Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Wednesday Weird

It's that time again! Time to talk about something crazy and weird.

Today, it's the Naga Fireballs.




Every year, around the full moon in October (then end of the rainy season), the Mekong River belches up egg to basketball sized balls of red lights. Serious.

Starting below the surface, thousands of glowing red lights rise out of the bottom of the river and float a few hundred feet into the sky before they vanish.

Sounds crazy, right? Here's a video





As you can see from the video, there's a festival, celebrating the phenomenon; it's witnessed by thousands of people every year and you can googs for more videos.

Pretty much science doesn't know, and can't agree, as to what causes the lights. It's possible it's due to fermented animal waste and sediment in the river, which could make sense except that the Naga Fireballs happen around the same time every year, which kind of knocks that theory, ahem, out of the water.

So there you have it. Fireballs shoot from the river into the sky. And no one knows why.

.

15 comments:

Christine Danek said...

That is wild. I love weird things like that. It puts so many ideas in my head for another story.

Slamdunk said...

Whoa, never heard of that before Sarah. Thanks for sharing...

Unknown said...

That's pretty cool. I've never heard of these but it sounds pretty cool that it happens at the same time every year.

Talli Roland said...

Wow! That's super cool - I've never heard of that before.

Matthew MacNish said...

It's a dragon, obvs.

vic caswell said...

@matt- BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAAAAA!!!

@sarah- GIRL! you are now my official source of odd phenomena! i ADORE these wednesday weirds!!!! have you seen the planet earth vids? because our world is truly a wondrous, magical place!!!

Austin Gorton said...

It seems so odd to me that no one can figure this out. Can't somebody catch one of the fireballs and analyze it?

Could it be that the build-up of animal waste and sediment during the course of the rainy season leads to the fireballs? That would explain the recurring time.

Also, I see that you are reading Lies of Locke Lamora; let me know how it is. I've had it on my to read list for awhile.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That is beyond freaky! And no one knows what causes it? Don't curious minds want to know?

Anonymous said...

That's just....

Mind = Blown.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Hmmm. Interesting. They're probably some kind of swamp gas.

Maria Zannini said...

I've never heard of this. I wonder why they haven't investigated further. Surely, they could set up monitors on the river bottom to detect anomalies.

Unknown said...

Those are bonkers. Maybe that's what happens when you drop a Naga chilli into the water. I knew they were supposed to be hot, but damn.

Sarah Tokeley said...

This is wonderful. I love the fact that there are still some things that science can't explain.

Anne Gallagher said...

Sarah, where do you find this stuff?

lexcade said...

That is amazeballs. No pun intended.

...actually, pun intended.

That's book fodder if ever I saw it.

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