Japanese underwater photographer Yoji Ookata spotted an unusual mysterious circle in the seabed sand in Amami Ōshima, Japan, earlier this year. Unable to determine where it came from, the photographer returned with television crew from NHK to investigate. What they discovered is an unusual underwater sand artist.

Lake Erie’s northern shoreline have been the final destination of thousands of dead fish. According to reports, environmental officials in Canada said that many dead fish were scattered along a 25-mile stretch of Lake Erie’s northern shore, and Ontario. A likely explanation for the fish kills is that they could be victims of a natural phenomenon called a lake “inversion,” environmental officials said.

Mayan Collapse. A new study said that the classic Maya civilization contributed to their own collapse when they cleared away forests for cities and crops, resulting in the already present drought condition to worsen. The study published in Geophysical Research Letters finds that deforestation aggravated the drought which is thought to have been a contributing factor to the downfall of the Maya empire.

The Toilet of the future mission – Bill Gates’ foundation held the Reinvent the Toilet Fair on August 14-15, 2012 at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Wash. where scientists have taken up the challenge to build new toilets that are affordable and sustainable. Dubbed as the “toilet revolution,” the mission of the foundation aims to solve problems about the poor sanitation in the developing world that causes severe diarrhea, which kills 1.5 million children each year.

Fukushima mutant butterflies. Scientists in Japan have discovered genetic mutations in butterflies near Japan’s tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant. According to a team of researchers, they collected 121 adult pale grass blue butterflies in and outside Fukushima Prefecture in May 2011 and found out that around 12 percent showed signs of abnormalities, including smaller wings and damaged eyes. They also had changes in the shape of their legs and antennae.

On Sunday, the world marks the total extinction of the rarest creature in the world, the Pinta Island tortoise, with the death of the famed giant tortoise named Lonesome George. Lonesome George, a celebrated conservation icon and a subspecies of giant Galápagos tortoise, passed away on Sunday of unknown causes, the Galapagos National Park in Ecuador said in a statement. He is the only remaining Pinta Island giant tortoise who gained notoriety when he failed to produce offspring.

Mushroom cloud over Beijing. A giant mushroom cloud was spotted over Beijing on Thursday, June 14. The formation gradually took the shape of the explosion of an atomic bomb, sparking fears that the “end of the world” is coming.

NASA new discovery: 2012 Scientists have made a biological discovery in Arctic Ocean waters as dramatic and unexpected as finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert. A NASA-sponsored expedition punched through three-foot thick sea ice to find waters richer in microscopic marine plants, essential to all sea life, than any other ocean region on Earth.

ARMORED CATFISH IN SOUTH FLORIDA DAMAGING LAKES. Millions of armored catfish are damaging South Florida’s lakes. This kind of catfish known for helping fish tanks clean became a big problem because the fish is causing erosion in neighborhood lakes.

4 FEET OF HAIL IN TEXAS…4 feet of hail was dumped on Amarillo, Texas on Wednesday after a hailstorm came through with the ice mixing with floodwaters causing blocked roadways for hours, including a major highway.

Cat-sized rats in Florida’s Grass Key have recently began showing up in the yards of local residents despite ecological efforts to kill them. Wildlife officials fear that the giant hungry rodents called the Gambian pouch rats could devastate local crops and upset the delicate ecological balance if they manage to reach the Florida mainland.

Brown Recluse Spider Hair Raising news. The brown recluse spider made its way today in American news with the creepy information about the spider’s bite making a student’s ear to rot and with additional information that the brown recluse spider is spreading across America.

The Oldest living thing Posidonia Oceanica. Scientists say a giant swathe of Mediterranean seagrass may be the oldest living thing on Earth. Clones of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica are thought to be up to 200,000-years-old. The current known oldest living thing, the Tasmanian plant, is believed to be 43,000 years old.

SNAKE NAMED MATILDA: MATILDA’S HORNED VIPER, WORLD’S NEWEST SNAKE NAMED AFTER A 7-YEAR-OLD GIRL…Matilda, a cute, sweet sounding name for the world’s newest known snake species that looks really scary. Matilda’s Horned Viper, discovered in a remote part of Tanzania, East Africa two years ago, has a striking yellow and black scales, slitted green eyes, and two spiky horns. Tim Davenport…

JAPAN EARTHQUAKE JANUARY 1, 2012: MAGNITUDE 7.0 QUAKE JOLTS JAPAN ON NEW YEAR’S DAY…Another powerful earthquake hits Japan and it happened exactly on New Year’s Day. The quake which has a magnitude 7.0 rocked the eastern part of Japan. No damage or injuries were reported and it did not generate a tsunami.

Five days after Typhoon Sendong hit northern Mindanao, rescuers recovered more bodies from the sea. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)said the death toll has reached more than 1,000, some of the bodies were retrieved from the coastal waters of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, the hardest-hit areas.

Python, South Florida..According to South Florida Water Management District the 16-foot python was captured and killed in Everglades National Park, Florida on Thursday. Workers found a 76-pound female deer inside the Burmese python. It was one of the largest snakes ever found in South Florida.

Crazy Ants are infesting Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. The small reddish brown ants invade by the millions and an opportunistic nester. There are reports that some people were forced to leave their home because of the crazy ants. Nylanderia, Mississippi State Entomological Museum…

Qingdao, Shandong – ALGAE BLOOM IN CHINA BEACH…A beach in China looks like a green land due to thick algae that invaded almost 200 sq miles of the Yellow Sea.

SPRINGFIELD TORNADO: WATCH TORNADO SUCKING UP WATER IN MASSACHUSETTS…Another wrath of nature! Watch this terrifying footage of June 1, 2011 Springfield, Massachusetts tornado sucking up water from the Connecticut river.