盘点地球10大人祸“伤疤”：大多数是人祸！触目惊心

盘点地球10大人祸“伤疤”：大多数是人祸！触目惊心

01 Gates of Hell: The Burning Pit Hey everyone, welcome to Stepabreath. If you’ve seen the heavenly beauty of the “Mirror of the Sky,” then you absolutely cannot miss the hellish wonder of the “Gates of Hell.” In the middle of a desolate desert, this crater has been burning for 47 years. Every night, it reveals a demonic allure, luring countless desert spiders to their fiery deaths. And of course, there are the lonely but curious tourists who come to watch. The “Gates of Hell” is actually a natural gas crater, located in the south of the mysterious Central Asian country of Turkmenistan, in the Karakum Desert near the small town of Darvaza. It’s considered one of Turkmenistan’s most incredible sights. However, this gas crater wasn’t formed naturally. It was created by a Soviet geological team in 1971 due to a human error. Back then, the team was searching for oil and natural gas in the desert. But suddenly, the ground around the drilling rig collapsed, swallowing all the equipment. A continuous stream of natural gas spewed out of the hole. Geologists then decided to set it on fire. Amazingly, in the 47 years since 1971, the fire in the crater has never gone out. In 2010, the President of Turkmenistan visited the Gates of Hell and ordered it to be closed. But with the country’s limited capabilities, that was a pretty tall order. The entire crater is nearly a hundred meters in diameter and over 20 meters deep. As you approach the edge, all you hear is the roar of wind and fire, and feel waves of intense heat. You’d probably never believe that at the bottom of this orange inferno, where a person would be instantly roasted, there are actually several species of living creatures thriving. No wonder some scientists have always thought there’s life on Mars. Usually, tourists who come to check it out arrive before dusk or late at night, hoping to catch a glimpse of a hellish sunset or sunrise. Actually, on the way from Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, to the crater, you’ll pass a creepy-looking, dark green water crater, and a mud crater with bubbling mud and small flames. Needless to say, the origin of these three “brother” craters is pretty much the same. If you really want to take a tour of all three, remember to transit through Iran (from Dubai) to get to Turkmenistan. Because getting a visa for Turkmenistan is one of the hardest in the world. And once you leave the capital, you can’t travel freely. But nothing can stop the Gates of Hell from being the most unique desert campsite on Earth. And every year, thousands of curious tourists still flock here. To fulfill their number one wish of exploring the world. 02 Aral Sea: Ship Graveyard in the Desert We often say that time is a cruel butcher. 50 years can make a person more mature, but it can also turn a city into a complete wasteland. Take this once-bustling fishing city, which had over 100,000 fishermen 50 years ago. Now, it’s become a semi-desolate ghost town with only a few thousand people. Its former fishing port has completely vanished, becoming a ship graveyard in the desert. This famous ship graveyard is a testament to one of the worst man-made ecological disasters in human history. You could also say it’s one of the most depressing tourist spots in the world. The ship graveyard is located in Uzbekistan, on the edge of the small town of Moynaq in northern Karakalpakstan. Today, only the town’s emblem shows that this place was once famous for its fishing industry. Moynaq was one of the two most prosperous fishing ports on the Aral Sea coast during the Soviet era. Fishing in the Aral Sea was the only livelihood for the people of Moynaq. The town even had a large fish cannery. But now, Moynaq has become a desert ghost town, more than 150 kilometers from the sea. And the fish cannery has long been abandoned. The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth-largest saline lake (about 68,000 sq km), stretching from Kazakhstan in the north to Uzbekistan in the south. It was fed by the constant flow of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers. But starting in the 1960s, Soviet rulers, in an effort to boost cotton production, diverted the river water entirely for cotton irrigation. In just 50 years, the once-mighty Aral Sea has shrunk to 10% of its original size. At first, the fishermen naively thought the water would return. But in the eyes of the Uzbek government, the economic benefits of cotton farming were even more important than environmental protection. In recent years, 100,000 disappointed fishermen from Moynaq have left their homes. For them, if they don’t leave, not only are there no jobs, but even their lives are under an unprecedented threat. As the Aral Sea’s water level dropped, the salinity of the water skyrocketed. The fish were almost completely wiped out. The vast, exposed land gradually turned into a salt-alkali wasteland. Uzbekistan successfully became one of the world’s top five cotton exporters. But the massive amounts of toxic pesticides and fertilizers used in cotton production for decades have severely contaminated the dry seabed. Without the protection of the Aral Sea’s water, fierce winds whip up salt and pesticides from the ground, constantly battering the town of Moynaq. More and more people are suffering from cancer, respiratory illnesses, and immune disorders. More and more infants are born with deformities or even die young. The incidence of esophageal cancer in the region is 25 times the world average. The disappearance of the Aral Sea not only destroyed the fishing industry but also caused a sharp decline in the natural environment. The residents of Moynaq are now enduring unprecedented extreme weather, with