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SPOOKY GEOLOGY

Earth mysteries, weird locations, anomalous phenomena

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Legends and science of bottomless holes
Features, Paranormal Places

Legends and science of bottomless holes

There are countless holes in the ground. Some have water. Some are just open void and darkness. When we can’t readily discern the depth, the hole begets additional legendary characteristics, including that of being bottomless. Let’s check out the legends of bottomless holes.

The “Hellmouth” Batagaika crater
Features, GeoHazards

The “Hellmouth” Batagaika crater

A megaslump is affecting the villagers of Batagay in Yakutia, Siberia. Local legend is that it’s a mouth to hell. The area of land continues to slump and sink, changing the landscape and creating a hazard for the village.

Pic de Bugarach: The mysterious mountain
Earth Mysteries, Features, Paranormal Places

Pic de Bugarach: The mysterious mountain

Pic de Bugarach in Aude, France, is a place that effortlessly combines natural wonder and legends. Add to its history a heaping portion of serious scientific misunderstandings, flavor with rumors and imaginative speculation, then bake for centuries, and the result is a bizarre mashup of fact and fiction that satisfies in our modern spooky times.

Trapped in Quicksand
Features, GeoHazards

Trapped in Quicksand

Quicksand was a deadly peril in unknown lands, according to pop culture in the late 1900s. But quicksand is a real thing and its creation (and your ability to escape from it) is a lesson in soil dynamics.

Pole Holes and the Hollow Earth
Alternative Geology, Features

Pole Holes and the Hollow Earth

A sci-fi trope, some people actually believed that there is substantial space inside the earth’s sphere where curious things occur. The history of the hollow earth idea is complex and far more serious than you might guess. It definitely qualifies as some spooky alternative to geology.

Devil’s Corkscrews
Anomalies & Strange Objects, Features

Devil’s Corkscrews

In the late 19th century, settlers came across bizarre, giant “stone screws” vertically embedded in the ground. Flummoxed as to what could cause such structures, the locals named them the “devil’s corkscrews”. Paleontologists would argue for over nearly a century about what they really were.

Moodus: The Place of Bad Noises
Features, Paranormal Places

Moodus: The Place of Bad Noises

Machimoodus is historically well-known as the literal “place of bad noises” based on native legends that were subsequently both promoted and twisted by colonists in New England. Today, the Moodus noises of East Haddam, Connecticut are still a popular tale as people interested in natural anomalies hope to hear them when they visit.

Devil’s Punchbowl
Features, Paranormal Places

Devil’s Punchbowl

All around the world are remnants of a party of epic proportions – Devil’s punchbowls. Or maybe the punch was more literal. Let’s explore the interesting geology of these legendary cauldrons.

Devil’s Gate
Features, Paranormal Places

Devil’s Gate

Several sinister and infamous places around the world have been named the Devil’s Gate and come with legends of murder, magic, and monsters. Let’s take a brief tour.

Devil’s Den
Features, Paranormal Places

Devil’s Den

Devil’s Den is an infamous collection of large diabase boulders within the Gettysburg National Battlefield. The location has accrued spooky legends. But the truth about this diabolical place, and others with the same name, is connected to geology.

Devil Places
Features, Paranormal Places

Devil Places

There are countless places in the world named after the Devil. Devil-named places sometimes owe their moniker to the geology. The features of these places may create a spooky and foreboding feeling that reinforces the local legends of the places being cursed, evil or enchanted. Let’s explore Satan’s Kingdom on earth.

Thirteen trapped in Thailand flooded cave
GeoHazards, News

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. How did they get trapped and not be able to get out? Let’s talk groundwater and karst.

The wrath of Pele
GeoHazards, News

The wrath of Pele

The legend of Pele, goddess of fire, still resonates with natives of the Hawaiian islands. Stories of her kindness and curses are still popular today as Kilauea’s activity continues.

Island of the Dead is Eroding
News, Paranormal Places

Island of the Dead is Eroding

Hart Island is New York City’s “potters field” where one million of the poor, unclaimed, or unidentified dead are buried. Islands, however, are not great places for burial due to high water tables and erosion. Strong storms in the past few years have eaten away at the land and exposed skeletal remains.

Earthquake Lights
Earth Mysteries, Features, GeoHazards

Earthquake Lights

The evidence for earthquake lights (EQLs) consists overwhelmingly of anecdotal accounts. But scientific evidence has been accumulating, and in the past 10 years a plausible theory to explain the host of unusual precursors has been proposed. Spooky Geology examines the credibility and cause of earthquake lights and other associated phenomenon.

Sinkholes – Are you at risk?
Features, GeoHazards

Sinkholes – Are you at risk?

There is something highly unnerving about the thought that the ground can give way into a gaping void that can swallow trees, cars, structures, and even people. How frightened should you be of sinkholes? While they can be catastrophic, they are not entirely unpredictable.

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