Issue 98: Spooky Scenes
In this week’s issue:
- Frightening places on a beautiful Earth
- The ghastly march of the marshes
- Fairies found in more places than previously thought
This is an archived issue. Sign up here to receive the Planet Snapshots newsletter every Thursday morning.
Feature Story: Spooky Scenes
We live on a sphere spiraling through eternal cosmic darkness around a supermassive black hole awaiting the ultimate heat death of the universe. It’s fairly easy to forget that frightening fact when you live on this stunningly majestic pale blue dot. But like a macro-photo of an ant, what appears tiny and cute from afar is often downright terrifying up close.
For Halloween this year we’re taking a closer look at some landscapes of our breathtaking world that, for one reason or another, are downright frightening. Maybe it’s just superstition (our editor is afraid of strip malls and lakes too big to see across) or the location may have a very real terror. Despite what beautiful nature documentaries may try to tell you, it’s brutal out there (just ask the impaled victims of a shrike). For when you stare into the Earth’s abyss, it stares back.
Some folks call it the end of the Earth, others the gates of hell. But this 500-km (311-mi) stretch of Namibia’s coastline has the official but equally macabre moniker of Skeleton Coast. It’s home to the junction of arid desert and unforgiving sea, and is decorated with the carcasses of whales and ships alike. Whatever ghosts traverse this barren abode are not ones we wish to come across.
Take a quick gondola ride from the romantic canals of Venice down to Poveglia Island and the gondolier’s sonorous tune will quickly change. Plague Island, as it’s also known, was the trading port city’s solution to managing the Black Death that swept through Europe in the 14th century and many of the pandemics after. The now-abandoned 7-hectare (17-acre) island has served as a quarantine zone for hundreds of thousands of sick over the years, with untold scores dying and cremated on its haunted grounds.
Looking for an otherworldly getaway? We’ve got just the spot. But be warned: the trip might be permanent and perhaps a little too probing for your liking. Shortly after World War II, UFO encounters and the phrase “I know what I saw!” dramatically rose in frequency. The Roswell Incident of 1947 set the scene for flying saucer sightings across the Western United States. We have no idea why aliens are interested in this area of the world, though maybe the nuclear testing, the highly secretive Area 51 facility, and vast barren moonscapes have something to do with it.
There’s nothing actually spooky about algal blooms besides the harm it can cause on water quality. But it does have an uncanny tendency to look like the ingredients of a witch’s cauldron, so we’re chucking it on the list.
Unlike many supposedly-haunted places, Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier has verifiable implications. Big ones, as it turns out. Thwaites Glacier, as it’s scientifically known, is a Florida-sized block of Antarctic ice that’s melting fast, and many scientists now believe that significant losses from the Doomsday Glacier are unavoidable.
A blood-red lake that’s so caustic it turns birds into calcified stone is about the most Halloween-themed location we can think of. That’s why we’re including it twice. The alkali lake has a pH of 10.5, making it nearly as basic as ammonia or ordering a pumpkin spice latte in October. It gets its red color from the microorganisms that thrive in its salty waters but its reputation from the mummified animal remains that emerge on its shores.
As frightening as Earth can be, there’s no question that we’d take its hospitality over the terrors of the cosmic abyss any day. We do the work we do in large part to protect it. But for those of us who enjoy the occasional thrill too, Earth’s darker side provides plenty.
Climate Watch: Ghost Forests
Most ghosts speak for the dead, but some speak for the dying. Ghost forests are patches of white, upright, dead and dying trees that serve both as cemeteries and indicators of climate change. As sea levels rise and storm surges push saltwater further onshore, the trees lose their freshwater supply and die. These ghastly sentinels stand powerless as their forested ecosystems turn into marshes. But unlike deforestation, ghost forests can’t be restored. And that’s especially bad news since they’re rapidly on the move.
It’s the march of the marshes across the East Coast of the United States. Nearly 40,000 acres (16,200 hectares) of forest and farmland have turned to ghost forest in the past 30 years. But their distribution, extent, and impact are still understudied. Researchers are just getting started on mapping where they’re growing and how much carbon might be released by the loss of these critical ecosystems.
What in the World: Fairy Circles
Ghost forests aren’t the only phenomena on the move, fairy circles are too. Though like their mythical namesake, it’s more accurate to say they’ve been there all along and we just haven’t noticed.
Fairy circles are vegetation circles between 2 to 12 meters (7 to 40 feet ) in diameter, found in arid regions, and were previously discovered only in Namibia and Australia. But researchers this year applied a pattern-recognition AI to global satellite data and found 263 likely fairy circle sites across 15 countries and 3 continents. Which is all great and dandy except that no one in the broader research community can come to a consensus about what they actually are. Proving either of the leading theories (root-related water-stress or sand termites) is about as elusive as fantastical fairies themselves. Meaning that more research is needed to close the loop on this unfinished fairy-tale.
All imagery Ⓒ 2023 Planet Labs PBC
Editor: Ryder Kimball | Images: Ryder Kimball, Max Borrmann, Julian Peschel, and Maarten Lambrechts
