The world can be a very interesting place if we look hard enough. The consistent attempts to uncover the greatest mysteries of our time have yielded some interesting results. Here are ten of them.
The Sailing Stones
The name refers to the strange moving stones in Death Valley, but it has also happened in other deserts. During the day you see trails behind the stones, it is like they are moving on their own, sliding on the surface. The explanation to this? Well, we should have been there overnight and observed them more closely. The cold weather creates ice around them, and when the light wind blows it moves them across the surface. During the day, when temperatures reach up to 50 degrees Celsius, the ice disappears without a trace.
The Severed Feet Mystery
For some time feet have been washed on the shore of British Columbia, Canada. Since August 2007 eleven such feet have been found. So what gives? Was it the doing of a psychopath? Some unknown accident, which happened offshore? A Tsunami, which travelled around the globe and delivered its grisly cargo? No, no and no, the explanation is something we wouldn't think about. Suicides. After the body decomposes enough its feet will be detached from the rest of it. The feet are wearing sneakers and sneakers are light enough to make it up to the surface and onto the shore. So here you go, suicide victims wearing sneakers, are to be blamed for this one.
Frog Rains
Many strange things have been falling from the sky for centuries and frogs are only one of them. How about raining fish? Or raining gold coins? It is the gift(or curse) of the gods, or this is what people thought. What it turned out to be are tornadoes, which picked up small animals and other trash, and unloaded it onto unsuspecting villages. It all makes sense considering how they can even pick up heavy machinery and whole houses, and drop them at a place, where the tornado is not even seen.
Our Giant Predecessors
Imagine you are digging up a mine or something in `16th century. Out of nowhere you find huge bones but there is no technology to make you able to identify them. You have just found new species but what are they? Giants of course! Giant humanoids have roamed our lands millions of years ago. Well, that was the belief until 19th century when a whole skeleton was assembled. The conclusion? It wasn't giants, it was dragons! I mean dinosaurs.
2000 Year Old Computer
Or otherwise called Antikythera mechanism was discovered in 1900 from a shipwreck off a Greek island. It was found in a box and looks like a bunch of gears and cogs. It was believed to be the print of said gears into a rock and not a real device from 200 BC, but as it turned out its real nature was much more fascinating. It was designed to predict astronomical positions and things such as eclipses. It was a calendar, an electronic calendar if you will and hence the "computer" name. Turns out Ancient Greeks were even smarter than we thought.
Knuckle Cracking
You may not think much about it, you may even do it without noticing, but knuckle cracking has been a mystery in the medical world for quite some time. It is all related to bubbles, which form and pop after the finger joint has been extended, X-ray told us as much, but what exactly causes the sound? As it turns out it was the forming of the bubble, more precisely the vacuum, which forms within. But this is not all, there are still many questions surrounding the subject. Like why we can only do it once every thirty minutes? Perhaps medicine needs some more advancement for us to be able to answer this complicated question.
Sea Monsters
Myths and legends surround the depths of the sea. What is hiding down there? Numerous stories about fantastic beasts have been told through the centuries, about sea serpents and........krakens. Turns out krakens are very real, at least when it comes to existing, not eating up whole ships. Giant squids, up to 14 meters in length, have been roaming the depths and fighting whales unseen. Corpses, washed up on beaches, especially in New Zealand have proven their existence, today's technology can correctly estimate their size.
Atlantis
We all know the legend, an island nation with immense power was consumed by the angry sea in a day. The searches and theories about where it might have been were quite the thing and even today some people refuse to believe it didn't exist. Thats right, Atlantis was completely fictional, even Plato himself knew that. It was a story, which was supposed to make us think, not to jump into the water in search of lost cities and treasures. It is still debatable what served as the inspiration for Atlantis though.
The Mayan Civilization
No, this time it is not about 2012 and the prophecy. Why did such an advanced and prosperous civilization collapse? It wasn't the white man's fault, it seemed to be more of a random event. Well, not really. They chopped up their forests too much. So much in fact that terrible drought struck them. The following erosion and soil depletion caused their crops to fail and it all went downhill from there. The mighty Mayans could not support themselves, their civilization was abandoned and ruined. Which would have happened anyway once the white man found them.
The Tunguska Explosion
It happened overnight. A giant ball of fire exploded over the vast Siberian forest in 1908. An explosion so powerful it was greater than 1000 Hiroshima bombs. The incredible mystery was the clear lack of a visible crater. Scientists didn't know exactly what happened and crazy theories were spread around like hot candy. Ant-matter and aliens were as good of an explanation as any. The buzz was significant until in 2007 the crater was finally found. So yes, the mystery was solved, but the scary thoughts about what would happen if a meteor of this size hits a populated area, remain.
