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North Pole lake
On July 22 , a remote webcam on the Arctic ocean ice spotted a stunning website : a meltwater lake the size of it of an Olympic swim pool and 2 feet ( 0.6 cadence ) deep that had formed on the ice . While world-wide warming has had a significant impact on Arctic ocean frappe , reduce its extent and thickness , such melt ponds are part of a innate summertime melt round . By July 29 , thebright blue meltwater had drainedback into the Arctic Ocean through a fracture in the underlying ice .
Rare eruption
July 31 saw arare eruption of Yellowstone ’s Steamboat Geyser , the first such eruption in eight class . The blast , which last about nine minute , shoot H2O and steam 200 to 300 feet ( 60 to 90 meters ) into the air . About 30 to 40 visitant to the interior park were prosperous enough to catch the outbreak , and reported hearing a holloa and feel the earth shake .
Elusive red sprites
An elusive , mysterious descriptor of lightning known asred spriteswere captured in a set of amazing image and television taken aboard a Gulfstream V research plane by alumna bookman Jason Ahrns during several research flights this summer . Red sprites scoot for less than a minute on the teetotum of thunderstorm cloud , which means they are usually obscured from the flat coat , hence the need to study them from the melodic line . This picture was taken on Aug. 12 .
Roll cloud, roll
This impressive panoramic photo shows an ominous - look , but harmless , rare cloud form known as aroll cloudas it impress over northern Virginia on Sept. 16 . Roll clouds are a type of broader cloud formation known as shelf clouds , which form along the leading edge of a electric storm when rainfall - cool air slam into lovesome , moist air nearer to the footing and forces it upwards where its water condenses . With roll clouds , the winds in a storm ’s gust front can " vagabond " the cloud into it tubelike shape , though unlike other ledge clouds , the rolling wave cloud is n’t attached to the rest of the storm .
Monster storm
The penalise mogul and sheer size ofSuper Typhoon Haiyancould be appreciated in a unique view of the tempest capture by astronaut Karen Nyberg aboard the International Space Station on Nov. 9 — one 24-hour interval after the storm devastated the Philippines . Haiyan ( prognosticate Yolanda in the Philippines ) was fault for thousands of Death and million of one dollar bill in damage .
PIG iceberg sets sail
closely six months after first breaking off from Antarctica ’s Pine Island Glacier , an berg the size of Singapore finally place sheet for the unfastened ocean in November . The iceberg had been suck for month by ocean ice that blocked its path . The iceberg ’s movement could be see in a NASA planet image snapped Nov. 13 that showed a couple of miles ( several kilometers ) of ocean betweenthe icebergand its parent glacier .
Earth’s newest island
Anew island rise out of the seain the Bonin Islands , about 600 nautical mile ( 1,000 kilometers ) to the south of Tokyo , on Nov. 20 , when a volcanic eruption throng up lava and shot out ash and lava fragments into the melodic line . The Japanese Coast Guard snapped photos of the unexampled spit of estate , named Niijima , from the air . It was thought that the erosive action of the sea would tear the newborn island asunder , but so far , it has actually mystify heavy .
Fog-filled canyon
The Grand Canyon is certainly picturesque and telling enough on its own , but the American born wonderment took on an nonnatural flavor when a uncommon weather eventfilled the chasm with fogin December 2013 . The cloud - satisfy canon was the result of what is called a temperature inversion , when cool atmosphere gets snare under a layer of ardent air . Calm winds forestall the warm air from mixing upwards , and if water vaporization is trapped in the stratum , fog can form .