summers reaching 50°C and winters dropping to -40°C. Young people can choose to leave, but the elderly find it hard to part with their homeland. The former fishermen were once so attached to this port. But now, its glory days can only be seen in a museum. Ironically, some people still remain in Moynaq, working in the poorly paid cotton farming industry. The very industry that caused this terrible tragedy. If you want to visit the ship graveyard, you can start from Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan. There are daily buses to Moynaq (a 3-hour trip). The man-made disaster of the disappearing Aral Sea, which began in the Soviet era, is still ongoing in Moynaq, Uzbekistan. But the fate of Aralsk in Kazakhstan, another former Aral Sea fishing port, is completely different from that of Moynaq. Additionally, the shrinking of the Aral Sea has also exposed a former Soviet bioweapons facility in its center. About the rebirth of Aralsk and the secrets of the bioweapons facility, we’ll continue next time. 03 Aral Sea’s Secret: Bio-weapons & Rockets Last time, we talked about the ship graveyard in the desert. Actually, there were once two famous fishing port cities on the Aral Sea coast. Besides Moynaq from the last episode, the other one is the reviving city of Aralsk (Aral) in Kazakhstan. The story of Aralsk began in 1905 with the construction of the Tashkent-Orenburg railway. 1921 was Aralsk’s finest hour. The fishermen heroically responded to Lenin’s call for help. Train after train loaded with plump fish headed north to feed the starving people of Russia, thus creating the Soviet Union. But decades later, the Soviet Union brought a great disaster to the kind fishermen of Aralsk. Starting in 1960, the waters of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, which had flowed into the Aral Sea for millennia, were massively diverted for the rapidly expanding cotton industry. On the Syr Darya alone, 30 dams were built to irrigate cotton fields. At that time, cotton export was a top priority for the Soviet Union. They regarded cotton as “white gold” but turned a blind eye to the disaster befalling the Aral Sea. Today, Aralsk is filled with low, single-story houses. The rusty cranes at the central pier are its most iconic landmark, and also the most striking historical evidence of the Aral Sea disaster. Three generations of a family look at the same port. The younger generation can only feel the glory of the past fishing industry through the Aral Sea Fishing Museum. The places where the elderly used to swim every day… Decades later, the post-2000s generation only learned from photos that this was once the edge of the sea. The disappearance of the fishing industry made fishermen taste what it’s like to buy fish for the first time. Many switched to raising camels for a living. Zhalanash is a camel village. But the disappearance of the Aral Sea is also a disaster for the camels. Eating high-salt grass for a long time gives them headaches and dizziness, and they eventually die in agony, banging their heads on the ground. There was also once a ship graveyard in Zhalanash. But in recent years, the rusty ships have been dismantled one by one. The Kazakh government is determined to revive the Aral Sea. In 2005, Kazakhstan built a 12-kilometer-long dam, the Kokaral Dam, to prevent the Syr Darya water from flowing into the South Aral Sea, thereby raising the water level of the North Aral Sea. Now, young people are learning to fish again. The fishing industry is making a comeback in Aralsk. Even in the icy winter, they can have a small but fruitful catch. The children also have their own beach again. The colorful fishing boats also prove that the Aral Sea is being reborn in Kazakhstan. Perhaps the Uzbeks are not happy about the Kokaral Dam, but it seems no one can do anything to restore the South Aral Sea. The former islands in the Aral Sea have become barren mountains crisscrossed with ravines. And this island in the middle of the Aral Sea, Vozrozhdeniya Island, along with the Kantubek bioweapons ghost town on it, is attracting more and more attention. The snowflake-shaped, 4-runway airport next to the ghost town is still clearly visible on maps. Starting in the 1940s, Vozrozhdeniya Island became the Soviet Union’s top-secret Aralsk-7 bioweapons research, testing, and storage facility. About 1,500 bioweapons experts and their families lived on the island. They were not evacuated until 1992. However, the military-grade pathogens, viruses, research and storage on the island were not properly disposed of when the Soviets left. In 2002, an American bioengineer led a team of 113 people, spent 3 months and 5 million dollars to neutralize nearly 200 tons of anthrax left on the island. Besides that, the Soviets also developed the most potent weaponized smallpox virus in history here. According to General Pyotr Burgasov, who was long involved in Soviet bioweapons research, on July 30, 1971, Aralsk-7 was field-testing 400 grams of weaponized smallpox strain when an explosion unfortunately occurred. As a result, a researcher on a research ship 15 kilometers away was infected and brought the virus back to the town of Aralsk, causing a tragedy where 10 people fell ill and 3 died. This is the famous Aral smallpox incident. General Pyotr also admitted that in 1912, 110,000 people in Manchuria also died from smallpox. Even today, a faint sadness can still be felt in the small town of Aralsk. But Baikonur, a 6-hour train ride from Aralsk, is always cheerful. On April 12, 1961, the first cosmonaut to travel in space, Yuri Gagarin, launched into the sky from here. The Baikonur Cosmodrome is the world’s first and largest space launch facility. The town of Baikonur, built in 1955, is located south of the launch site. It’s a city specifically built to serve the space center. Its original name was Leninsk. Actually, the real Baikonur is not here. The Soviet government used this name to mislead outsiders and cover their tracks. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia continued to lease Baikonur from Kazakhstan until 2050. Whenever there’s a rocket launch, Baikonur becomes a gathering place for tourists from all over the world. After all that, did you get it? 04 Henderson Island: The Trash Beach This is the island with the most plastic trash in the world. Can you believe it? Henderson Island, in the South Pacific, has one of the best-preserved coral atoll ecosystems left in the world. The island is home to four endemic bird species and ten endemic plant species. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site back in 1988. The remote Henderson Island is over 5,000 kilometers from the nearest continent. It was inhabited before the 15th century, but the population later vanished. The uninhabited Henderson Island has almost no tourists. Yet, strangely, its beaches are covered with about 40 million pieces of plastic trash weighing 18 tons. More than two-thirds of these plastic fragments are buried under the sand. Plastic becomes brittle under UV light and breaks down into countless fragments, some even smaller than 2mm. These fragments, along with the sand, will become a permanent part of the island. Currently, thousands of new pieces of trash wash up on the island every day. Some are even plastic products from decades ago. All of this trash is brought in by major ocean currents. A similar phenomenon occurs in Hawaii in the North Pacific. Hawaii’s Kamilo Beach is famous for the year-round accumulation of Pacific plastic trash. 90% of the 4.5-kilometer beach is plastic trash. Millions of plastic fragments are still suspended in the water. However, on this world’s dirtiest coastline, someone is changing their life because of the trash. After collecting and cleaning the beach trash, she turns it into small, exquisite art ornaments. For centuries, Midway Atoll, the heart of the Pacific, known as a paradise on earth, is also a remote and rarely visited island. Every July and August, pairs of albatrosses return from thousands of kilometers away to feed their chicks. They are the largest flying birds in the world, with a wingspan of up to 3.5 meters. However, today, the albatrosses on Midway Atoll are surrounded by countless pieces of plastic trash. The island is even littered with the carcasses of young birds. Their stomachs are filled with plastic garbage. Newborn chicks look fluffy, cute, and adorable. But once they ingest plastic trash, they can never fly again. These remote, pristine islands in the Pacific should be the most romantic and beautiful places in the world. But now they have become islands of trash, even islands of death. 05 Mount Everest: The World’s Highest Landfill Previously, we talked about the Inuit people of Nunavut, Canada, who harvest ice from icebergs broken off from Greenland, melt it, and get the purest water in the world. In contrast, the glacial water from the Himalayas, known as the “Water Tower of Asia,” is becoming less and less pure. In recent years, with the rapid development of commercial mountaineering, tens of thousands of tourists can spend hundreds of thousands of yuan each year to climb Mount Everest. At the same time, they leave behind hundreds of thousands of tons of trash and human waste. And to this day, more than 200 bodies still dot the slopes of Everest. Thus, Mount Everest is also known as the world’s highest and largest open-air cemetery. And the various climbing camps on the north and south slopes of Everest have also become the world’s highest landfills. Why don’t those climbers just carry their trash down the mountain? Well, just getting yourself down from Everest is already a huge challenge. In a high-altitude, severely oxygen-deprived environment, carrying even an extra pound could deplete the last bit of your strength faster. Especially in the “death zone” above 8,000 meters, discarded empty oxygen cylinders can pile up into mountains. Many people have paid a hefty price to climb, with only one thing in mind: to successfully reach the summit. But what they face is a gamble with their own lives, a game against the gods of Mount Everest. Low temperatures and lack of oxygen can cause snow blindness, loss of vision, and loss of voice. Numbness in hands and feet, loss of control, and loss of sensation. And physical exhaustion, combined with the rapidly changing weather, makes it easier to fall off a cliff or into a crevasse. In a state of extreme fatigue, even just resting for a while or taking a nap could very well mean leaving your body there forever. Even for those who successfully descend, many end up with amputations due to severe frostbite. You know, many people die on their way down, after successfully reaching the summit. Compared to the amount of trash generated during the summit attempt, the area around Everest Base Camp has even more. The Everest Base Camp on the Chinese side is at an altitude of 5,200 meters, and 19 kilometers in a straight line from the summit. It’s the closest place for tourists to photograph Everest or experience the Himalayas. But due to the increasingly severe trash pollution, the Everest Base Camp is now indefinitely closed to regular tourists. In the future, if you want to see Everest, you’ll have to stop at Rongbuk Monastery, two kilometers away from the Base Camp. The Everest Base Camp used to receive 100,000 tourists a year. No permanent buildings are allowed here, so there are only cars and tent hotels. Generally speaking, wherever tourists go, trash is left behind. At Everest Base Camp, just human waste amounts to over a dozen tons each year. Would you dare to melt the ice here for drinking water? These tent hotels, just during their operating season from May to October, can easily make hundreds of thousands of yuan. Because tourists come one after another. But so does the trash, piece after piece. Not just on the Chinese side, but also at the Base Camp on the south slope in Nepal, they face the same huge trash pollution problem. In China, there’s only one commercial mountaineering company for Everest. But in Nepal, there are dozens. So the trash on the south slope is distributed at higher altitudes. There are even many scattered body parts of climbers near the Base Camp. Whether it’s trash or corpses, the pollution to the Himalayan water source is absolutely shocking. This is the life source for a billion people. So, cleaning up the trash on Everest is imperative. Although the Base Camp on the Chinese side is no longer open to regular tourists, as a tourist, wherever you go, you should remember these proverbs: Take nothing but pictures. Steal nothing but time. Leave nothing but footprints. Finally, let’s do a little test. If someone gave you $100,000 to summit Everest, would you go? As for the unknown secrets behind summiting Everest, we’ll continue next time. 06 Mount Everest: The Most Expensive Queue In 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his guide, Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, achieved the first successful summit of Mount Everest in human history. Today, with the rapid development of commercial mountaineering, hundreds of tourists attempt to climb the world’s highest peak every year. But climbing Everest is not a simple hiking trip. The entry fee is at least hundreds of thousands of yuan, and a successful summit is not 100% guaranteed. You could say it’s a game of burning money, first and foremost. Why does it cost so much to climb Everest once? Because summiting Everest requires the support of a strong, professional support team. In China, dozens of students from the Tibet Mountaineering School, during the spring climbing season each year, have to scout and pave the way on Everest before the clients arrive. They transport supplies and set up camps at various levels. Some students also act as guides, accompanying the clients on their climb. Compared to the north slope of Everest in China, the south slope in Nepal seems a bit less difficult. But the cost for each climber is still at least tens of thousands of dollars. Nepal has many commercial mountaineering companies, so more tourists from all over the world gather here. This leads to the most fatal problem of climbing Everest: traffic jams. You know, with only 30% oxygen level, and temperatures of tens of degrees below zero on a steep snowy slope, how brutal it is to wait in line for one or two hours, holding onto a rope without moving. Usually, there’s a “two o’clock rule” for summiting Everest. That is, you must complete the summit and start descending before 2 PM. So the summit teams all set out in the early morning. Currently, for safety reasons, it’s widely believed that if you can’t summit by 11 AM, you must turn back. Because 70% of mountaineering accidents happen during the descent. On May 19, 2012, four tourists died on their descent after summiting. Among them, the story of Canadian tourist Shriya Shah seems more thought-provoking. The 33-year-old Shriya, for this Everest summit attempt, mortgaged her house and spent a total of $100,000. She had no high-altitude climbing experience. Thus, her goal of summiting created a fatal conflict with her physical limits. On May 19, a total of 150 people on the south slope (234 on both slopes) were heading for the summit. The long wait in line consumed even more oxygen. When Shriya’s two guides noticed she was getting weaker on the way to the summit, and it was already close to noon but she hadn’t yet summited, they advised her to give up and turn back immediately. But Shriya refused. The final 12-meter high Hillary Step was a deadly barrier. But in the end, after 17 hours of long waiting and climbing, Shriya finally succeeded in summiting at 2 PM. Due to the severe traffic jam, she had to wait for 25 minutes before starting her descent at 2:30 PM. Although she was accompanied by two guides, Shriya, whose strength and oxygen were depleted, collapsed just 250 meters from the camp. “Save me” were her last words left in this world. In the death zone above 8,000 meters, there have been many incidents of oxygen cylinders going missing. If someone collapses here, even a Sherpa guide, born to climb, can do nothing. Everyone who climbs Everest has different reasons. Some challenge the limits of humanity, climbing alone without oxygen or guides. Others challenge their own limits. Reaching the summit of Everest might be something to boast about for a lifetime. But for the students of the Tibet Mountaineering School and the Sherpas of Nepal, summiting Everest is their job, a part of their lives. In 2014, a major avalanche on the Khumbu Icefall killed 15 Sherpas. The 2015 Nepal earthquake made climbing Everest even more difficult. With global warming, climbing Everest is becoming increasingly dangerous. Even if one day you successfully summit Everest, never forget the guide who is inseparable from you, and the people who paved the way, carried supplies, set up tents, and cooked for you. A reporter once asked Hillary, who was the first person to summit Everest in 1953? He didn’t answer, just exchanged a smile with his guide (Sherpa Norgay). 