10 Places With Geological Features That Shouldn’t Exist (3 of 6)

Salar de Uyuni

Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni looks like the world’s biggest optical illusion. It’s the largest salt flat on Earth, stretching so far that the white surface seems to melt right into the sky. When it rains, a thin layer of water turns it into a giant mirror, and people say it feels like walking through the clouds. This stunning salt flat formed after massive prehistoric lakes dried up and left behind thick mineral deposits that later hardened into a huge salt crust.

Danxia Landform

In China’s Zhangye National Geopark, the mountains look like they’ve been painted in stripes. Streaks of red, yellow, orange, and pale white colors are so vivid that photos of the place often look fake. All these colors come from different minerals stuck in layers of sandstone millions of years ago, and iron oxides helped create the rich reds. Later, tectonic movement tilted the layers upward, while wind and rain added the finishing strokes.