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With today’s advanced technology, it’s easy to think we’ve figured it all out. A few taps on our devices allow us to explore the surface of Pluto or take a virtual tour of Antarctica’s McMurdo Station via Google Street View. It's as if the age of mystery has passed.
But is that truly the case? Despite all the incredible tech at our disposal, we still don’t have answers to some of the most basic questions about our planet. Here are 10 fascinating mysteries that continue to surround our world.
10. The Uncharted Areas Within Our Major Metropolises
The term 'off the map' often evokes thoughts of faraway, untamed places like the Amazon rainforest or Antarctica. But in reality, there are parts of the world that remain uncharted much closer to home. Some of the world's largest cities still harbor areas that haven't been mapped at all.
This is usually due to the extreme danger of venturing into these places. For instance, the Neza-Chalco-Itza mega-slum in Mexico City is a vast, impoverished neighborhood with little police presence. Other areas, like Karachi’s Orangi shantytown, have been sketched out in basic 2-D but lack the finer details you would expect from a standard map.
In some cases, the challenge lies in rapid economic expansion. In many African and Asian cities, construction is so fast-paced and widespread that accurately mapping these areas is nearly impossible. When development happens within dangerous, overcrowded slums, creating a detailed map becomes an impossible task.
The inability to map these areas can have serious repercussions. In 2012, the Nigerian government demolished the historic floating slum of Makoko in Lagos. Because it was unmapped, the intricate layout, shaped over a century, was lost forever.
9. The Enigmatic Mountains We Haven't Climbed
In the 160 years since mountaineering rose to fame, we've scaled most of the world's towering peaks. Everest, K2, and Mt. Kilimanjaro have been climbed countless times, along with many lesser-known summits. However, we are far from having conquered every mountain on Earth. The Mount Everest Screening Committee suggests that there are 'infinitely' more unclimbed mountains than climbed ones. The only issue is that we're still uncertain about which ones are which.
There is no universal record keeping track of which mountains have been climbed or not. While some are easy to identify, others are a topic of intense debate. In the past, documenting a successful climb on a remote peak was nearly impossible. As a result, we often rely on the accounts of long-deceased climbers who claimed to have reached a summit, despite lacking any compelling evidence other than a desire for 'honor' to admit failure.
Furthermore, the records themselves pose issues. Many records, especially those from Japanese and Korean expeditions, have never been translated into English or made easily accessible. Countless others have never been digitized. We are certain there are mysterious peaks that remain unclimbed, but their identities are just as elusive as the mountains themselves.
8. Unidentified Minerals
The number of recognized minerals on Earth currently hovers around 5,000. That’s an overwhelming figure, and it’s easy to think that we’ve uncovered nearly all of them. After all, the discovery of a new mineral in Western Australia made headlines in 2014.
However, according to a study from last year by Robert M. Hazen at the Carnegie Institute for Science, we may still be far from completing the list. His team used a highly advanced statistical modeling approach to estimate the number of undiscovered minerals on Earth, and they came up with an estimate of over 1,500.
This may not be as improbable as it sounds. The majority of Earth’s mineral species are incredibly rare, with most being found at just five or fewer locations across the entire planet. Considering the vast expanses of land that remain unsurveyed by experts, it's entirely plausible that many minerals have yet to be identified.
What’s particularly intriguing about Hazen’s estimate is that it only includes minerals that still exist and are potentially accessible. The models his team used also accounted for minerals that likely formed and then vanished over time. The total number of these 'lost' minerals could be quite staggering.
7. Unknown Species
In 1972, biologist Jennifer Owen began documenting the species she observed in her suburban garden. By the time four decades had passed, she had recorded over 8,000 species, 20 of which had never been seen before in England. Of those 20, four were completely new to science. All of this was accomplished without ever leaving her home, and by accident, Owen documented four entirely new species.
This story illustrates how little we truly understand about the species we share our world with. The diversity of creatures on Earth is so vast that new species are being discovered all the time, often in the most unexpected places. While Owen's discoveries were remarkable, they aren’t even the most improbable. For instance, Dave Ebert in Taiwan discovered 24 new species of shark simply by visiting his local fish market. In London, a mycologist identified three new types of Boletus fungi in a pack of dried porcini.
According to a 2011 estimate, there are approximately 7.5 million undocumented species on Earth. At the time of the estimate, only 1.2 million species had been cataloged. This means that up to 90% of marine species and 86% of land species could still be completely unknown to science.
6. How Endangered Many Species Are
We have driven so many species to the edge of extinction that you can probably name a few off the top of your head. The Sumatran rhino, Hainan gibbon, Javan rhino, and others often appear in charity campaigns. However, those are only the species we know to be endangered. There are thousands—possibly millions—more whose current status remains a mystery: Are they thriving, endangered, or already extinct?
One major issue is a lack of resources. The International Union for Conservation of Nature houses the most extensive database on endangered species. But as of 2013, they had only evaluated the status of 71,576 species worldwide. Considering there are 1.2 million known species, that’s a minuscule fraction. When we factor in the potential 7.5 million undiscovered species, it’s evident that we have no clear picture of the state of most species.
