Scientists have solved the mystery of the "Eye of the Dragon": what a unique natural phenomenon looks like in Norway

A unique natural phenomenon in Norway called "Dragon's Eye" is astonishing in its appearance and mystery. There was a lot of discussion around its origin, but scientists got a clue to this amazing natural "eye".

This hollow, probably formed about 20 thousand years ago, when the whole of Scandinavia lay under a huge mass of ice, called the Fennoscandian ice sheet. About it writes LiveScience.

A depression in the rocks along the northwest coast of Norway looks like a reptile's eye. A boulder lying at the bottom of the depression stands out against a layer of white sand and seaweed, forming a "pupil".

"Dragon's Eye" is a natural feature that probably formed under the large Fennoscandian ice sheet, possibly during the last ice age. This specific type of glacial landform is called a pothole," said Frances Chantel Nixon, assistant professor of physical geography and Quaternary geology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The Fennoscandian ice sheet was a huge glacier that covered Scandinavia and parts of northern Europe and northwestern Russia during the last ice age about 20,000 years ago.

According to Nixon, glaciation can form any geologic formation, even those special ones called plastic forms or p-forms. They are the result of erosion of bedrock beneath the ice sheet.

"P-forms are created by meltwaters full of abrasive sediments. These sediments include rocks of all shapes and sizes (from fine sand to giant blocks). High-pressure meltwater flows moving beneath the ice can form a rocky base in a depression with smooth walls that can be straight, curved or circular, ranging in width and depth from centimeters to several meters," Francis Nixon explained.

Potholes, such as Dragon's Eye, are a type of p-shape that form particularly turbulent meltwater currents that concentrate erosion and erosion in circular patterns. will fall into a pothole," the scientist said.

According to Nixon, this is probably how the boulder ended up at the bottom of Dragon's Eye. The retreat of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet exposed the rocky base and its potholes, which are composed of gneiss, a type of metamorphic rock with multicolored mineral bands that give the eye a fantastic appearance.

"Dragon's Eye" looks different depending on the time of day and the tides. At high tide, the waves wash over the rocks, episodically depositing and carrying sand out of the basin, so that the boulder sometimes "sits" on a bare base.

Only verified information from us in Telegram-channel OBOZ.UA and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!