We have convinced ourselves that we know what our Earth looks like. Normally we do not look beyond the seas, mountains, land, and deserts. But what we fail to notice is that there are numerous places on Earth that defy our notion of the typical Earthly landscape. If you visited these places, you would definitely be convinced that they belong to another planet. Check out pictures of 10 such amazing places and their descriptions below.

Jellyfish Lake
Eli Malk Island, Republic of Palau



Diving into the waters in Jellyfish Lake is like drifting through space with strange alien beings. The Jellyfish explosion that this lake experiences is alien-like and dangerous, not because of the stingers that these killer fish have; they are too small to be felt by humans, it is dangerous because of a layer of poisonous hydrogen sulfide 15 feet below the surface.



Off the coast of Koror in Palau, Jellyfish Lake is one of 70 saltwater lakes that were once connected with the Pacific Ocean. The lake is 12,000 years old and contains a species of Jellyfish named the Golden Jellyfish. For reasons we may not fully understand, the jellyfish migrate across the lake once every single day. There is no scuba diving allowed but snorkelers report that the beauty of this migration is unbelievable.

There is a mystery, however, attached to the jellyfish as they died completely off in the lake in 1998 with a zero population. In 2000, the mysteriously reappeared and science has no explanation.


Cano Cristales
Colombia



Deep in the jungles of Colombia runs an ordinary river with no distinguishable characteristics to call its own. In fact, you could cross this river several hundred times a year and never know it from any of the other rivers in the vast jungles near Macarena. However, if you did not know better and were to stumble upon this river during the brief period between the rainy and dry seasons, you would literally stop, your mouth hanging open in disbelief. Your first thought would be that you were dreaming and you would pinch yourself. Realizing consciousness, your next thought would be to your sanity. If you were old enough, you would briefly worry about all the drugs you experimented with in the 60′s. Then you would look about frantically for tall blue people riding monster bird-like creatures with the absolute certainty that you stumbled upon the real Avatar tribe.



The explosion of color from the flowering moss that covers the rocks in this one place on earth is so amazing that it has earned this river names like, The Rainbow River, The River that Ran Away from Paradise, The Most Beautiful River in the World, and The River of Five Colors, which is weird because the literally hundreds of shades of each of these five colors is astonishing. This natural phenomenon of algae does not occur anywhere else in the world in this combination and the conditions are only right for that very brief period of time when the water level is just right and the moss gets the perfect amount of sunlight. This unique, alien like place is only obtainable via horse or donkey and has only recently become a tourist attraction.

This river, including waterfalls is truly a one of a kind experience that everyone should be lucky enough to see at least once in their lifetime.

Mud Volcanoes of Azerbaijan
Bozdagh, Azerbaijan



From the air, the mud volcanoes of Azerbaijan look like a giant witch’s cauldron, bubbling away on some cursed alien landscape. These mini-volcanoes, some as high as 650 feet above the ground, turn the coast of the Caspian Sea into a very dangerous place. A full 300 of the earth’s 700 mud volcanoes can be found here, ejecting millions of cubic meters of hydrocarbon gases into the atmosphere. They also throw mud hundreds of feet through the air. If the planet earth could fart, this is the place it would happen.



In 2001, witnesses saw flames eject more than 50 feet and the mud volcano was still belching fire three days later. Despite the danger, people of the region claim that the mud has healing properties prompting health seekers around the world to make the trek to this alien-like place to bath in the mud. To make the off planet experience even more vivid, there is a natural rock formation right in the midst of these volcanic mud monsters that makes music. When you strike the rock, it makes sounds like a tambourine. Music and a mud bath… sounds like a spa! They should hire a masseuse and charge money!

Blood Falls
McMurdo, Antartica



McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica is one of the most isolated and harshest places in the world. Nothing can survive in this place of subzero temperatures and icy winds, or so we thought. Then we noticed the blood red liquid draining from Taylor Glacier into Lake Bonney. It is almost as if some giant wounded the glacier with a spear and it is bleeding from the wound. Upon closer examination, scientific explorers made one of the most startling discoveries of our time. In a lifeless and alien-like place that is so harsh, nothing can survive we found primordial life. That “blood” that seeps from the wounded glacier is the stuff that life is made of. Somewhere else on our planet, millions of years ago, the very first life form crawled out of this same kind of primordial pool.



So how does the basic, building block foundation of life survive for so long in conditions so contrary to it? How could it survive in conditions so bad that we would never think to look for it? We still do not have a definite answer. What we do have is a new question. If a basic form of life can form and survive in this hostile place, could it also be present on another planet? I do not know, but i know an interesting and beautiful place when i see one. What scientists found is startling in that there is a living microbial ecosystem in a place where there is no oxygen. These microbes have devised a way to survive through manipulation of iron and sulfur compounds. While this should be impossible, scientist are considering the possibility of the first known form of life that can “carbonize” iron. These tiny microbes are “Fixing” the carbon dioxide that iron produces. The term “Fixing” means that they can convert carbon dioxide to organic molecules to be consumed, making them the most efficient CO2 fixers on the planet. The possibilities that arise from studying this process are as far reaching as anything ever discovered before. This is especially true if we could find a way to duplicate it.

Wave Rock
Arizona, USA



The wave can only be described as a hallucination set in stone. If this is not the exact replica of some alien landscape, I will eat my hat. The lines and curves formed from 190 million of years of wind blown sand and rushing water over sandstone turned to rock will make you dizzy and you have to make a real effort not to fall flat on your face. You actually have to play the lottery to get a ticket to see it and only twenty people are allowed to walk on its delicate surface per day. Even the photographs, which will never do the place justice, will make you dizzy if you stare at them. Being in the Wave Rocks of Arizona is like walking in a dizzy dream.



The funny part is that most Americans do not know about them or do not care. The majority of the visitors are European.

Fly Ranch Geyser
Nevada, USA



What do you get when accidentally dig a well on top of a geothermal water pocket? Fly Ranch Geyser looks like a colorful mini-mountain from a space movie because it sits in the middle of a Nevada Ranch. The ranch is dreary and colorless as you drive down route 447 until suddenly, one third of a mile off the road this weird, eerily formed rock juts from the landscape spewing water in tree directions for dozens of feet. The amazing colors from the water minerals are what get your attention because you have been driving in Nevada, which is not a very colorful trip.



The owner of the ranch is not interested in tourism and keeps a fence with a locked gate there to keep visitors from gathering. No Trespassing signs are posted but people are just as likely to jump the fence for a closer look, as not. The well was dug 1916 for irrigation purposes but sometime in the 60′s, the natural geothermal reservoir found a weak spot and 200 degree water carrying Sulphureus minerals began spewing forth, making the well a man made geyser. Now a little over five feet high and twelve feet across, it appear to be something from another planet.

The water created a marshy area with plant life and looks so out of place that you just cannot miss it from the road.