--- title: "Incredible Places on Earth that Shouldn't Exist" description: "The world is filled with incredible and unique locations. Whether it's the tallest mountain or the deepest sea, these places never fail to impress us. But there are a few locations hidden around the world that are a bit different than that. Not only are they uniquely impressive, but they all possess some extraordinary characteristic that makes it appear as if such a location shouldn't be allowed to exist in the natural world.\n\n## Uyuni Salt Flat, Bolivia\n\nLocated in the Daniel Campos Province in southwest Bolivia lies Salar de Uyuni, or the Uyuni Salt Flat. At over 10,000 square km (almost 4,000 square miles), it is the largest salt flat in the world. The surface of the flat is covered with a few meters of salt, estimated to total about 10 billion tonnes of salt.\n\nWhile the area is believed to have once been home to a prehistoric lake, the water evaporated leaving the salt flats behind. Evaporating water caused the remaining salt to crystallize into a remarkable hexagonal pattern. Despite the name, salt flats aren't always flat. Some maintain a rough and sharply changing topology, but the Uyuni Salt Flat is almost uniformly level. From the highest to the lowest point over the entire massive area that the flat encompasses, the height fluctuates less than one meter.\n\nBut it's not this almost perfectly flat area of crystallized salt with its hexagonal patterns that draws the most tourists. Most people choose to visit between December and April during Bolivia's wet season. When it rains the salt flat floods, in a manner of speaking. The rain never creates more than a thin layer of water, essentially creating the world's largest puddle. But more importantly, during the wet season the Uyuni Salt Flat becomes the world's largest mirror.\n\nThis turns the salt flat into a one of a kind location where visitors can take incredible photos of themselves walking across this giant, natural mirror, making it appear as if they're walking on clouds. Even the most amateur photographer is sure to be able to take amazing and surreal pictures at this unbelievable location.\n\nBut since the dry salt flats are an impressive sight as well, you may want to visit at the tail end of the wet season to get the best of both worlds.\n\n## Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland\n\nAccording to Irish folklore, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, also known as Finn MacCool, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Finn constructed the causeway from Ireland to Scotland so that he could cross the sea without getting his feet wet, then went out to search for Benandonner so they could engage in battle.\n\nHowever, when Finn saw Benandonner, he realized that the giant was much bigger than he was so he went back home instead of fighting. The Scottish giant crossed to Ireland to find his opponent, so Finn's wife disguised him as a baby and put him in a crib. When Benandonner saw just how large this alleged baby was, he assumed that its father, which must have been Finn, would surely be a giant among giants. Benandonner fled back to Scotland in terror, destroying the causeway behind him so that Finn couldn't return. Of course that's just a legend, and one that doesn't even make sense. If Finn built the causeway in the first place why wouldn't Benandonner think he could just build a new one?\n\nRegardless, the Giant's Causeway in Country Antrim on the coast of Northern Ireland certainly looks like it was a manmade structure. It is made up of roughly 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. These columns are usually described as hexagonal, which is generally true, though they range from having anywhere from four to eight sides.\n\nThese columns form a series of stepping stones, with the highest reaching 12 meters or about 40 feet above the sea. The steps descend downward towards the water before disappearing beneath the surface.\n\nWhile the story of Finn certainly provides a MacCool explanation for how this formation came into existence, it is actually the result of basalt lava flows that came into contact with the chalk bed, forming a basalt plateau. The basalt quickly cooled which caused it to contract, cracking the once solid structure into the tens of thousands of pillars that exist today. These basalt formations are extremely rare, but Giant's Causeway isn't entirely unique.\n\nIn fact, there's another, nearly identical formation known as Fingal's Cave in Scotland directly across the sea from Giant's Causeway. While both were caused by the same volcanic activity, their similar physical features and impression of being manmade structures likely aided in the creation of the legend behind Giant's Causeway.\n\n## Grand Prismatic Spring, United States\n\nYellowstone National Park in Wyoming is best known for the geyser Old Faithful, but that's hardly the only impressive sight to behold in this park. Also located in Yellowstone is the Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the entire world.\n\nBut what sets the Grand Prismatic Spring apart from other hot springs, as its name might suggest, are the concentric circles of various colours, like light dispersing through a prism. The water in the center of the basin is a deep blue, with it appearing to change to green then yellow as it approaches the shore. Just outside the basin are layers of orange and red.