Anomalous claims from Turkey-Syria earthquake 2023
With a flood of images and videos coming out of the affected area in southern and central Turkey and western Syria from the February 6, 2023 series of quakes, there…
Spooky events from the New Madrid earthquakes
A series of giant earthquakes within the continental interior is strange in itself, but other notable phenomena associated with the New Madrid, Missouri quakes of 1811-2 made the events preternaturally…
Sinkhole drains pool in Israel resulting in death
A man enjoying a private pool at a company party in central Israel was sucked into the subsurface when a sinkhole opened up under the pool. The ground collapsed into…
Fireball “mud volcano” in Caspian Sea
On July 4, news started circulating about a huge explosion in the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan captured on video. The first information was relayed by the state oil company, SOCAR,…
Nyiragongo eruption misinformation
Nyiragongo volcano in the DR Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo) is a highly dangerous stratovolcano with a lava lake in the crater. Activity began on May 22. The nearby town…
Pine Barrens Blue Hole
The Pine Barrens area of New Jersey has plenty of small lakes or ponds that people call "blue holes". Because of the legends surrounding them, they have become quite popular.…
Gold mine pit collapse in Sulawesi, Indonesia
The unstable slopes of an unauthorized gold mine pit on Indonesia's Sulawesi island gave way on February 24, 2021, burying workers. Many were rescued, several died in the collapse. News…
Fillmore underground fire
The Fillmore underground fire is a patch of ground on private property just outside the Los Padres National Forest, in Ventura County, California. Burning at around 800 degrees in spots,…
Dog rescued after disappearing down a sinkhole
February, 2016State College, Pennsylvania Megan Holmes was walking her golden retriever off the leash, during a snowstorm, around the Pennsylvania State University Arboretum on February 15, 2016. The well-behaved dog…
The “Hellmouth” Batagaika crater
Originally published 2017-March 3. Updated 2020-August 1. If the land around you was sinking and falling at this rate, you’d be worried too! Villagers of Batagay in Yakutia (Sakha Republic,…
Trapped in Quicksand
Once upon a time, adventurers into unknown lands feared quicksand - a deadly hazard that looked like a sand patch or a harmless puddle. Step in the wrong place, the…
Thirteen trapped in Thailand flooded cave
From June into July of 2018, media coverage about 12 boys and an adult man trapped in a cave in Thailand transfixed people around the world. The incident provides an…
Pele’s hair and tears
As molten rock flies through the air, it forms into substances known as Pele's hair and tears. So-called Pele's hair, named after the Goddess of Fire who inhabits Kilauea volcano,…
The wrath of Pele
Pele, the Goddess of Fire and Volcanoes deserves her own page on this site, but the current activity at Kilauea Volcano on the big island of Hawaii merits a mention…
Earthquake Lights
Despite centuries of reports of anomalous luminous phenomena (ANP) - lights, glows, flames, sparks and clouds - before, during or after an earthquake, the scientific view of such reports remains…
Sinkholes
Perhaps some people have an exaggerated fear of sinkholes. The thought of the foundation falling out from under our feet is terrifying when the seemingly stable ground is suddenly rendered…
The Grand Kenyan – A huge fissure in the East African Rift valley
A huge fissure developed in the East African Rift Valley in Kenya on March 19, 2018. From Daily Nation/JAMES KAHONGEH on March 20, 2018: At the intersection of the damage with…
Ground fissures in Saudi Arabia
A large ground fissure opened and worries local residents. (YouTube) Dramatic and scary earth fissures unrelated to earthquakes are rather common around the world, especially in arid areas. Where the…
Misbehaving lakes: Three water bodies that exhale death gas
In August 1986, approximately 1800 people living in a 15-mile radius of Lake Nyos in Cameroon didn’t live to see the morning, dying by suffocation from toxic gas exhaled from…
Putrid pit of dinosaur corpses
Stop eating before you read this story. It's a bit stomach-turning. A recent find of a fossilized death assemblage tells a graphic story of mass death. The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry…
Giant dust devils with crystal blades
This is very cool news, although you would be wise to steer very clear of one of these awesome spectacles - flying blades of gypsum in tornadic hot winds. Gypsum…
Darvaza: Gate to Hell
There are many places around the world that locals have branded the “gate to hell”. One of the most dramatic examples is featured in our banner image for the site.…
Death scenes, geologically preserved
For inducing fear and unease, dead things are big-time spooky. Geological factors can result in recording death in particularly captivating ways, freezing the animals’ death throes across enormous stretches of…
Cracked, baby, cracked: The earth is splitting up with us humans
Sometimes the earth splits open for no apparent reason. It’s pretty frightening to witness a giant, miles-long gash that makes the surface feel unstable and we humans feel rather small…
A Trip to Hell: Mysterious tunnel system and underground river at Baiae, Italy
Many people are familiar with the Oracle of Delphi, where Pythia, the priestess of Apollo was said to relate messages from the god to the temple visitors. The specialness of…