Unit 29
Wonders of Nature
Environment and Ecology
Nature often takes us by surprise. There are particularly some views in nature which really amaze us with breathtaking phenomena 5
that appear “unnatural.” Take the New Zealand’s Waitomo Caves as an example. In the caves, thousands of blue lights dangle from the ceilings, twinkling like stars in a night sky. Tourists flock to the caves, awe-struck by the starry night illusions all around them. In fact, the beautiful lights
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come from a glow worm species found exclusively in New Zealand. The glow worms use bioluminescent light and silk threads covered in sticky, reflective droplets to attract and capture prey. Although the bioluminescence appears pretty inviting, the glow worms actually look no different than regular worms.
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Located amid the green of the woodlands and next to the turquoise of the sea, Lake Hillier in Australia is another wonder of nature that stuns the tourists with its pink water. The living microorganisms as well as bacteria interact with the saltwater of the lake, thereby creating the pink color. Despite the unusual hue, the lake exhibits no
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known adverse effects upon humans. It is safe to swim in the lake although not many people do so. Still another marvelous phenomenon known as “Blood Falls” takes place in Antarctica. As the name suggests, the water that slowly pours out from the ice tongue of Taylor Glacier takes on the color of
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blood. The Antarctica pioneers first owed the reddish-brown color to red algae, but it was actually the result of the saltwater of a lake beneath the glacier. The saltwater contains large amounts of iron, which reacts with oxygen when the water rises from the glacier, and thus produces the rusty color.
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Human beings have been trying to explore and understand Earth, but every so often nature throws us for a loop. Around the world, strange phenomena have astonished us and led to greater knowledge of Earth.
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