Japan's famed "snow monsters" may actually be ghosts of an ancient blast. For years, the hulking, ice-coated trees that ...

Yamagata, Japan, Feb. 5, 2012: The “snow monsters,” or “juhyo” in Japanese, at the top of Mount Zao in Yamagata, Japan, are actually windswept, snow-covered trees. The formation of the thick frost and ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. At night, the Zao Snow Monsters are illuminated with colored lights so visitors can continue to marvel them after dark. Photograph ...

Alan Taylor is a senior editor at The Atlantic.