Sarah Park of Matador Network brings us some of the most dangerous, beautiful, and downright weird wonders of the natural world.
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Bioluminescent Red Tide
When conditions are just right, ocean phytoplankton reproduce like bunnies, creating a thick, visible layer near the surface. These algae blooms (a.k.a "red tide") might look disgusting during the day, but in parts of California and other places where the bioluminescent variety of Noctiluca scintillans bloom, red tide nights look out of this world.
This particular variety of phytoplankton glows blue when agitated, transforming the dark ocean into a giant lava lamp. Watch the waves light up as they crash, run across the sand to see the ground glow under your feet, or dive in to be surrounded by the bizarre Timex-y glow. N. scintillans is also the culprit behind the Bioluminescent Bays in Puerto Rico.
Foxfire
During the late summer, a faint, eerie glow can be seen in forests around the world, where bioluminescent mushrooms grow on moist, rotting bark.
The greatest diversity of foxfire occurs in the tropics, where moist forests encourage fungal growth. The newest varieties of glow-in-the-dark mushrooms were introduced to the world just last year, after being collected from Ribeira Valley Tourist State Park near Sao Paulo, Brazil.
To up your chances of seeing this one, hunt in the forest during its wettest season and move as far as possible from any artificial light sources. And if you happen to see a patch of glowing shrooms, don't even think about it —they're not that kind of mushroom.
Fire Rainbow
Another summertime occurrence, fire rainbows appear when sunlight hits frozen ice crystals in high-altitude cirrus clouds. Because the fire rainbow actually involves no rain at all, scientists would rather we refer to this occurrence by its much less fun, but much more accurate title: the circumhorizonal arc.
Since the arc requires both the presence of cirrus clouds and for the sun to be extremely high in the sky, it's much more likely to be seen at latitudes closer to the equator. Conditions might be right for a fire rainbow in Los Angeles six months out of the year, but in a more northern city like London, that window drops to a mere two months.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider