Color abounds on the planet, yet some areas stand out for their magnificent natural beauty. Pigmented microorganisms, millions of years of sedimentary layering, and erosion are commonly used to produce the world’s most colorful sites. Here are 9 of the world’s most colorful natural beauties, along with their locations.
9. Seven Colored Earths in Mauritius
The plethora of varied colors discovered mixed into the sands gave this little cluster of dunes in Chamarel, Mauritius, its name: red, purple, violet, blue, green, yellow, and brown. Though these dunes are usually thought to be a result of volcanic activity, researchers believe they were formed over time by chemical weathering and oxidation.
8. Laguna Colorada in Bolivia
Located within the Eduardo Avaroa National Reserve in Potosí, Bolivia, this shallow, red-tinted salt lake is a common gathering location for flocks of flamingos. The lake’s natural red tint derives from the scarlet pigment of the algae that reside there. Visitors can tour this colorful lagoon and take a swim in the hot springs close by.
7. Havasu Falls in Arizona
Havasu Falls is only one of several falls hikers will come upon when traversing the Grand Canyon’s Havasupai route near Supai, Arizona. Located within the Havasupai Indian Reservation, the lush green canyon that includes these waterfalls is a nice relief from the desert that surrounds the area. The water’s striking turquoise tint derives from high amounts of magnesium and calcium carbonate present in the riverbed.
6. Painted Desert in Arizona
The Painted Desert, which stretches across 1,500 square miles in northern Arizona, is a sedimentary terrain made up of layers of siltstone, mudstone, clay, and shale. These soft rocks, which were deposited by rushing water many years ago, have been worn into hills and valleys by volcanic activity and violent weather for centuries.
5. Danakil Depression in Ethiopia
The Danakil Depression is a beautiful, otherworldly terrain famous for its bright yellow and green sulfur and salt deposits, in addition to being one of the hottest and lowest-lying regions on the earth. This plain can be found in Ethiopia’s Afar Triangle.
4. Fly Geyser in Nevada
Surface water comes into touch with magma beneath the earth’s surface and erupts when pressure is released, however in the case of this little, colorful geyser, people played an unintentional role in its formation.
3. Spiaggia Rosa in Italy
If you’ve ever wanted to visit a beach that looks like cotton candy, now is your opportunity! The coral and seashell fragments in Sardinia’s Spiaggia Rosa sand give it a brilliant pink tint. The rose beach really stands out against the pristine blue water.
2. Paint Mines in Colorado
The Paint Mines Interpretive Park, located in Calhan, Colorado, is home to towering hoodoos, diverse ecology of plants and creatures, a rich archaeological heritage, and stunningly colored sedimentary rock formations.
1. Grand Prismatic Spring in Wyoming
The sheer size of this hot spring, as well as its spectacular rainbow-like coloring, make it stand out. The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park’s largest hot spring. A variety of colored bacteria thrive along the mineral-rich borders of the Grand Prismatic Spring, as they do in many other hot springs.