07 Crooked Forest: A Mysterious Wonder This eerie, crooked forest, is located near the village of Nowe Czarnowo, in the town of Gryfino, northwestern Poland, close to the German-Polish border. Its unique feature is that most of the trees are bent at the same angle, as if filled with some mysterious power. This is a strictly protected national area. There were once over 400 crooked pine trees in the forest, mostly planted between 1930 and 1934. The base of their trunks all bend northward. The Crooked Forest once belonged to the German province of Pomerania. And it’s said that these trees were planted by the German army during World War II. One theory suggests that tanks stationed here in 1945 trampled these young trees. The trees were about 15 years old at the time. But the damage is believed to have occurred when the trees were around 7 years old. Therefore, it’s widely believed that the Crooked Forest was intentionally created by humans, for making sleds, boats, buckets, or furniture. However, local loggers confidently assert that the wood from this pine forest is absolutely not suitable for furniture production. In fact, no one really knows why the trees are bent. Another view is that the local people specifically wanted to create a forest where all the trees bend to the north, so people wouldn’t get lost in it. Meanwhile, astrobiologists believe the reason for the bending is that this area has a strong negative energy field. There’s also an interesting local legend. In the last century, a witch lived in this young forest. One day, a group of loggers came to cut down the trees. But when they swung their axes, the tree trunks would dodge on their own and even fight back with their branches. The terrified loggers fled from this horrifying forest. Since then, as a warning against trespassing in the enchanting forest, these trees have been permanently frozen in their bent posture. Actually, this crooked forest does look quite creepy. And it gets even more terrifying in the fog. But the locals believe that if anyone walks through this forest, they will find happiness and even be cured of various diseases. For tourists, a special permit is required to enter this crooked forest. And many visitors have debated that there are surprisingly no birds or insects in this forest. Today, there are only about 100 crooked pine trees left, and the number is still decreasing. Despite a hint of terror and mystery, this one-of-a-kind crooked forest… don’t you want to see it? 08 Parícutin: The Cornfield Volcano The volcanic eruption in Tonga caused a lot of trouble for the locals. But compared to the ancient city of Pompeii in Italy, destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, Tonga was relatively lucky. However, two villages in Mexico were not so fortunate. The area where the two villages were located is now known as the “Pompeii of Mexico.” Because the world’s youngest volcano, during its formation and eruption, completely swallowed these two villages. The only remaining structure from the two villages is this church, standing amidst the volcanic lava, with only half of it remaining, the Church of the Lord of Miracles. The original name of the Church of the Lord of Miracles is the Church of San Juan Parangaricutiro. This is also the name of one of the villages swallowed by the lava. The other village shares its name with the volcano, both are called Parícutin. A local resident in his 90s, Francisco Lázaro, was a witness to the volcano’s eruption and formation. According to him, when he was 18, the location of the volcano was just a flat cornfield. Nine years later, when he was 27, that cornfield turned into what we see now, a cone-shaped mountain over 400 meters high. A volcano born from flat ground, it does sound a bit incredible. But all of this actually happened. Mexico is a country with many volcanoes. Parallel to the 19th degree north latitude line, there is a volcanic belt that stretches 800 kilometers from east to west, and is 100 kilometers wide from north to south. Along this volcanic belt, numerous volcanoes over 3,000 meters high stand in a zigzag pattern from east to west. Among them, the Parícutin volcano is the world’s youngest volcano, which people watched as it formed. Parícutin volcano is located in the state of Michoacán, Mexico, more than 400 kilometers away from the capital, Mexico City. In the nearest small town to the volcano, Angahuan, live some elderly people who witnessed the volcano’s formation. From their stories, we can get a deeper understanding of the birth of the Parícutin volcano, and how the two villages of Parícutin and San Juan Parangaricutiro were slowly swallowed by the lava. The site of the Parícutin volcano was once a flat cornfield. There was no mountain at all. But, starting in early February 1943, the villagers of Parícutin always felt the ground constantly shaking, accompanied by a rumbling sound. No one knew what was going on. One afternoon, a villager named Pulido was working in a cornfield about 3 kilometers south of the village. Suddenly, he felt the ground shake again. All of a sudden, he saw a crack open up in the ground nearby. It was constantly emitting smoke, warm, and had a foul smell. Pulido didn’t know what was happening and was a bit scared. He quickly shoveled dirt to try and block the crack. But this was completely futile. The crack on the ground grew larger, and the smoke became thicker. He was terrified and ran back to the village, to report this terrible event to his fellow villagers. Later, a few brave villagers rode horses to the cornfield to see for themselves. They found that the smoky crack Pulido mentioned had become a very large hole. Thick smoke, along with intense steam and gravel, shot out of the hole together, making a deep rumbling sound. This was on February 20, 1943. By 9 PM that night, the villagers gathered at the village entrance saw flames erupting from the place that was smoking during the day, flashing