The world is made up of wondrous chemicals that sometimes do pretty out-of-the-ordinary things.
Here are seven places where minerals, carried by water, by heat, or by the actions of Mother Earth herself, left us with strange and wonderful sights.
Pamukkale Terraces, Turkey
Looks ice cold, doesn’t it?
Actually, the water is quite warm at the Pamukkale terraces in Turkey, but swimming in it is restricted to preserve the environment at this UNESCO World Heritage site.
The white formations are deposits of the mineral travertine from hot spring water that built up into a series of dams, making the terraced pools what they are.
See more pictures of Pamukkale and of other terraces formed by various mineral flows.
Fly Geyser, Nevada
The geothermal geyser called the Fly Geyser is on private land in the Hualapai Valley near Gerlach, Nevada.
The colors are due to different mineral deposits as well as algae growing on it.
The geyser broke through the surface of the land in the 1960s, in a weak spot where a water well had been drilled decades earlier.
It has since built up a mineral cone several meters high with multiple water geysers constantly spewing over 74 acres. The owners of Fly Ranch do not welcome sightseers, and do not want to sell the parcel on which the geyser sits.
Dallol, Ethiopia
Dallol is a huge area in Ethiopia that shows what happens when a volcano erupting from below meets water and concentrated minerals at the surface.
An explosive eruption left a volcanic crater, mineral springs, geysers, acidic pools, salt pillars, and other strange formations in the middle of the Danokil Desert, 150 feet below sea level.
Sulfur, iron oxide, salt, and other minerals give these formations otherworldly colors.
Due to harsh conditions (the average temperature of the area is over 90 degrees!), inaccessibility, and political tensions, Dallol has never been designated as a National Park, nor does it have any kind of reserved status.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider