grew, underwater and undisturbed. It, wasn't until 2000. That a mining operation probing. For precious metals discovered. The chamber. It, pumped, out the water and revealed. This unique, treasure. NASA. Astrobiologists. Like Chris McKay are studying, microorganisms. Encased, in the crystals. This. Alien, environment, has given him a chance to try out techniques, that, can be used to hunt for life on alien, planets. We. Are exploring, methods. That can do remote sensing, into, the crystal, to study what's inside them without, damaging, the crystal, the, same technologies. That allow, us to explore, a rock on Mars from several meters away, allow. Us to look at the my courses, that are entombed in, these Christmas. An. Initial. Survey, revealed that the chamber held a total of 170. Crystals, scientists. However have, a limited time to study them once. The mining operations, cease and stop. Removing, water the. Chamber will flood again, sealing. It forever. Just. 500 mile to the northeast of mica. The. Rolling hills of Central Texas. Cover, their own unexpected. Explosion, of crystals. The. Strange alien, formation. That the caverns of Sonora. Most. Caves should go into your indices bedrock tunnels, with, stalactite, stalagmite here, and there but here the whole thing is. Virtually. Crystal. The. Spectacular, world of the caverns, remained, a secret unknown. To, humans until, the early 20th, century. When. A dog chased, a raccoon into. A 20 inch opening, between, some rocks when. The locals explore the opening they discovered, the deep pit that prevented them from traveling, more than 500, feet from the entrance. Finally. In 1955. Three, cavers, managed, to cross the pit. On, the other side they. Discovered, seven miles of passages, almost. Entirely. Coated, with crystals. Although. These crystals, are underground, the. Secret to their creation begins. With whether on the surface. 20. Inches of rain fall. Here every year. That. Rainfall seeps, through the ground, picking, up minerals, as it finds its way into the limestone bedrock surrounding. The caverns. 150. Feet below the surface. The. Limestone is, like a sponge it holds a lot of water it. Doesn't, come in real fast but it it drips, you know a steady drip most of the time, as. Water. Arrives through the cave ceiling, it sheds calcite, minerals, a. Single. Crystal forms, in the stagnant water taking, the shape of a lopsided box.
Instead. Of dripping down to form stalactites. Or stalagmites. The. Crystals, stack together into. A variety of strange, configurations. It. Isn't just moving, water shaped into caves a. Silent. And nearly, invisible forces, at work here too, and it, has to do with the caves whether. Moist. Air is coming through, the cave it. Runs, along the wall is dissolving, this back side and down, here you see that it curves, with. The direction of airflow now. You think that maybe there was a hurricane of air flow moving down through here but this is really just very very. Gentle. Breeze that you probably wouldn't, even feel that's, happened, over thousands, and thousands, of years. Water. And rock mix. All the time on earth, but. In one place the, water is so strange. It, brings something, that looks like an alien world up to the surface. In. Some. Secret, corners of planet Earth even. The water is strange. Through. The Sierra Morena mountains, of southwestern, Spain. The bizarre river runs. Blood-red. The. Unusual, color of the Rio Tinto comes. From a high concentration of, dissolved iron. Picked. Up from the area's rocks. In. Southwestern. Turkey. Shockingly. Blue pools of water sit. On a bizarre landscape of, what appear to be icy. Terraces. But. This place is an icy at all. Known. As pamukkale a Turkish. For cotton castle this. Strange place is actually, made of rock. 17. Boiling, hot springs spit, jelly like calcium carbonate, also, known as limestone or, chalk out, onto. The hillsides the. Naturally, white mineral then, cools and, hardens the. Hot springs have been attracting, tourists, here since, Roman times, there's. A whole line of these springs you're chewing out in one location and the, springs have probably been active, for maybe, a couple of million years and there. You've built up terraces. That, are literally hundreds of feet high. On. The other side of the planet. Just. To the east of Yosemite. In California. Even, stranger, water laps, under the shores of Mono, Lake. It. Lies 400, miles from the nearest ocean. But. It's salty. Adding. To the oddity, the. Water foams like soap and. Grows. Gnarled. Rocky spires. Making. This alien, setting even more unusual, or, it's shockingly unpredictable. Winds. They. Can transform, the waters of Mono Lake from. Glass like calm, too. Dangerous, Whitecaps in just minutes. August. 31 2008. An. Experienced. Local kayaker, took. To the waters. When. Suddenly the winds roar to life. In minutes. They have spun up to 80 miles per hour, the. Hurricane-force. Winds, launched, so much foam into the air that. Pilots, flying, over at 30,000. Feet thought, one of the islands, in the lake was, erupting like a volcano. The. Local man's kayak, was found beached on an island two days later and. His, body was, discovered some 700. Feet down the shore. Writer. Mark Twain nearly. Suffered the same fate over. 150. Years earlier, when. A sudden storm almost capsized. His boat on Mono Lake he. Later wrote that he was afraid the boat would be swamped, by, a hundred, gallons of soap suds. However. The Lake Mark Twain saw was very different, then. The. Peculiar, columns, crowding, the lakeshore weren't. There. The. Reason that they're exposed now is, because, the water supply, to, Mono Lake has been depleted. Over the last many. Decades to provide, water, for urban, areas in California. So the lake level has gone down so. These structures. Have been revealed if. The lake were back to its historic, level we'd, be under water right now. What's. The secret of the rocky towers. The. Lake rests. Over a series, of freshwater, springs that, bubble up from below that. Spring water carries. Minerals, like calcium, when. It comes into contact with, the lake water it solidifies. Into limestone, the, same compound, found, in Turkey at, pommel collie. The. Odd water, of Mono Lake comes, from the rain and snow that falls on the surrounding, mountains runs. Through the rocks and ends, up in the lake and. So the, water leeching, to those rocks is, bringing a real interesting. Mix that reflects, the, chemistry, of the rocks that surround, the lake. Besides. A heavy dose of salt the, lake water contained, an unusual, amount of sodium, bicarbonate. Or baking soda, that's, what causes the water to foam on. A windy, day the. Wind whips the carbonates, up off the surface of the lake and they, pile up on shore like, this.
Strange. Places, can, emerge where water is nowhere, to be seen. In. A desert an almost. Invisible, crack in the land bears, the scars of an ancient earthly, force one. That returns again, and. Again. Earth's, desert, landscapes, seem to breathe strange, places. One. Of these hides, inside of a long crack in, a rocky hill on navajo territory, about. 300 miles north of Phoenix. This. Is, Antelope, Canyon. This, is an interesting place because of its shape. It's. Incredibly, deep relative. To its width and it, has remarkably. Sculpted, walls a. Sliver. Of powdery, red sand flows. Over the floor, it. Runs for over 1,000. Feet between, gently. Curving 100-foot. Tall walls. Why, is it so steep and narrow and. How. Are the walls so, impossible smooth. As. With. Most canyons, flowing. Rivers are part of the secret. That's. Especially true here in red canyon country where. The rocky ground hardly. Absorbs, any water. The. Process, began, 150. Million years ago when. Floodwaters carrying, sand found just the slightest, of fractures, at the top of this ancient sand. Over, time that water ground through the stone like, a chainsaw. There. Is an area of land upstream. That, collects the water from rainstorms, and, concentrates. It in this channel and it enters the canyon. On. August, 12 1997. The, cannon became a deathtrap a rainstorm, several. Miles away fill the incoming channel with four feet of water it. Surged, into, a nearby branch, and transformed. Into a 30 foot deep swell, drowning. 11, unsuspecting. Tourists. Two. Of their bodies were, never found. The. Flood waters aren't arriving, empty-handed. I'm. Standing in the dry streambed, of antelope canyon and, I'm standing next to a series, of terraces. And it. Indicates, that the, entrance, to the canyon often. Fills up with very. Large volumes, of sediment that end up getting funneled through the canyon. Most. Of that incoming, sediment, is sand. But. The flood waters also, pick up sand, from the walls themselves. Known. As Navajo, Sandstone the. Red rock of Antelope Canyon is, made up of piles and piles of, sand packed, together. This. Area at one time was a giant sand in the. Cover this region millions, of years ago, then. We had glacier ice that came in from the north water. Put pressure on the sand compressed, it and, turned it into stone. I. Have. Two pieces, of the Navajo Sandstone the, same rock that makes up Antelope, Canyon. Just. By rubbing, these two rocks together I've. Created a very, smooth surface on each of the rocks this. Is much like what is happening inside the canyon during a flood. The, Navajo name for the canyon is the place where the water runs through the rocks. Even. Today floods. Charged, through the canyon, up to eight times a year the. Water comes through spinning. And violently, turning, very, similar to a washing, machine and, it, carves out the canyon walls that way making. It smooth. Sometimes. This. World hides, its secrets within the walls of a nearly hidden Canyon. Other. Times, it, bares its own right. In the open and, the, most unexpected of, places. The. Strangest, places on earth are, often found in the most desolate corners, of the planet. But. Even for this world, a fountain. Gushing, non-stop, from the floor of a barren wasteland is. Especially, bizarre. Here. In Nevada's, Black Rock Desert, that's. Only part, of the oddity. This, is fly, geyser. It's, still growing, and fast. What's, a little unusual here, is the amount of material. That has come out on the surface and, accumulated, just in a matter of several decades. The. Secret to why fly geyser grows, here in the middle of the desert, has. To do with how that water gets here. It, starts, off normally, as rain, and snowfall landing. On the surrounding, mountains. As. This. Water trickles, toward fly geyser it, encounters, a natural, furnace, created. By, movement, in this region's, terrain. Press. Tears being pulled apart being stretched and so there's lots and lots of fault lines and, fractures, the, snow it can melt and percolate. Downward, along those faults and fractures. This. Steamy, water collects, beneath the fly geyser in an aquifer, a reservoir, of saturated, rocks all. The water needs to, reach the surface is, a crack. In. 1964. Hot. Water burst to the surface and started. Dumping a heavy dose of minerals, especially, calcium.
Carbonate. Thus a mineral, that makes up the cave walls of Sonora, and the. Towers of Mono Lake. Hear. It, first accumulates, into rounded, towers, then. As, it trickles to the ground and settles the. Calcium carbonate, hardens, and forms. Individual, pools. Calcium. Carbonate, is normally, white. But, a strange, form, of life clinging, to the geyser is, covering, it up. There's. A couple different types of LG here there's. A green algae and a red algae and, algae. Loves, warm mineral. Rich water. This. Particular algae, thrives, in searing heat where, other earthly, life cannot. As, fly geyser continues, to gush grow. And cultivate life, in the middle of a dusty Basin. It. Takes its place with, the other bizarre mysteries, of Earth. We. See some of these phenomena. Individually. On other planets, and moons. But. To get all the, kinds of attributes that, we have here on earth I think, is really quite rare in the universe. It, is only by examining, all the workings of this world. Common. And peculiar. You.
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