like fireworks. When the flames were intense, they lit up the night as bright as day. The next day, people approached the smoky area to observe. They found a small cone-shaped hill over 20 meters high had appeared there. Hot lava flowed from the top of the hill in all directions, advancing at about 25 meters per hour. As time passed, the volcanic cone continued to grow. A month later, it reached a height of 220 meters. The scorching lava slowly approached the nearby village of Parícutin, and the more distant village of San Juan Parangaricutiro. After about two more months, the village of Parícutin was swallowed by the scorching lava. Subsequently, the village of San Juan Parangaricutiro was also buried under the lava. It is said that when the Parícutin volcano first erupted, two miles away, the bells of the San Juan Parangaricutiro church also rang out. The ground rumbled, and the lava began to flow. It took a year for the lava to reach and melt the rock walls of the cemetery surrounding this small church. The lava eventually flowed over the graves and into the church. But one of the church’s towers and the altar were unaffected. This is also the only building in the area to survive the eruption. Parícutin volcano began to form and erupt on February 20, 1943, and went dormant on March 4, 1952. It erupted for a full 9 years, ultimately becoming the youngest volcano on Earth. During the eruption, lava spewed from a total of 7 vents. Sometimes, the smoke plume reached over 5,000 meters high. The local villagers called the towering smoke plume a “fire dragon.” The volcanic ash even spread to the capital, Mexico City, over 400 kilometers away. Over the 9 years, Parícutin volcano spewed an estimated 1 billion tons of lava, swallowing about 25 square kilometers of land. It completely submerged the village of Parícutin and the village of San Juan Parangaricutiro. Fortunately, long before the lava reached the villages, the villagers had evacuated, and no one was killed or went missing. But the villagers from these two villages were still unwilling to leave the area. At the southern foot of today’s Parícutin volcano, they built a new home, named Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro. And they also built a new San Juan Parangaricutiro church. Meanwhile, the original San Juan Parangaricutiro church still stands, half-buried in solidified lava. In the distance, the huge volcanic cone of Parícutin, over 2,700 meters high, is faintly visible. Nowadays, climbing the volcanic rock to see the church that survived the disaster has become a tourist experience. It is also a major source of income for the region. If tourists want to visit the church in the volcanic rock, they need to first go to the nearest small village, Angahuan. Most of the houses in this village are made of wood. It has over 6,000 villagers. But the villagers don’t speak Spanish among themselves, because they belong to the Tarascan indigenous people. There are 56 indigenous groups in Mexico. They speak the Purépecha language. There are about 200,000 people in Mexico who speak this language. They are also known as the non-Spanish-speaking indigenous people. To get to the church from Angahuan, no cars can reach it. The only mode of transport is horseback riding. At first, the ground is yellow sandy soil. Further on, it turns into black volcanic ash. After half an hour of riding, the terrain opens up. Suddenly, a large area of towering black rocks appears on the flat ground by the roadside. It looks as if someone intentionally piled these black rocks on this flat land. Huge black rocks are jagged and interlocking. This is the lava spewed by the Parícutin volcano at that time. After cooling, it turned into hard black rock. And beneath these black rocks is the village of San Juan Parangaricutiro. In an open space next to the volcanic rock field, there are a few food stalls, selling freshly made black corn tortillas. The locals put various fillings on the tortillas, add chili sauce, and roll them up to eat. The freshly made tortillas are very soft, with a fresh aroma of corn. There are some photos here of the elderly (of the church and volcano). They are all witnesses to the volcanic eruption. If you’re lucky, you might even meet them, and they’ll explain the process of the eruption to the tourists. Because the lava flowed relatively slowly during the eruption, the villagers of the two villages had enough time to evacuate to a safe place. So no one died or went missing. Those elderly people are very proud to have witnessed the entire formation process of the Parícutin volcano. Now, among the chaotic black volcanic rocks, a rugged path has been trodden by tourists. Following this path down, you can reach the newest natural wonder, the Church of the Lord of Miracles. The San Juan Parangaricutiro church is a magical place. The church’s tower and altar survived. You can see that the volcanic rock has eroded into the church. Tourists explore and play here, taking every step with caution. The scenery that tourists enjoy here seems to come from another world. From the bell tower to the altar, although it’s just a short distance, walking on volcanic rock is not easy. In front of the altar, there are niches for candles, where believers pray. Coming down from the volcanic rock, there is only a narrow space to pass through. The volcanic rock is several meters thick. It flowed to this point and stopped. Today, this church, engulfed by lava, has also become a popular adventure destination in the world. If you want to climb the Parícutin volcano, the ruins of this church are also a must-see on the way. To climb the volcanic cone, it’s best to set out early in the morning, because the entire journey is on volcanic rock. You can enjoy the experience of circling the crater rim and descending into it without any special equipment. Hot sulfur steam still seeps out from the ground. Climbing up and walking into the youngest volcanic crater on Earth, and visiting the church swallowed by lava, can be said to be a very interesting adventure. Finally, a tip for everyone: it’s not recommended to go to the church and volcano alone, because there are community checkpoints that don’t allow foreigners to travel alone. You can find a guide from Angahuan or Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro. Also, it can be quite cold here in the winter. So, what do you think of this “Pompeii of Mexico,” this world’s youngest volcano that grew out of a cornfield, and the church it swallowed? Would you like to visit? 