strange lights

Every so often I run across these lights. Description: A column of light, reminds me of the "aroha borealis" but in this case shoots strait up. What is it? Am I suppose to do something with it? I've tried standing in it, but nothing happens. Also while I'm on this discussion, every so often I see an "open chest" on the map. I run to the location, and again nothing is there. Can anyone explain what these are?

A picture would make this much easier

I'm not positive about the column of light, but the chest appears on the map where a major boss has been killed. Unfortunately, you can't loot the chest unless you were part of the group that killed it.

Oh, hey, I think I may have solved your light mystery!What you describe sounds like they might be ley lines, currents of magical energy. They don't actually do anything, but if you have the Ley Line Gliding mastery, you can use some of them to glide on. They sometimes appear in Central Tyria where ley magic events occur, but most (the permanent ones) are in HoT and LS3 maps.

You might want to look up "catching the ley line anomoly'.