Images can teach us all kinds of things. They may show us a fuller context than we had previously understood, or a different version of something that’s familiar to us. Some are of historical importance, while others are just plain weird.
This list is a bit of a grab bag, but you’ll probably feel a little smarter after scrolling through.
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Shifted.
An earthquake in California ruptured the landscape so significantly that a road will need to be re-routed. It looks like everything moved about 20 feet along the faultline.
The more you know.
This hotel room is so old that it retains a sign from back when electricity was a newfangled device. It’s wild to think about electricity being a rare luxury rather than a necessity.
Human for scale.
The Pyramids don’t look that big in a lot of photos. After all, they were built thousands of years ago — how big could they really make ’em? It turns out they’re pretty freaking big.
The ouch circuits.
This diagram shows the nerves related to human teeth, and where they go. This explains why it hurts so much when anything goes wrong at the dentist’s office.
Safe enough.
This chair lift has clearly reached a dizzying height and a fall would be catastrophic. But when the year is 1965, the only safety mechanism you really need is Mom’s arm.
Worn down.
This door strikes a bell every time it’s opened. A few thousand strikes a year, multiplied by 50 years or so, is enough to warp the wood where the bell hits.
A rare pic.
It looks like Mars, but this is actually the surface of Venus. This pic was snapped by the Soviet Union’s Venera 13 spacecraft. Venera 13 barely lasted two hours before the harsh Venusian atmosphere rendered it inoperable.
Nature waits for no one.
This remarkable series showing the natural decay of an old church is incredible. In just eight years, it’s gone from move-in ready to basically being a part of nature again.
Cruelty free.
Traditional circuses, the kinds with big animals, are being phased out around the world, which is a good thing. This German circus uses holograms, but no animals, to create the old illusions.
The full picture.
Usually, photos of Tiananmen Square’s iconic Tank Man show him staring down one or two tanks. The full, uncropped version shows just how many tanks he was boldly staring down.
Leggy boi.
Owls appear to be dumpy, squat little birds with expansive wings. But it turns out they have gawky, bony legs just like most birds. You just have to lift up the fluff.
Around the world.
Yes, this shows the Geographic South Pole. The cool thing is that, since all lines of longitude converge here, it’s possible to stand in every one of Earth’s time zones at the same time.
Green glow.
A lucky and skilled photographer managed to capture this dramatic image of a green meteor coming down from the heavens. It looks downright apocalyptic, doesn’t it?
Needs a trim.
This sheep hated getting haircuts so much that it ran away from its farm and took refuge in a cave for six years. As it turns out, it really needed a shave after that long lay-off.
Galactic scale.
This solar eruption was captured by a hobbyist’s telescope. It’s a nice picture for sure, but the truly stunning thing is that, according to the amateur astrophotographer, two planet earths could fit into that tiny-looking loop of flare.
The essence of life.
It tells us where it comes from and it helps convict murderers. It’s DNA, and this is the closest we’re able to photograph its intricate little strands.
War scars.
Much of France was scarred by trench warfare during the First World War. Even though hostilities ended more than a century ago, the countryside is still full of old trenches and craters.
How a Hawaiian pizza begins.
I’ve never seen a pineapple before it’s arrived at the grocery store, but here’s an interesting look at how they grow, row by row by row.
He’s blue, da ba BEE da ba dye.
This is actually a subspecies of carpenter bee called Xylocopa caerulea , and they’re naturally blue as opposed to it being a rare occurrence like albinism.
Casting a wide net.
This photo shows the real scale of fishing nets, which I always knew were big but never really understood just how big. This must cause a lot of fishy nightmares.
The real sword in the stone.
Stuck in this rock here is The Galgano Sword from the 12th century. While not the actual sword that inspired the Arthurian legend, it still begs the question, how did it get in there?
As beautiful as a rose.
This is a Rose Nautilus shell…sort of. Someone in the comments came to point out a few details.
“This is a modified shell. An artist has carefully removed the outer surface of the shell to expose the thin walls that separate the chambers inside. That said, don’t buy these. Nautiluses are very endangered and the market for these shells is causing them to be overfished ever more than usual.”
Nope. Nope. Nopenopenope.
I’m typing this as fast as I can because I hate looking at this picture. This is a coconut crab. They’re the largest land-living arthropod in the world, and I hate them.
Finding a lost city.
Heracleion was a city written about in ancient Egyptian texts and thought to be mythical, as it was said to have disappeared into the sea 1200 years ago. Lo and behold, they found it! Dozens of statues were found, meaning we’re one step closer to finding Atlantis too.
Legs for days.
Despite not actually being a wolf, this species is called a Maned Wolf. It’s the largest canine species in South America, and if it wanted to, it could easily find modeling work with those legs.
Extreme natural art.
So we all know that glass is just heated sand, and we all know that lightning is, well, hot, but what if you combined those two facts? This is what happens when lightning strikes sand. It’s called fulgurite, and it creates these beautiful natural sculptures!
Move over, Mount Everest.
This is the tallest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons. It’s on Mars and, at 72,000 feet high, it easily smokes any mountain on earth. For reference, Mount Everest is only 29,029 ft high.
Still at his post.
Archeologists found a Russian WWII soldier left at his post. This wasn’t the only person found at this dig site either. Every soldier was accounted for and buried at a German war cemetery with a military ceremony, so it was nice that they finally got a proper burial.
Potato pickings.
I genuinely didn’t know potatoes came in such a wild variety. I’m over here forgetting that yams are potatoes so I would do miserably at trying to remember all these.
Buried underneath.
These are the bodies of Easter Island heads! I’ve known for a while that they had bodies, but I guess I had never seen them before. These are really some massive statues!
Wolf man.
This is Zhang Hongming. He has a skin condition called Congenital Giant Pigmented Nevus, or Giant Furred Moles. The second name is rather self-explanatory as to what this is, but the look is crazy to see. It makes sense why many people compare him to a werewolf.
Diet’s got nothin’ to do with it.
This picture, captured by diver Kristian Laine, shows off this huge pink manta ray. Many people in the comments guessed that a diet of shrimp is what made it turn pink, much like flamingos, but it’s actually more likely to be a genetic mutation called erythrism that causes red or pink pigmentation.
Bucket list material.
This is the blue Java banana. Apparently it has a similar texture to ice cream and tastes like vanilla. Basically, it’s vanilla ice cream in a banana peel and I desperately want to try one.
Sleeping with both eyes open.
This is a red-eyed tree frog and its super cool eyelids. Basically, this type of membrane camouflages their bright red eyes, while also letting enough light in for them to still see predators! That’s like having a security system built right into your body.
After the disaster.
This is the only surviving photo of the Chernobyl nuclear plant taken on the morning of its famous meltdown. There was so much radiation in the air that this pic was almost destroyed.
