Many corners of the Earth are difficult to observe from a conventional perspective due to their extreme environments, inaccessible geographical locations, or minimal human activity. These places include remote tribal habitats, deep underground cave systems, vast lakes beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, mysterious tropical rainforests, and expansive ocean trenches. Earth is currently our only planet for survival. While Earth is generally suitable for our habitation, not every place on Earth is habitable.There are areas on Earth's surface that have remained unexplored or difficult to observe for a long time due to extreme natural environments, geographical isolation, or limited human activity. These corners include untouched tribal habitats, hidden ecosystems in extreme natural environments, and deep spaces that are difficult to access with technology.
Definition of Mysterious Zones
Many places on Earth remain unexplored and ununderstood by humankind; these places are called "mysterious zones." They are typically located in geographically remote, extreme, or harsh environments. Below, we will explain in detail what mysterious zones are and explore why they remain largely unexplored.
What are Mysterious Zones?
Mysterious zones, as the name suggests, refer to areas filled with the unknown and mystery. These places could be the abyss of the deep sea, dense primeval forests, the icy world of the poles, or even desolate deserts. Their common characteristic is that human understanding of them is extremely limited, and they have almost never been explored.
For example, the Mariana Trench is the deepest trench in the world, exceeding 11,000 meters in depth. Due to the extremely harsh environment, immense pressure, and lack of light, little is known about it. Similarly, many areas of the Amazon rainforest remain unexplored, potentially harboring unknown creatures and ecosystems.
Unseen Mysterious Corners
The "Ghost Tribes" of the Rainforest: "Isolation Zones" Even Satellites Can't Find
Satellite images released by the Brazilian government in 2022 showed that 15% of the Amazon basin was "pure black"—meaning that even vegetation density in these areas is inaccurate!
Even more astonishingly, in the "mysterious triangle" bordering Peru and Brazil, local indigenous legends tell of a "moving forest." When a research team used drones for aerial photography, they discovered that the entire forest had "moved" 200 meters in a single day!
And in the Foja Mountains of Indonesia, in 2018, a research team unexpectedly encountered a tribe completely isolated from the outside world—their "treehouses" woven from vines suspended 50 meters in the air. When the tribal elders saw the research team, they immediately pulled out bone arrows and aimed them at them!
This tribal group, whose existence was only confirmed in 2023, is considered by anthropologists to be perhaps the last "purely primitive civilization" on Earth!
The "Underground Lake" Beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet: A "Time Capsule" Frozen for 15 Million Years
In 2012, Russian scientists drilled through Lake Vostok in East Antarctica—a lake hidden beneath a 4,000-meter-thick ice sheet, frozen for 15 million years. However, until now, no one has entered the lake.
Due to the thickness of the ice, the drill could only create a 10-centimeter hole. The water that just surfaced was frozen solid by the -50 degree Celsius temperature.
Furthermore, scientists are concerned that if humans entered, they would bring bacteria from the outside world into the lake, thereby damaging this "primitive ecosystem." You see, it's not that we don't want to go, but some places are too "fragile."
The "Dark Kingdom" of the Deep Sea: A Territory More Unfamiliar Than Space
In 2020, China's "Striver" manned submersible descended to the deepest point of the Mariana Trench—10,909 meters. This was only the third time humans had reached this depth, the previous two being the "Trieste" in 1960 and the "Deepsea Challenger" piloted by James Cameron in 2012.
But did you know that the Mariana Trench is the size of the entire United States, and humans have only explored 0.001% of it? Those unexplored canyons may harbor bioluminescent fish, shrimp that can survive at 1000 times atmospheric pressure, and even "deep-sea monsters" we've never seen before.
