Where a unique combination of strong currents and geography meet, maelstroms, enormous and powerful areas of swirling water, dangerous currents and whirlpools, can be found across the globe. Although many form (and die) in a relatively short period of time in response to catastrophic events (like a tsunami), others have existed for centuries. Asia Naruto Found in the strait between […]

In Venezuela’s northwest state of Zulia, where the Catatumbo River empties into the southwest corner of Lake Maracaibo, a spectacular light show can be seen most nights of the year. Known alternately as the Catatumbo lightning, river of fire in the sky, Beacon of Maracaibo, everlasting lightning, the Lighthouse of Catatumbo and Relámpago del Catatumbo, this fixed lightning storm has […]

On August 15, 1977, in Delaware, Ohio, SETI researchers from the Ohio State University detected a 72 second radio signal originating from somewhere around the constellation of Sagittarius. Because of the signal’s location, frequency and unique signature, it was quickly dubbed the “Wow!” signal, and since its discovery, speculation has run rampant that it was a message from an extra-terrestrial […]

“When the outside world, with all its material wealth, suddenly descend[ed],” on remote cultures whose technology was limited to stone and wood, new belief systems often arose. On many of the islands of the southwest Pacific, the affluence and power of Western explorers, missionaries and colonists led to the creation of a number of religious sects that all shared a […]