\n\nThis giant rainbow is 112 meters (370 feet) wide and 50 meters (160 feet) deep. The different colours are caused by pigmented bacteria, with different bacteria creating each layer. As the temperature decreases from one ring to the next, the type of bacteria that are able to thrive under those conditions change, creating the prism effect. The water at the center of the hot spring is so hot, with temperatures reaching as high as 87 °C (189 °F), that it is completely sterile. This causes the temperature at the center to be free of bacteria and retain its natural blue colour.\n\nThe pigmented microbes responsible for the spring's other colours are known as thermophiles, because of their ability to thrive in extremely hot conditions like those bordering the hot spring. However, this also means the springs are subject to a bit of seasonal change. In the winter it becomes harder for the bacteria to survive, resulting in the colours becoming much duller. If you want to see the Grand Prismatic Springs at their brightest, it's best to visit during warmer months.\n\n## Cave of the Crystals, Mexico\n\nNaica, Chihuahua, Mexico is home to the Naica Mine, a lead, zinc, and silver mine. In 1910, workers in the mine discovered a chamber beneath the mines. This cavern was called Cueva de las Espadas, or Cave of the Swords. The cave is 104 meters long, 1400 cubic meters in volume, and was immediately remarkable for being filled with a large number of impressive gypsum crystals that had grown to a meter long.\n\nAt about $12 per tonne these crystals were hardly valuable, but their size made them exceptional. Little could anyone have realized at the time that this was only the beginning. In April of 2000, workers were drilling through the Naica fault to create a new tunnel for the mining company. There were fears that this could result in the mine flooding, but instead it led to a much more extraordinary discovery.\n\nBeneath the Cave of Swords, workers found another much larger chamber, possibly as large as 6,000 cubic meters. This new chamber was named Cueva de los Cristales, or Cave of the Crystals, and it was unlike anything anybody had ever seen before. The previous chamber's one meter crystals were already remarkable, but the Cave of the Crystals was full of gypsum crystals that had grown to over 11 meters long, or over 37 feet.\n\nThese are some of the largest natural crystals in the world, with an estimated weight of up to 12 tonnes each. The crystals owe their size to the rather unique environmental aspects of the cave. It is situated above a magma chamber and periodically floods with fluids heated by the water. The air is acidic, the cave sits at 90-99% humidity at all times, and thanks to the magma chamber it is extremely hot with temperatures reaching up to 58 °C (136 °F). That's comparable to the record highs in Death Valley, except nobody would be able to say \"Well at least it's a dry heat\".\n\nUnfortunately, this particular cavern isn't somewhere that you can visit yourself. Not only is the only entrance to the Cave of the Crystals through the mines owned by Industrias Peñoles mining company, it simply wouldn't be safe to go wandering around inside anyway. Because of the low air quality and high temperatures, nobody is allowed inside the cave for more than ten minutes at a time without proper protective gear.\n\nBut even with protective gear the atmosphere is still extremely inhospitable, especially because of the high temperatures. Between that and the fact that the cave flooded again in 2015, it remains largely unexplored. However, you can still find amazing pictures of scientists examining the cave while walking across its massive crystals.\n\n## Kawah Ijen Volcano, Indonesia\n\nThe Ijen volcano complex is located on the island of Java in Indonesia. Though multiple volcanoes make up this complex, none is more famous than Kawah Ijen. One of the most notable features of this volcano is its accompanying crater lake. The lake is a kilometer wide and up to 200 meters deep, making it the largest highly acidic lake in the world.\n\nIt's not uncommon for a crater lake to be acidic as a result of volcanic gases flowing down into the lake, but the Kawah Ijen lake is not only the largest acidic lake, it is among the most dangerous. A combination of sulfuric and hydrochloric acid has left the lake with a pH of 0.13, according to measurements taken in 2013. As a frame of reference, battery acid only has a pH of 0.8.\n\nSo much sulfur is deposited at the lake from the volcano that the shores of the lake have been mined for sulfur for over 700 years. Every day 14 tons of sulfur are extracted from the lake, which is only 20% of the amount deposited daily by the volcano. But the world's largest acidic lake can't compare to the wonder of Kawah Ijen itself.\n\nAt first glance, it looks like your typical volcano. It's just a big mountain with a hole at the top that's constantly releasing massive amounts of gas. You could walk past Kawah Ijen every day for your entire life and never know there was anything special about it. But that would all change if you ever took a look at the volcano during the night.\n\nKawah Ijen is a solfatara, a type of volcano that is constantly spewing out large amounts of hot sulfur gases. When these heated gases come into contact with the oxygen rich atmosphere outside of the volcano, they ignite. Some of the gas will even condense and fall on the volcano where they again ignite and create the appearance of lava flows. And in case it's been a while since you've played with a chemistry set, sulfur burns a bright, electric blue.