The Earth is a mysterious place. There is much going on around us every day that goes unexplained. For all our advanced technology and scientific understanding, there are events that occur, more or less, on a regular basis for which (as yet) we have no answers. Here is a list, in no particular order, of 10 of the most perplexing, documented phenomena that have baffled us for years - in some cases, decades and much longer.

7. Fish Falls

One of the most recent examples of fish falling from the sky took place the summer of 2000 in Ethiopia. A local newspaper reported: "The unusual rain of fish, which dropped in millions from the air - some dead and others still struggling - created panic among the mostly religious farmers." This is just one of countless case studies of rains of fish, frogs, periwinkles - even alligators - that have been cataloged over the centuries, many by famed paranormal researcher Charles Fort. (Such rains of creatures have been, in fact, come to be known as "Fortean" activity.)

Most often these rains of animals are attributed to severe storms, tornadoes, water spouts and related phenomena. Although the theory has not yet been proved, it holds that strong winds pick up the fish or frogs from bodies of water such as ponds, streams and lakes, carry them aloft - sometimes for miles and miles - and then drop them over land.

The peculiar fact that challenges this theory is this: in most cases, the rains are of one kind of animal only. It rains one species of herring, for example, or a particular kind of frog. How can this be explained? Could a powerful gust of wind be so discriminating? If the storm scooped up water from a pond, wouldn't it rain all kinds of things one finds in a pond - frogs, toads, fish, weeds, sticks and probably beer cans?

6. Weird Clouds

Clouds are fluffy, benign masses of water vapor, right? Consider this: In an otherwise clear September sky near Agen, France in 1814, a small, white, spherical cloud appeared. It floated motionless for a while before beginning to spin and head quickly southward. Witnesses reported that deafening rumbling noises thundered from the cloud, and then it suddenly exploded in a shower of rocks and stones. The cloud then slowly faded away.

This is one case of extremely rare and highly unusual behavior from clouds. Other documented reports tell of clouds that move against the wind, clouds that rain insects or carry peculiar shadows. There is even a story of a man from Oyster Bay, Long Island who was attacked by a spitting cloud. It's difficult to come up with any kind of rational explanations for these weird tales.

5. Spooklights

This might be a phenomenon related to ball lightning... then again it might not be. No one really knows what the many "spooklights" reported around the world are caused by. And there are many. Most famous, perhaps, are the Marfa Lights seen for generations near Marfa in Western Texas. The lights appear almost nightly and can be seen at a distance from Highway 90. Yet when investigators try to approach the lights, nothing can be seen.

Other spooklights include: The Tri-State Spooklight near the borders of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri; the Brown Mountain Lights near Morganton, North Carolina; the Gurdon Light near Gurdon, Arkansas; the Cemetery Lights of Silver Cliff Colorado; the Hebron Light in Maryland; the Hornet Spook Light in Southwest Missouri; and the Peakland Spooklights in Britain.

There are many unproved theories, of course, including alien activity, mirages, ghosts (usually headless railroad workers), and ball lightning induced by tectonic stresses in rocks.

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