Another challenge is locating the animals in the first place. For instance, it’s believed that as many as seven Oahu alauahios might still be alive in Hawaii, yet no one has spotted one since 1985. They may be extinct, or they might reappear like the Israeli frog, which was thought to have been gone forever. When it comes to species, we simply don’t know how most of them are faring.
5. Which City Is Growing The Fastest
While we may struggle to understand the animal kingdom, we often think we have a good grasp on our own urban environments. This, however, is far from the truth. Urban areas with dense populations are so intricate and baffling that we can’t even definitively say which city is growing the fastest.
It might seem like one of those esoteric questions, like how many angels can fit on the head of a pin, but understanding which cities are experiencing the greatest population growth can help us predict where the next economic giant might rise and adapt our policies accordingly. The problem, however, is that there are several ways to measure a city’s growth, and none of them lead to the same conclusion.
In one measure, Batam, Indonesia, is at the top, with a yearly growth rate of 7.4 percent. In another, Niamey, Niger is the fastest-growing city. Yet another study points to Xiamen, China. A city that ranks first in one study might not even appear in the top 10 of another.
Geographic growth is hard to measure, too, for reasons similar to those causing the trouble with maps we mentioned earlier. Growth is often so rapid that by the time we have accurately measured one city, all of our data is already outdated. In short, predicting where the next megacities will emerge is more challenging than it might appear.
4. Which Country Is Happiest
Following the 2008 financial crash, many began to search for more effective ways to measure a country’s overall well-being than GDP. Enter the National Happiness Index, which governments from Thailand to the UK have adopted. In theory, it’s a brilliant concept; life involves so much more than just contributing to the economy. In reality, however, the results are often highly inconsistent.
You may have heard of Bhutan, a small mountain kingdom located at the top of India. It’s impoverished, largely inaccessible to tourists, and yet renowned as one of the happiest places on Earth. This reputation has led to a flood of articles suggesting that Bhutan’s low-carbon, no-smoking, eco-conscious lifestyle should be emulated globally. The issue, however, is that the “happiest country” claim is based on a single survey. Other happiness surveys have placed Bhutan near the very bottom.
In short, Bhutan could be incredibly happy, or it could be in a state of despair. We just can’t say for certain. Other countries face similar challenges when it comes to measuring happiness. Some data suggests that Latin America is the happiest region, while others argue it’s Northern Europe. It seems that happiness is simply too vague and elusive to measure on a global scale.
3. Undiscovered Civilizations
It may seem almost impossible to lose something as monumental as an entire civilization. Yet, our species has managed to do just that, not once or twice, but possibly dozens, even hundreds, of times. While many such societies, like the Olmecs, have been rediscovered, they could be just the beginning. Some researchers believe that advancements in technology have placed us on the brink of uncovering many more previously lost civilizations.
The vast rainforests have always been masters at concealing evidence of human activity. Just ask the explorers who met their doom in search of El Dorado or the Lost City of Z. This doesn't mean the rainforests are devoid of evidence, though. On occasion, we’ve stumbled upon traces of large-scale agricultural work or ancient excavations. For such extensive projects to have been carried out, it seems there must have been a thriving civilization driving them.
We now have the potential to search for these lost civilizations, possibly using drones specially designed to navigate through the most remote regions of the rainforests. With a bit of luck, we might discover traces of forgotten peoples who have long since vanished from memory.
2. The Fate Of Pollution In Our Oceans
Here’s a sobering thought: there may be no corner of the Earth left that is free from pollution. Between the relentless flow of air and sea currents, countless factories, and billions of cars all contributing their pollutants, it's possible that every single patch of the planet has been tainted in some way.
If that news alarms you, brace yourself for this: some researchers believe that Earth will never again experience a truly unpolluted ocean. Due to the wasteful practices of the 20th century, our oceans might be polluted permanently.
This grim prognosis is largely due to microplastics. These are tiny fragments that break off from larger plastic items like bottles and bags. They’ve spread across every ocean on Earth, and experts aren’t certain if they can ever be fully removed. Some of the more pessimistic scientists fear that microplastics will persist as long as the oceans themselves.
1. Unexplored Caves
It's widely known that most of Earth's oceans remain uncharted. But that’s not due to our focus being solely on land. Beneath our feet lies an immense network of caves, many of which no human has ever set foot in. These hidden worlds are far from rare; according to National Geographic, it’s estimated that 90 percent of the planet's caves are still undiscovered.
Although that statistic has slightly changed, it illustrates just how much we still don’t know about the earth beneath us. The fact that most caves are concealed, with no visible openings at the surface, only adds to the mystery. Even in a country as well-explored as the United States, it's believed that only about half of its caves have been located.
This means that those spectacular, crystal-filled caverns you occasionally see online could be just a small glimpse of a much larger hidden world. A vast, dark expanse, untouched by sunlight for centuries, maybe even millennia. Who knows, there might even be Morlocks lurking down there.