\n\nDuring the daylight, the blue flames are impossible to see from afar. But every night, the top of the volcano lights up with what looks like a magmatic flow of blue lava. While this phenomenon isn't exclusive to Kawah Ijen, it is usually the rare result of extraordinary circumstances. This is the only volcano in the world where the bright blue lava can be seen illuminating the skyline every single night.\n\n## Kummakivi, Finland\n\nThe final entry in today's list is perhaps the most mundane object, but it's also the one that most looks like it shouldn't exist. Kummakivi is Finnish for \"strange rock\", and this particular strange rock is located in the forest in Ruokalahti, Finland.\n\nKummakivi is what is known as a balancing rock. These are naturally occurring geological formations that result in one rock appearing to be precariously balanced on another smaller rock. And that's exactly why Kummakivi looks like it shouldn't exist. The 7 meter (23 foot) rock has a very small footprint atop the rock on which it balances. It appears as if the slightest nudge will make it fall over, but of course it doesn't. There are an abundance of pictures online of people attempting to topple Kummakivi. It looks like it should be really easy to do, but no human could ever be strong enough to budge such a massive boulder.\n\nThere are estimates that the rock weighs as much as 500 tonnes, though this is difficult to verify. According to legend, the rock was either placed there by a giant, or it landed there when giants and trolls were throwing rocks at each other. While that obviously isn't true, the rock is believed to have been there for thousands of years. There are several ways for formations of balancing rocks like this to form, but scientists believe that Kummakivi was placed atop the other rock by a receding glacier 8,000-12,000 years ago.\n\nHowever, there is one other element of Kummakivi that makes it particularly special among balancing rocks. Atop the rock grows a large pine tree, believed to have been growing there since the 1980s. The tree is difficult to see in most pictures since it blends into the background of other trees in the forest, but it is a truly impressive sight if you do see it.\n\nKummakivi has been a protected natural monument since 1962, but it is still free for tourists to come and see the rock for themselves.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- The Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia becomes the world's largest mirror during the wet season.\n- The Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland features 40,000 interlocking basalt columns formed by cooled lava.\n- The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone is the largest hot spring in the U.S., known for its vibrant, bacterial-colored rings.\n- The Cave of the Crystals in Mexico contains some of the largest natural crystals in the world.\n- Kawah Ijen Volcano in Indonesia is famous for its nightly blue lava flows from burning sulfur gases.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What is the largest salt flat in the world?\n\nThe Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia is the largest salt flat in the world, covering over 10,000 square km.\n\n### What makes the Uyuni Salt Flat a popular tourist destination?\n\nThe Uyuni Salt Flat becomes the world's largest mirror during the wet season, allowing visitors to take unique photos.\n\n### What is the Giant's Causeway made of?\n\nThe Giant's Causeway is made up of roughly 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, usually described as hexagonal.\n\n### What causes the colors in the Grand Prismatic Spring?\n\nThe colors in the Grand Prismatic Spring are caused by pigmented bacteria, with different bacteria creating each layer.\n\n### What is unique about the Cave of the Crystals in Mexico?\n\nThe Cave of the Crystals contains some of the largest natural crystals in the world, with gypsum crystals growing over 11 meters long.\n\n### What makes the Kawah Ijen Volcano unique at night?\n\nAt night, the Kawah Ijen Volcano lights up with bright blue flames due to the ignition of sulfur gases, creating the appearance of blue lava flows.\n\n### What is Kummakivi and why is it notable?\n\nKummakivi is a balancing rock in Finland where a 7-meter rock appears to be precariously balanced on another smaller rock. It is notable for its apparent instability and the pine tree growing on top.\n\n### What is the pH level of the crater lake at Kawah Ijen?\n\nThe crater lake at Kawah Ijen has a pH level of 0.13, making it one of the most acidic and dangerous lakes in the world.\n\n### How did the Giant's Causeway form?\n\nThe Giant's Causeway formed from basalt lava flows that cooled and contracted, cracking into tens of thousands of pillars.\n\n### What is the best time to visit the Grand Prismatic Spring?\n\nThe best time to visit the Grand Prismatic Spring is during warmer months to see the colors at their brightest.