10 Mysterious Geological
Wonders
And frequently very beautiful wonders
of nature.
The Wave (between Arizona
and Utah - USA)
• A red-rock stunner on the
border of Arizona and
Utah, The Wave is made of
190-million- year-old sand
dunes that have turned to
rock. This little-known
formation is accessible only
on foot via a three-mile
hike and highly regulated.
Antelope Canyon (Arizona - USA)
• The most visited and photographed slot
canyon in the American Southwest, the
Antelope Canyon is located on Navajo land
near Page, Arizona. It includes two
separate, photogenic slot canyon sections,
referred to individually as Upper Antelope
Canyon --or “The Crack”-- and Lower
Antelope Canyon --or “The Corkscrew.”
• The Navajo name for Upper
Antelope Canyon is Tse'
bighanilini, which means
"the place where water runs
through rocks." Lower
Antelope Canyon is
Hasdestwazi, or "spiral rock
arches." Both are located
within the LeChee Chapter
of the Navajo Nation.
Great Blue Hole (Belize)
• Part of the Lighthouse Reef System, The Great Blue
Hole lies approximately 60 miles off the mainland
out of Belize City. A large, almost perfectly circular
hole approximately one quarter of a mile (0.4 km)
across, it’s one of the most astounding dive sites to
be found anywhere on earth. Inside this hole, the
water is 480 feet (145 m) deep and it is the depth
of water which gives the deep blue color that
causes such structures throughout the world to be
known as "blue holes."
Crystal Cave of the Giants
(Mexico)
• Found deep inside a mine in southern Chihuahua
Mexico, these crystals were formed in a natural cave
totally enclosed in bedrock. A geode full of spectacular
crystals as tall as pine trees, and in some cases greater
in circumference, they are a translucent gold and silver
in color and come in many incredible forms and shapes.
The Crystal Cave of the Giants was discovered within
the same limestone body that hosts the silver-zinc- lead
ore bodies exploited by the mine and it was probably
dissolved by the same hydrothermal fluids that
deposited the metals with the gypsum being crystallized
during the waning stages of mineralization.
Eye of the Sahara
(Mauritania)
• This spectacular landform in
Mauritania in the southwestern
part of the Sahara desert is so
huge with a diameter of 30 miles
that it is visible from space.
Called Richat Structure --or the
Eye of the Sahara-- the The
formation was originally thought
to be caused by a meteorite
impact but now geologists believe
it is a product of uplift and
erosion. The cause of its circular
shape is still a mystery.
Blue Lake Cave (Brazil)
• Mato Grosso do Sul region in Brazil (and especially
the quiet town of Bonito) boasts many marvelous
underground lakes: Gruta do Lago Azul, Gruta do
Mimoso, Aquário Natural. The world famous
"Gruta do Lago Azul” (Blue Lake Cave) is a natural
monument whose interior is formed by stalactites,
stalagmites and a huge and wonderful blue lake.
The beauty of the lake is something impressive.
The Blue Lake Cave has a big variety of
geologicalformation but impresses mainly for the
deep blue colored water of its inside lake.
Giants Causeway (Ireland)
• An area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt
columns, the Giants Causeway is a result of an
ancient volcanic eruption. Located on the northeast coast of Northern Ireland, most of its
columns are hexagonal, although there are also
some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The
tallest are about 12 meters (36 ft) high, and the
solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 meters thick in
places. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers,
the causeway was named as the fourth greatest
natural wonder in the United Kingdom.
Hell Gate (Uzbekistan)
• Called by locals The Door to Hell, this place in
Uzbekistan is situated near the small town of Darvaz.
When geologists were drilling for gas, 35 years ago,
they suddenly found an underground cavern that was
so big, all the drilling site with all the equipment and
camps got deep deep under the ground. None dared to
go down there because the cavern was filled with gas,
so they ignited it so that no poisonous gas could come
out of the hole, and since then, it has been burning.
Nobody knows how many tons of excellent gas has
been burned for all those years but it just seems to be
infinite.
Wave Rock (Australia)
• The Wave Rock is a natural rock formation located in
western Australia. It derives its name from the fact that
it is shaped like a tall breaking ocean wave. The total
outcrop covers several hectares; the "wave" part of the
rock is about 15 meters high and approximately 110
meters long. One aspect of Wave Rock rarely shown on
photographs is the retaining wall about halfway up the
rock. This follows the contours and allows rainwater to
be collected in a dam. It was constructed in 1951 by
the Public Works Department, and such walls are
common on many similar rocks in the wheatbelt.
Chocolate Hills
(Philippines)
• Composed of around 1,268 perfectly cone-shaped hills
of about the same size spread over an area of more
than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi), this highly
unusual geologicalformation , called Chocolate Hills, is
located in Bohol, Philippines. There are a number of
hypotheses regarding the formation of the hills. These
include simple limestone weathering, sub-oceanic
volcanism, the uplift of the seafloor and a more recent
theory which maintains that as an ancient active
volcano self-destructed, it spewed huge blocks of stone
which were then covered with limestone and later
thrust forth from the ocean bed.