The Dragons of Tibet, and the Tsunami Monster

“A photo of two peculiar dragon-shaped objects taken from a plane flying over Tibet’s Himalayas piqued many users’ interest when displayed on a Chinese website. The photographer is an amateur.”


tibet_dragon.jpg
(www.dajiyuan.com)
“Looking at the photo, these two objects appear to have the characteristics of crawling creatures: The bodies seem to be covered by scales, the backs have spine-like protuberances, and also they have gradually thinning rear ends. Although the photo caught only a portion of the entire scene, it was sufficient to create the appearance of two gigantic dragons flying in the clouds.”
From The Epoch Times: Dragons in the Tibet Sky »
Thanks to Warren Ellis for spotting this story. As soon as I saw the picture of the two ‘dragons’, I thought ‘that’s two converging glaciers, seen from above’. I’ve seen something similar while flying over the Fox Glacier – near Mount Cook – in New Zealand, in better weather conditions (but I still nearly got killed!). The dark streaks on the glaciers is till – the sediment churned by glaciers as they make their way down the mountainsides. It’s made up of rock and soil, torn from below, and ending up on top of the ice, before getting pulled down again, in a continuous cycle.
Here’s some of my shots of the *top* of the Fox Glacier: Near Death by Parrot »
Here’s a shot from lower down the glacier (in b&w). You can see the dirt streaks
The Fox Glacier, New Zealand
The Fox Glacier, New Zealand
To purchase or use these images, contact me.
More of my Fox Glacier photographs here »
Total geek solution: These guys used Google Earth to solve the Tibet Dragon mystery »
Glaciers, on Wikipedia »
Earlier:
The Tibet Dragon story reminds me of the recent “Giant Creature Uncovered by Tsunami!” story.
In October, on the forteana mailing list, I heard about a weblog that discussed the ‘discovery’ of a massive fossilised creature in India, and provided a link to video news coverage. Apparently unearthed by the tsunami, this huge dinosaur lay on a beach, with a news anchorwoman standing in front. It was less than convincing – the story didn’t turn up elsewhere in the media, just on a blog, but did echo the earlier discovery of the sunken city of Mahabalipuram. Of course, the whole thing turned out to be part of a viral campaign for the launch of a computer game, Shadow of the Colussus.
tsunamigrab01.jpg
The source blog: Giant Creature Uncovered by Tsunami! &raquo’
Snopes.com: Indian Colossus Mystery »
Shadow of the Colossus Gets Viral »
Gamesfirst: Why are we always such suckers for this viral marketing stuff? »
A Giant Hoax or Viral Marketing Campaign? »
See also:
Sea-monster or Shark? »

daev
Chief Bottle Washer at Blather
Writer, photographer, environmental campaigner and "known troublemaker" Dave Walsh is the founder of Blather.net, described both as "possibly the most arrogant and depraved website to be found either side of the majestic Shannon River", and "the nicest website circulating in Ireland". Half Irishman, half-bicycle. He lives in southern Irish city of Barcelona.

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