What is the most awe inspiring natural phenomenon you have ever witnessed? and how did it affect you?

Question

Aurora borealis, tornado, meteor shower, volcano, etc...... what natural phenomenon did you see that profoundly affected you emotionally??

Answer 1

2-way tie.

One time I was on the shore of Lake Superior when a seiche was occurring, and the water quickly receded, exposing a half mile of lake bottom. We walked out in it (this area was not deep even normally) and just as quickly the water rushed back in, accompanied by a heavy rainshower and rainbow.

You can't go wrong with the northern lights. I have no words to accurately convey a good display, curtains of light seething and flowing, blinking and pulsating as it flows all around you.

I don't know about particular emotional effects. I think all nature is amazing.

Answer 2

Jeez, can't quite compete with Danto, but I witnessed a large meteor explode in a fireball in the late 1970's. I was in the desert and the light from it lit up the desert floor almost like daylight.

The weirdest thing is that at the time I was into reading about UFOs. It was late at night, gone midnight, and I finished this book on UFO sightings and I was suddenly struck with the thought that if I drove out in the desert I would see something special. I drove out to where a large rock rose about 3/4 mile off the road. All the while walking across the desert from my car to the rock, I kept thinking "what am I doing out here?" I climbed the rock, and got out my cigs to have a smoke. I had just sat down, got the unlit cig in my mouth when this thing burst the sky with a fantastic green light.

I know it sounds silly now, but I thought I had been shown something by someone, God or alien or whatever. It was so uncanny because I knew when I left home I was going to see something.

Later when my senses returned to normal, and being interested in astronomy for years, I realised that it was just a biggish meteor exploding as it hit the atmosphere. Even so, it was a fantastic coincidence......or was it?

Answer 3

I was on a trip to Latin America. Me and my friends were planning on participating on one of those ecological "races" through a series of volcanoes in one day. There were three in each team and there were over 20 teams.Sadly enough, I caught a cold the night before.

The race began at 6 am and since I didn't want to lose the opportunity, I still took part in the event despite my condition and managed to get through the first two of the four volcanoes. By that time, my body couldn't take it anymore and told my friends to go ahead while I tried to regain my forces under a tree. Not to go in useless details, I got lost, and got through most of the third volcano before finally finding members of the Red Cross that were monitoring the race. I already had finished the 3 gallons of water I was carrying and, for some reason I thought I was gonna die. If it wasn't for that Red Cross team I would have certainly died.

The last volcano, unlike the other 3, was very steep and dry. It was about 3 pm by then, and the sky turned black. Thick black clouds covered the once burning sun. The Red Cross team and some of us were having morale problems since it was already quite late and we thought we were gonna get lost. I asked one of them if we were gonna make it, and he replied "Only God knows". Three minutes later, we were under a chaotic thunderstorm. The rain was so heavy and thick it actually hurt, and lightning struck fairly near our position. At that point we were fearing for our lives. Despite being a Christian all my life, I wasn't a very religious person by then, but true fear of death struck my heart and I suddenly started praying to God to spare my life. We crawled all the way up through the heavy rain in a movie-like scene, till we finally found the finish line at the other side of the volcano, we got there around 6 pm.

That storm affected me emotionally in a positive way, giving me a taste of what Mother Nature is capable of and experiencing a situation in which I didn't know if I was gonna make it alive.

Answer 4

I was with a friend in an airplane coming into Chicago; the pilot announced that landing was delayed due to weather.
My friend in the window seat exclaimed, "That is UGLY! It is horrible, there's lightning! It's so UGLY!"
At first I just said, "Don't worry about it;it's normal here, the pilot's used to this," but finally I asked to see and we changed seats.
I think it must have been what they call a funnel cloud. It was amazing. There was a cloud full of lightning! I've never seen anything like it before or since! There were dozens of lightning bolts all over and inside the cloud! I couldn't hear the thunder, though.
I was thrilled. "That's gorgeous! I've never seen anything like it before! It's beautiful! It's amazing!"
Neither my friend nor I could contain our feelings at the sight. "Ugly!" "Gorgeous!" "Terrible!" "Fantastic!"
Actually I was not afraid because I trusted the pilot not to get struck by lightning. But even if it had killed us, I couldn't have stopped admiring it. Unlike my friend!

Answer 5

The Geyser in Wyoming National Yellow Stone Park. because of the effect and the power coming out from the button of the earth.

The Zugspitze, German's highest mountain peak. First time I climed when I was 8 years old, being a heart patient survivor. It was a thrill of my life

Answer 6

Around 1975, I saw a giant rock, asteroid, meteor, comet thing bounce across the sky, now I know we can die at any time.

Answer 7

I witnessed microorganisms growing at an uncontrolled rate(exponential growth), in a petri dish with limited resouces, until they used all their resources up in their limited environment. They all perished.

that was when i realized that man is also on that same exponential growth trend., and how it will end.
Conservation became a little more personal to me.

Answer 8

a eclips, it made me realized that even light can be consumed by darkness