Preface - The Amazing World of Nature

1.
An ice bomb falling from the clear sky - a mega-craiomiter that landed on a small Spanish village.
2.
The Secret of the Circular Ice - Meter-Tall Circular Ice Formed on Lake Baikal
3.
Two days of rain, then Monday - why does it often snow and rain on weekends?
4.
Weather and Conquerors: 2,500 Years of European Climate and History Through Tree Rings
5.
Arctic Ocean Ice Storm - The Arctic Ocean Hurricane That Killed Countless People
6.
Why Aren't the Oceans Warming? - The Mystery of Declining Ocean Temperatures
7.
Mega-sinking currents in the Atlantic - What if a waterfall thousands of meters high existed in the middle of the ocean?
8.
The Pacific's Giant Water Hills - The South Pacific Sea Rises
9.
Fantasy Island - Rupes Nigra, a fake island marked on maps for 300 years
10.
Like a Phoenix in the Sea - Will Tonga's Volcanic Islands Grow?
11.
Algae Make Clouds - How Single-Celled Organisms in Southern Hemisphere Seas Affect Weather
12.
The Sahara Desert's Fertilizer Effect: Desert Dust Feeds Rainforest Trees
13.
The Delphic Gas - Could the oracle of the priestess have been caused by the gases and groundwater beneath the temple?
14.
Atlantis - Where is the Sunken City?
15.
The Secret of the Living, Moving Rocks - The Rocks of California's Death Valley Are Moving
16.
The Shrouded Noise - The Mysterious Rumble Reverberating Around the World
17.
Ancient Records - The Rocks of the Burgess Shale, Which Hold the Secrets of Earth's History
18.
Germany weighs 280 trillion tons - the weight of the Earth calculated from the thickness of the crust and the weight of its rocks
19.
Discovery of Continental Drift - Why Are Most Continents in the Northern Hemisphere?
20.
Full Moon, Full Moon, Earthquake? - Scientific and Non-Scientific Signs That Predict Earthquakes
21.
The Miracle of Haicheng: A Hopeful Success Story in Earthquake Prediction
22.
The Rhine River's roar: Nowhere is safe from earthquakes.
23.
Humans Cause Earthquakes: Over 200 Earthquakes Caused by Excavation
24.
A Mountain Falls into a Lake: The Bayonte Dam Disaster Caused by the Worst of Men
25.
The Great Disaster of Europe - The Meteor Rain That Hit Europe 15 Million Years Ago
26.
Magma Under Germany - What if a volcano erupted along the Rhine?
27.
A Needle in Hellfire - Attempts to Drill a Hole in the Volcano in Naples
28.
Humanity's Greatest Crisis: Indonesia's Toba Volcano Eruption and the Crisis of Human Extinction
29.
Africa Splits in Two - Where Volcanoes Boil and the Seas Rush In
30.
The Dead Sea Fault, the Fate Line of Humanity, is at Risk - A Crack in the Earth's Surface from Lebanon to the Red Sea
31.
Fire Alarm Underground - Burning Pit in the Karakum Desert
32.
Climategate - The heated debate surrounding climate issues

References

Living, moving desert rocks, waterfalls thousands of meters deep under the North Atlantic that move the Gulf Stream, chunks of ice falling from the clear sky, fiery underground pits in the Karakum Desert, the weight of the Earth calculated from the thickness of the crust and the weight of rocks, why most of the continents are in the Northern Hemisphere, why the ocean doesn't get warmer, what is the source of the loud noise that resonates all over the world? 32 Mysteries of the Earth, investigated by a reporter from Germany's top weekly magazine Der Spiegel and serialized to rave reviews in Der Spiegel Online!

Earth is a planet that holds interesting mysteries.
NASA scientist Brian Jackson was amazed by the rocks in Death Valley.
This is because there were traces of rocks weighing about 50 kilograms moving all over the desert floor.
For decades, scientists have been studying what moves these rocks, but no one has ever witnessed one in action.
Because installing cameras and taking pictures is prohibited in Death Valley National Park in California.
However, the stone's trajectory, which was hundreds of meters long, confirmed that it had passed through the Race Track Playa.
Who, how, and why did these rocks move? These massive boulders roll across the desert on their own, yet even the most advanced modern science can't explain what causes them to move.
And that's not all.
Ice chunks are falling from the clear sky all over the world, but no one knows what's causing them.

Axel Wojanowski, a reporter for the prestigious German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, has been writing a science column called "Graf Seismo" in Der Spiegel Online, which introduces such mysteries of the Earth, and has received great response. The column that was serialized in Der Spiegel Online to great acclaim, "Science Answers the Questions of the Earth - 32 Mysteries of the Earth (original title: Nach zwei Tagen Regen folgt Montag)" is a compilation of the columns that were serialized in Der Spiegel Online.
In this book, the author unfolds various stories such as the secrets of living and moving rocks, the story of how a waterfall thousands of meters deep under the North Atlantic is the driving force of the Gulf Stream, the huge water mounds of the South Pacific, the volcanic islands in the South Pacific that rise and disappear repeatedly, and the dust of the Sahara Desert that crosses the sea and becomes the nourishment for the Amazon rainforest, as well as the terrifying earthquakes and underground burning pits caused by humans, the identity of the loud noise that reverberates all over the Earth, a fake island that has not disappeared from the map for hundreds of years, and the correlation between weather and history.
Bojanowski's narrative style, grounded in accuracy, makes the difficult subject of geology, which encompasses earthquakes, climate, and weather, engaging yet accessible, making it readable like an essay.
Through his story, we can not only get a step closer to the Earth's amazing secrets that have been hidden for so long, but also gain a clearer understanding of the impact of geology on human life and the relationship between science and humanity that must be considered in creating future societies.