09 Kiruna: The Moving City Have you ever seen a move like this? Cranes and trucks “uproot” houses, “packing up and moving” an entire city. The tropical island where Darwin and God parted ways only moves a few centimeters a year. But this city will move 3 kilometers in 100 years. 145 kilometers inside the Arctic Circle, lies the popular Swedish tourist destination of Kiruna. It was once the largest city in the world by area. The world’s first ice hotel is located here. But you might not know that the beautiful Kiruna will soon be swallowed by the earth and disappear forever. In 1900, the Swedish state-owned mining company started mining iron ore here, which gave birth to the town of Kiruna. Currently, its world-leading iron ore production accounts for 90% of the entire EU iron ore market. They can build at least 6 Eiffel Towers’ worth of iron almost every day. Many people got rich because of the iron ore. However, starting in 2004, the mining company actually started digging towards the city of Kiruna at a 60-degree angle. 10 years later, large areas of the city began to collapse. A huge crack even extended from the mine to the city center. But even so, the mine absolutely cannot stop production. Otherwise, 18,000 people would lose their jobs. So, the only option is to relocate the entire city. In 2015, Kiruna began to “move” east, towards a new city 3 kilometers away. People hope the new city can retain its women, because in this old city, completely dominated by men, almost all the women have moved away. People also hope the new city can attract tourists, because just a 15-minute drive from Kiruna, is Sweden’s world-famous ice hotel, which attracts hundreds of thousands of aurora-chasing tourists every year. But very few tourists come to the city of Kiruna itself. At the same time, Sweden’s most beautiful building, the Kiruna Church, built in 1912, will be moved intact to the new city. The same goes for the city hall’s clock tower. Currently, the relocation of the old city and the construction of the new one has already cost tens of billions. As for the final cost, perhaps even the mining company paying for it can’t say for sure. This is a super long and complex project. According to the plan, it won’t be until 2100 that the city of Kiruna will be completely relocated. After 100 years, because of the iron ore, the new city might have to continue moving east. This unimaginable, constantly moving city, when will it ever truly settle down? 10 Fly Geyser: An Accidental Wonder You absolutely can’t imagine how magically stunning the beauty of nature can be. Is this a sci-fi movie scene or an alien’s artistic creation? Actually, this incredible sight before you was created by human error. Over 100 years ago, people drilled a well here looking for water. But what came out was boiling water, which couldn’t be used for farming or irrigation. When the workers tried to seal the well, they found it was nearly impossible. It wasn’t until 1964 that a geothermal power company drilled a second well here. But the boiling water that came up wasn’t hot enough for geothermal power generation. The new well was also abandoned, causing even more underground boiling water to gush out to the surface. Calcium carbonate in the water has been depositing around the wellhead for years, making it grow taller and taller. Gradually, it formed ever-growing mounds and terraces around the wellhead. The oxidation of sulfur and iron in the water gives the mounds a brilliant yellow and red color. The green we see is thermophilic algae that grows in the warm, moist environment. This strange and mysterious supernatural landscape is definitely rare on Earth. This is the intermittent Fly Geyser, located on private land next to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA. In the 1930s, there was a flight training school here. So now the vast area around the Fly Geyser is called the Fly Ranch. A few years ago, a non-profit organization bought the Fly Ranch for $6.5 million. The Fly Geyser was also sold as private property. Since then, a fence has been installed around it, and casual visits are no longer allowed. But you can still see the geyser erupting from the nearby public road. Over the past hundred years, the Fly Geyser has created dozens of natural pools on the Fly Ranch. It has become a desert oasis with wetlands and grasslands. The boiling water of the Fly Geyser supports heat- and sulfur-tolerant bacteria and thermophilic algae. Along with the later-arriving small fish, swans, and wild ducks, they form the Fly Geyser’s own ecosystem. The color of the Fly Geyser constantly changes with the seasons and the amount of water it spouts. The multicolored mounds look like a miniature volcano that’s constantly erupting. At sunset, the gushing boiling water is particularly spectacular. This scene is probably beyond what earthly language can describe. Take a trip, gain some knowledge. The next episode will be even more exciting. Stay tuned. Stepabreath.

