If you have the One Ring from Lord of the Rings, I would advise you not to wear it for the Eye of Sauron would have know you had that One Ring even if you are outside the fantasy land of Middle Earth. As it turns out the Great Eye is not exclusive to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, it was here on Earth, right smack in a grassy field in Baldwyn, Mississippi. Granted, there’s probably nothing sinister about this fiery ‘eye’. In fact, it is just an innocent tree that, for some reason, got hollowed out in the center, and managed to catch fire.
We are not sure if the slit that resembles the Eye of Sauron was a result of a corroding tree, a lightning strike or if it was burnt through by the fire from the inside. Whatever it is, it was a sight to behold. But nobody really knows what cause the fire inside the tree, or why the tree was hollow in the first place. The photo was first tweeted by Alabama broadcast meteorologist James Spann and, naturally, it went viral. It was then retweeted by Walter Smith, Ph.D., a conversation biologist at University of Virginia’s College at Wise, with a simple explanation on this phenomena.
According to Smith, a variety of stress could result in the hollowed out tree and as to why it was burning like a furnace from the inside, it could be the result of a random lightning strike, which is kind of scary if you really think about. Usually the tree will be burnt to the ground, but as Smith explains, if the tree is “sufficiently wet,” such as after a downpour, it could maintain its furnace status for weeks and even up to a month. Though he concedes that it could be someone’s mischief that started the Eye of Sauron. Anyways, this news popped up late last month and so, I would think the threat of the Great Eye should have been over.
This tree was hit by lightning in Baldwyn, MS. It burned the inside. From @jkroxie pic.twitter.com/OKXNMZrmVi
— James Spann (@spann) April 22, 2017
Image: James Spann.
via Inverse.