Stone and sand, storms and earthquakes, and the impact of weather on human life
The author also provides entertaining answers to difficult questions such as how climate influences the unfolding of history.
History follows climate cycles.
According to the author, the golden age of humanity in history occurred during periods of warm climate, while events such as the Great Migration, plagues, and the Thirty Years' War occurred during periods of unfavorable climate.
When the climate changed drastically, crop failures occurred, famine spread, and revolutions broke out.
For example, from 536 to 546, Europe experienced a dark age in history, when summer temperatures fell to record lows, even the Mediterranean Sea was cold, and cold winds and gloomy weather devastated the farmland.
It is argued that the collapse of the ancient cultures of Indonesia, Persia, and South America, and the collapse of their great cities, were also caused by such climatic disasters.
On the other hand, he argues that the 'medieval climate optimum' began in the mid-10th century, when temperatures in Europe rose, the Alpine tree line was higher than it is today, and grapes were grown much further north than they are today in the early 21st century, ushering in an age of exploration that saw Vikings travel to the Americas via Greenland.
In the 150 years since, Europe's population has nearly tripled.
However, in 1709, the worst natural disaster struck Europe, crops failed to ripen, livestock froze to death, and absolutism gained ground, but the people were unable to muster the strength to resist the system.


Jan Esper said, “Wars never happened when it was cold.
“In this way, climate change can accelerate historical development,” he said.
The author also summarized that “short-term climate change has serious implications for society.”
Additionally, the reason for the bad weekend weather in big cities before Monday is explained as rain or snow because exhaust gas particles from the weekdays gather on the weekend.
The argument is that even in Iceland and Greenland, where exhaust fumes are rarely found, more rain falls on weekends because fog particles change the airflow as they drop temperatures, making exhaust fumes detectable even farther from their source.
The author thus presents the vast subject of geology's impact on human life in a very entertaining and accessible way, with unexpected details.


Stories We Didn't Know About Earth
In the spring of 2003, scientists witnessed a mysterious sight in satellite images of frozen Lake Baikal.
A circle several kilometers wide was drawn on the ice of the lake.
Past satellite photos show circular ice formations there as well.
These mysterious ice circles have been found elsewhere as well.
So-called pancake ice has been discovered in the Baltic Sea.
Why did these whirlpools form in Lake Baikal? The author claims that the natural gas buried in the lake's waters is the cause.
Natural gas can rise up like a tornado, erupting from the ground along with warm water, creating a whirlpool, and it is claimed that this vortex created the ice circles.
Meanwhile, the author is also scientifically elucidating the secrets of mythology.
The claim is that the Delphic priestess's oracle was not caused by hallucinogenic drugs, but by the release of gases from inside the temple that caused breathing difficulties.
He claims that the excavation of the Temple of Apollo revealed that the fault beneath the temple had split, and that gas and groundwater were seeping out through the cracks, and that the ethylene vapors that came out from there were likely to have acted as a hallucinogen.


The author is attempting to measure the weight of the Earth.
In this book, the author, in collaboration with the Potsdam Geoscience Center, makes an innovative attempt to weigh cities and countryside on a scale.
A method of calculating the weight of an individual area based on data on the thickness of the crust and the weight of the corresponding rock.
The study explains that while Berlin and Hamburg do not differ much in area, their weights differ significantly: 82 trillion tons and 57 trillion tons, respectively.
The study found that the reason Canada, Australia, and the Scandinavian Peninsula are heavier than central Europe is because they accumulated a lot of rock through plate collisions and volcanic eruptions.
This book introduces not only various supernatural phenomena in earth science that we were unaware of, but also stories that could not be explained scientifically.


Recommendation

The author provides entertaining answers to difficult questions such as how climate influences the unfolding of history.
In other words, history follows climate cycles.
Throughout history, the golden age of humanity has occurred mainly during warm periods, while events such as the great migrations, plagues, and the Thirty Years' War have occurred during periods of unfavorable climate.
When the climate changed drastically, crop failures occurred, famine spread, and revolutions broke out.
He explains the vast subject of geology's impact on human life in a very entertaining and accessible way, with unexpected details.
- Buchjournal

The author's stories cover a wide range of topics, including a massive waterfall sunk thousands of meters beneath the Atlantic Ocean, the perilous task of drilling a hole in the heart of a supervolcano, and living, moving rocks.
The author's narrative style, grounded in accuracy, makes the difficult subject of geology both engaging and very accessible.
The completely unpredictable content is simply amazing.
- Scinexx