究竟是天灾还是人祸？这期将带你深入探索全球10个因人类失误或自然伟力而形成的“灾难奇观”。从燃烧了半个世纪的地狱之门，到史上最严重的人为生态灾难“咸海船舶公墓”，再到因挖矿而被迫“搬家”的整座城市… 准备好，见证地球上那些触目惊心的杰作与伤痕。

这是一份关于创造与毁灭的矛盾清单。我们穿越世界，探寻那些因一次失误、一场灾难或一个疯狂决定而诞生的奇特地标，它们既是大自然的奇迹，也是人类行为的纪念碑。你将看到：一场持续燃烧的天然气大火，如何造就了“地狱之门”？一片曾经的汪洋大海，为何变成了沙漠中的船舶坟场？400棵树木为何齐刷刷地向北弯曲，是神秘力量还是人为操控？

跟随我们的镜头，揭开这些地方背后令人震惊的故事。无论你是对地球科学充满好奇，还是关心人类与自然的关系，这期视频都将带给你一次难忘的思考之旅。

00:00 天灾还是人祸？10个地球的杰作与伤痕
00:08 1. 土库曼斯坦地狱之门 (Darvaza, Turkmenistan) – 燃烧半世纪的火坑
02:22 2. 乌兹别克斯坦咸海 (Aral Sea, Uzbekistan) – 沙漠中的船舶公墓
05:23 3. 哈萨克斯坦咸海的秘密 (Aral Sea, Kazakhstan) – 生化鬼城与航天基地
09:19 4. 亨德森岛 (Henderson Island) – 垃圾海滩上的世界遗产
11:22 5. 珠穆朗玛峰 (Mount Everest) – 世界最高的垃圾场
14:25 6. 珠峰拥堵路 (Mount Everest Congestion) – 最昂贵的排队
17:42 7. 波兰弯曲森林 (Crooked Forest, Poland) – 400棵树的未解之谜
19:52 8. 墨西哥帕里库廷火山 (Parícutin, Mexico) – 玉米地里长出的火山
29:22 9. 瑞典基律纳 (Kiruna, Sweden) – 整座城市大搬家
31:28 10. 美国飞喷泉 (Fly Geyser, USA) – 持续喷开水的神奇“火山”

👉 订阅「行影步离」https://www.youtube.com/@Stepabreath，与我们一同探索世界奇观！
👍 如果你喜欢这期内容，请一定点赞、分享，并留言告诉我们哪个鬼城的故事最让你震撼！

#天灾 #人祸 #地理奇观 #环境保护 #行影步离

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【行影步離】 ⇲ 國際版全集 → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcIjSEckSf1EPwxavMR8AAFS
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【行影步離】 ⇲ 國際版分區專輯 ⇲
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【行影步離】 ⇲ 國際版分類專輯 ⇲
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→ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcIBpOSTPS4e_I4my1ekMVGB → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcIl4edn9wGzNCUUjY7zn4LL → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcKMJ1bDn2CDbJEPNbHCtj4Q → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcLyjDLGTKXp_7sucyDklFx6 → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcLXCYeQTF2HYqmqRQ3UeWtI → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcLvk0zIreTxWnM-tdou8dXw → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcKDbWYrqb6ZZn443YDWcXL_ → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcLK0b6_CNR0uKM1Y2hHcJzP
→ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcK1ZH_3CIPnvFEy5Ayb9eUw → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcKFjoPATHrMElq50WScHUaX → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcJIiB_MSHvuRIy4veYE0pPT → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcIkoZKxFFGiaPJIhJy_7KtZ → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcKdZ_vQ8h9TnokbXSfOTm15 → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcLj8-tkn49fKVZpOjUlsvqv → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcJJb4xw79zLwSmPgZ7Cc-aO
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【行影步離】 ⇲ 國內版全集 → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcJpwrjWy06pyyFJnLgp7nqg
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【行影步離】 ⇲ 國內版自駕游專輯 ⇲
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→ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcKsNFt7Lmkjqcsjyid2nqCb → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcInQBxyyjmzFRFCL0a2i4Hk → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcIGJrvmYQYCNBw2Sjz7x8qg → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcLSP1x7lxIzekGTWWKG8d07 → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcIG2sOWnAFaDeB2ALSc3afA → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcKBWzfu-GZkslXxzmMBx9-2 → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcKgLVOV0jgaH9CBt1GtVlso → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhCF5hqehTcK_fwMfbPgXmJ-nIMqAQXI9
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