Strong storms or intense rain can temporarily reverse the flow of a river. When a massive amount of water arrives suddenly, it creates a sort...
Some lakes rest on a layer of rock or sediment that can be fragile or porous. If this layer cracks or collapses suddenly, water then...
From the start, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was built on foundations that were really too weak and too shallow to properly distribute its weight. As soon...
An important factor is the proportion between clay, sand, and silt. Very clayey soils, for example, have plenty of fine particles interlocked with each other. This allows...
Snow contains a lot of trapped air between its flakes. It is precisely these tiny pockets of still air that make snow an excellent thermal...
Yellow ochre comes from a claystone rich in iron oxides, particularly goethite, an oxide that gives it its typical yellow-orange hue. It forms naturally through...
Geysers appear in places where heat comes from the close presence of magma beneath the Earth's surface. Water descends underground through cracks, infiltrates deeply, and...
Tectonic plates constantly accumulate forces within their very surface. Even far from the edges, these internal stresses can slowly build up over thousands or even...
Mountains grow at the pace your nails grow, or even more slowly. Why? Because the Earth's crust is divided into huge blocks called tectonic plates. These plates...
In places where the air is extremely dry and rain rarely appears, water evaporates much faster than it arrives. This creates a super arid and...