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Side Projects video: Incredible Places on Earth that Shouldn't Exist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xbTm16zu48)\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://sideprojects.pub/article/incredible-places-on-earth-that-shouldnt-exist.md canonical: https://sideprojects.pub/article/incredible-places-on-earth-that-shouldnt-exist datePublished: 2026-06-25 dateModified: 2026-06-25 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://sideprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Side Projects image: "https://media.sideprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/8xbTm16zu48/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: d38a88b6ab67c05f9fdd6600bfb2afa62cbd2962fd6d79fb7221e511da1ffdf5 tokens: 3972 summaryUrl: https://sideprojects.pub/article/incredible-places-on-earth-that-shouldnt-exist.md.summary.md --- The world is filled with incredible and unique locations. Whether it's the tallest mountain or the deepest sea, these places never fail to impress us. But there are a few locations hidden around the world that are a bit different than that. Not only are they uniquely impressive, but they all possess some extraordinary characteristic that makes it appear as if such a location shouldn't be allowed to exist in the natural world. ## Uyuni Salt Flat, Bolivia Located in the Daniel Campos Province in southwest Bolivia lies Salar de Uyuni, or the Uyuni Salt Flat. At over 10,000 square km (almost 4,000 square miles), it is the largest salt flat in the world. The surface of the flat is covered with a few meters of salt, estimated to total about 10 billion tonnes of salt. While the area is believed to have once been home to a prehistoric lake, the water evaporated leaving the salt flats behind. Evaporating water caused the remaining salt to crystallize into a remarkable hexagonal pattern. Despite the name, salt flats aren't always flat. Some maintain a rough and sharply changing topology, but the Uyuni Salt Flat is almost uniformly level. From the highest to the lowest point over the entire massive area that the flat encompasses, the height fluctuates less than one meter. But it's not this almost perfectly flat area of crystallized salt with its hexagonal patterns that draws the most tourists. Most people choose to visit between December and April during Bolivia's wet season. When it rains the salt flat floods, in a manner of speaking. The rain never creates more than a thin layer of water, essentially creating the world's largest puddle. But more importantly, during the wet season the Uyuni Salt Flat becomes the world's largest mirror. This turns the salt flat into a one of a kind location where visitors can take incredible photos of themselves walking across this giant, natural mirror, making it appear as if they're walking on clouds. Even the most amateur photographer is sure to be able to take amazing and surreal pictures at this unbelievable location. But since the dry salt flats are an impressive sight as well, you may want to visit at the tail end of the wet season to get the best of both worlds. ## Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland According to Irish folklore, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, also known as Finn MacCool, was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Finn constructed the causeway from Ireland to Scotland so that he could cross the sea without getting his feet wet, then went out to search for Benandonner so they could engage in battle. However, when Finn saw Benandonner, he realized that the giant was much bigger than he was so he went back home instead of fighting. The Scottish giant crossed to Ireland to find his opponent, so Finn's wife disguised him as a baby and put him in a crib. When Benandonner saw just how large this alleged baby was, he assumed that its father, which must have been Finn, would surely be a giant among giants. Benandonner fled back to Scotland in terror, destroying the causeway behind him so that Finn couldn't return. Of course that's just a legend, and one that doesn't even make sense. If Finn built the causeway in the first place why wouldn't Benandonner think he could just build a new one? Regardless, the Giant's Causeway in Country Antrim on the coast of Northern Ireland certainly looks like it was a manmade structure. It is made up of roughly 40,000 interlocking basalt columns. These columns are usually described as hexagonal, which is generally true, though they range from having anywhere from four to eight sides. These columns form a series of stepping stones, with the highest reaching 12 meters or about 40 feet above the sea. The steps descend downward towards the water before disappearing beneath the surface. While the story of Finn certainly provides a MacCool explanation for how this formation came into existence, it is actually the result of basalt lava flows that came into contact with the chalk bed, forming a basalt plateau. The basalt quickly cooled which caused it to contract, cracking the once solid structure into the tens of thousands of pillars that exist today. These basalt formations are extremely rare, but Giant's Causeway isn't entirely unique. In fact, there's another, nearly identical formation known as Fingal's Cave in Scotland directly across the sea from Giant's Causeway. While both were caused by the same volcanic activity, their similar physical features and impression of being manmade structures likely aided in the creation of the legend behind Giant's Causeway. ## Grand Prismatic Spring, United States Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is best known for the geyser Old Faithful, but that's hardly the only impressive sight to behold in this park. Also located in Yellowstone is the Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the entire world. But what sets the Grand Prismatic Spring apart from other hot springs, as its name might suggest, are the concentric circles of various colours, like light dispersing through a prism. The water in the center of the basin is a deep blue, with it appearing to change to green then yellow as it approaches the shore. Just outside the basin are layers of orange and red. This giant rainbow is 112 meters (370 feet) wide and 50 meters (160 feet) deep. The different colours are caused by pigmented bacteria, with different bacteria creating each layer. As the temperature decreases from one ring to the next, the type of bacteria that are able to thrive under those conditions change, creating the prism effect. The water at the center of the hot spring is so hot, with temperatures reaching as high as 87 °C (189 °F), that it is completely sterile. This causes the temperature at the center to be free of bacteria and retain its natural blue colour. The pigmented microbes responsible for the spring's other colours are known as thermophiles, because of their ability to thrive in extremely hot conditions like those bordering the hot spring. However, this also means the springs are subject to a bit of seasonal change. In the winter it becomes harder for the bacteria to survive, resulting in the colours becoming much duller. If you want to see the Grand Prismatic Springs at their brightest, it's best to visit during warmer months. ## Cave of the Crystals, Mexico Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico is home to the Naica Mine, a lead, zinc, and silver mine. In 1910, workers in the mine discovered a chamber beneath the mines. This cavern was called Cueva de las Espadas, or Cave of the Swords. The cave is 104 meters long, 1400 cubic meters in volume, and was immediately remarkable for being filled with a large number of impressive gypsum crystals that had grown to a meter long. At about $12 per tonne these crystals were hardly valuable, but their size made them exceptional. Little could anyone have realized at the time that this was only the beginning. In April of 2000, workers were drilling through the Naica fault to create a new tunnel for the mining company. There were fears that this could result in the mine flooding, but instead it led to a much more extraordinary discovery. Beneath the Cave of Swords, workers found another much larger chamber, possibly as large as 6,000 cubic meters. This new chamber was named Cueva de los Cristales, or Cave of the Crystals, and it was unlike anything anybody had ever seen before. The previous chamber's one meter crystals were already remarkable, but the Cave of the Crystals was full of gypsum crystals that had grown to over 11 meters long, or over 37 feet. These are some of the largest natural crystals in the world, with an estimated weight of up to 12 tonnes each. The crystals owe their size to the rather unique environmental aspects of the cave. It is situated above a magma chamber and periodically floods with fluids heated by the water. The air is acidic, the cave sits at 90-99% humidity at all times, and thanks to the magma chamber it is extremely hot with temperatures reaching up to 58 °C (136 °F). That's comparable to the record highs in Death Valley, except nobody would be able to say "Well at least it's a dry heat". Unfortunately, this particular cavern isn't somewhere that you can visit yourself. Not only is the only entrance to the Cave of the Crystals through the mines owned by Industrias Peñoles mining company, it simply wouldn't be safe to go wandering around inside anyway. Because of the low air quality and high temperatures, nobody is allowed inside the cave for more than ten minutes at a time without proper protective gear. But even with protective gear the atmosphere is still extremely inhospitable, especially because of the high temperatures. Between that and the fact that the cave flooded again in 2015, it remains largely unexplored. However, you can still find amazing pictures of scientists examining the cave while walking across its massive crystals. ## Kawah Ijen Volcano, Indonesia The Ijen volcano complex is located on the island of Java in Indonesia. Though multiple volcanoes make up this complex, none is more famous than Kawah Ijen. One of the most notable features of this volcano is its accompanying crater lake. The lake is a kilometer wide and up to 200 meters deep, making it the largest highly acidic lake in the world. It's not uncommon for a crater lake to be acidic as a result of volcanic gases flowing down into the lake, but the Kawah Ijen lake is not only the largest acidic lake, it is among the most dangerous. A combination of sulfuric and hydrochloric acid has left the lake with a pH of 0.13, according to measurements taken in 2013. As a frame of reference, battery acid only has a pH of 0.8. So much sulfur is deposited at the lake from the volcano that the shores of the lake have been mined for sulfur for over 700 years. Every day 14 tons of sulfur are extracted from the lake, which is only 20% of the amount deposited daily by the volcano. But the world's largest acidic lake can't compare to the wonder of Kawah Ijen itself. At first glance, it looks like your typical volcano. It's just a big mountain with a hole at the top that's constantly releasing massive amounts of gas. You could walk past Kawah Ijen every day for your entire life and never know there was anything special about it. But that would all change if you ever took a look at the volcano during the night. Kawah Ijen is a solfatara, a type of volcano that is constantly spewing out large amounts of hot sulfur gases. When these heated gases come into contact with the oxygen rich atmosphere outside of the volcano, they ignite. Some of the gas will even condense and fall on the volcano where they again ignite and create the appearance of lava flows. And in case it's been a while since you've played with a chemistry set, sulfur burns a bright, electric blue. During the daylight, the blue flames are impossible to see from afar. But every night, the top of the volcano lights up with what looks like a magmatic flow of blue lava. While this phenomenon isn't exclusive to Kawah Ijen, it is usually the rare result of extraordinary circumstances. This is the only volcano in the world where the bright blue lava can be seen illuminating the skyline every single night. ## Kummakivi, Finland The final entry in today's list is perhaps the most mundane object, but it's also the one that most looks like it shouldn't exist. Kummakivi is Finnish for "strange rock", and this particular strange rock is located in the forest in Ruokalahti, Finland. Kummakivi is what is known as a balancing rock. These are naturally occurring geological formations that result in one rock appearing to be precariously balanced on another smaller rock. And that's exactly why Kummakivi looks like it shouldn't exist. The 7 meter (23 foot) rock has a very small footprint atop the rock on which it balances. It appears as if the slightest nudge will make it fall over, but of course it doesn't. There are an abundance of pictures online of people attempting to topple Kummakivi. It looks like it should be really easy to do, but no human could ever be strong enough to budge such a massive boulder. There are estimates that the rock weighs as much as 500 tonnes, though this is difficult to verify. According to legend, the rock was either placed there by a giant, or it landed there when giants and trolls were throwing rocks at each other. While that obviously isn't true, the rock is believed to have been there for thousands of years. There are several ways for formations of balancing rocks like this to form, but scientists believe that Kummakivi was placed atop the other rock by a receding glacier 8,000-12,000 years ago. However, there is one other element of Kummakivi that makes it particularly special among balancing rocks. Atop the rock grows a large pine tree, believed to have been growing there since the 1980s. The tree is difficult to see in most pictures since it blends into the background of other trees in the forest, but it is a truly impressive sight if you do see it. Kummakivi has been a protected natural monument since 1962, but it is still free for tourists to come and see the rock for themselves. ## Key Takeaways - The Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia becomes the world's largest mirror during the wet season. - The Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland features 40,000 interlocking basalt columns formed by cooled lava. - The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone is the largest hot spring in the U.S., known for its vibrant, bacterial-colored rings. - The Cave of the Crystals in Mexico contains some of the largest natural crystals in the world. - Kawah Ijen Volcano in Indonesia is famous for its nightly blue lava flows from burning sulfur gases. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the largest salt flat in the world? The Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia is the largest salt flat in the world, covering over 10,000 square km. ### What makes the Uyuni Salt Flat a popular tourist destination? The Uyuni Salt Flat becomes the world's largest mirror during the wet season, allowing visitors to take unique photos. ### What is the Giant's Causeway made of? The Giant's Causeway is made up of roughly 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, usually described as hexagonal. ### What causes the colors in the Grand Prismatic Spring? The colors in the Grand Prismatic Spring are caused by pigmented bacteria, with different bacteria creating each layer. ### What is unique about the Cave of the Crystals in Mexico? The Cave of the Crystals contains some of the largest natural crystals in the world, with gypsum crystals growing over 11 meters long. ### What makes the Kawah Ijen Volcano unique at night? At night, the Kawah Ijen Volcano lights up with bright blue flames due to the ignition of sulfur gases, creating the appearance of blue lava flows. ### What is Kummakivi and why is it notable? Kummakivi is a balancing rock in Finland where a 7-meter rock appears to be precariously balanced on another smaller rock. It is notable for its apparent instability and the pine tree growing on top. ### What is the pH level of the crater lake at Kawah Ijen? The crater lake at Kawah Ijen has a pH level of 0.13, making it one of the most acidic and dangerous lakes in the world. ### How did the Giant's Causeway form? The Giant's Causeway formed from basalt lava flows that cooled and contracted, cracking into tens of thousands of pillars. ### What is the best time to visit the Grand Prismatic Spring? The best time to visit the Grand Prismatic Spring is during warmer months to see the colors at their brightest. ## Sources - [Original Side Projects video: Incredible Places on Earth that Shouldn't Exist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xbTm16zu48) ## Related Coverage