Nature is a powerful and beautiful thing. From stunning light shows in the sky to ancient rock formations formed by molten lava bubbling up from beneath, this gallery is a celebration of some of the most amazing sights served up by the natural world. What's more, it's perhaps also a humbling reminder of our species' place in the grand scheme of things.
Click through the gallery to discover nature at its most alluring and spectacular...
Every so often, Earth throws up a landscape that feels like it's been imported directly from an alien planet. Located in Namibia's Namib-Naukluft National Park, Deadvlei (its name means 'dead marsh') is home to dead camel thorn trees that are estimated to be around 900 years old. Due to the extremely dry climate, they have not decayed and have instead become petrified. This place is also home to some of the world's highest sand dunes. The one called Big Daddy is an astonishing 1,066 feet (325m) tall and contrasts spectacularly with the bleached-white pan.
Up in the Highlands of Scotland, on the otherworldly Isle of Skye, nothing better symbolises the power of nature than the Old Man of Storr. 180 feet (55m) tall, The Old Man (known as 'Bodach an Stòr' in Gaelic) is all that remains of a 2,800-million-year-old volcanic plug that formed when magma within a volcanic vent cooled and set. The area surrounding this epic natural feature slopes down as a result of erosion caused by an ancient landslide. Walk here to remind yourself of the powerful forces hidden beneath Earth's soil and the weight of history preceding humanity's presence on the planet.
Legend says this stunning stretch of coastline in Northern Ireland was built by the Irish giant Finn McCool as a way of confronting his Scottish rival. Amazingly though, the truth is even more interesting. Cast your mind back 50 to 60 million years ago and imagine lava oozing from fissures in the earth. Then picture a vast swathe of molten rock cooling and contracting, before cracking into a series of around 40,000 columns that are mostly in near-perfect hexagonal shapes. Yes, nature has the power to create works of art completely by accident. Consider us impressed.
Lake Leitisvatn, also known as Sørvágsvatn or the 'Lake Above The Ocean', can, from certain angles, make you question the very fabric of reality. When it's viewed from the Trælanípa cliff, an optical illusion is created in which this epic body of water appears to be floating above the waves of the North Atlantic Ocean. It's a surreal and dramatic sight, one that perfectly illustrates nature's ability to surprise. Formed by a mixture of volcanic and ice age glaciers, the Faroe Islands is home to some of the world's most incredible terrain.
The aurora borealis – otherwise known as the Northern Lights – is an elusive yet beautiful natural display created by charged particles from the sun meeting with the Earth’s magnetic fields. This powerful combination can result in a technicolour light show which can even be seen from space. Key places to spot them include Iceland, Norway and Canada.
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Situated in the Los Glaciares National Park in the Santa Cruz province of Patagonia, this imposing ice formation covers an area of 97 square miles (250sq km). It stretches 19 miles (30km) in length and is the perfect demonstration of Mother Nature at its most majestic.
Iceland’s most visited active geyser is as intimidating as it is beautiful, blasting water to heights of up to 131 feet (40m) every five to 10 minutes. It’s caused by magma close to the Earth’s surface which boils melted water from nearby glaciers – quite the natural phenomenon. Just don't stand too close.
In December 2023, rare polar stratospheric clouds – also called nacreous or mother-of-pearl clouds – were spotted in the skies across the length of England and Scotland, boggling the minds of onlookers who were quick to post about the phenomenon on social media. These colourful clouds typically form much higher than our more common clouds, around 12 miles (20km) above ground when the air is close to or below -80°C (-112°F). Here they are pictured in the county of Kent, which lies over 1,000 miles (1,691km) south of the Arctic Circle.
Mother Nature exerts her power and influence across all the elements and in all terrains. In Iceland’s Vatnajökull region, enormous ice caves are formed each winter, sculpted from meltwater running underneath the country's vast glaciers. Because of its crystal-blue ice walls and long and winding nature that brings to mind the body of a serpent, the most famous ice cave here is known as 'Crystal' and 'Anaconda'.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, just off the coast of Queensland, is the world’s largest reef system and one of the richest marine ecosystems on the planet. It’s so expansive it stretches more than 1,429 miles (2,300km) and can be seen from space, comprising more than 900 islands and over 2,900 individual reefs. It’s home to more than 9,000 known species, including the so-called 'Great Eight' – clownfish, giant clams, manta rays, Maori wrasse, potato cod, sharks, turtles and whales.
Otherwise known as the 'Gates of Hell', you can see how Turkmenistan's Darvaza gas crater (pictured here) earned its name. The burning natural gas field is 98 feet (30m) deep and has been flaming since the 1970s after scientists set it alight in a bid to get rid of, what they thought, was a small amount of natural gas escaping from the crater.
Given their majestic and multicoloured beauty, rainbows could be considered the calm after the storm. These incredible arcs are caused by a combination of reflection, refraction and light dispersion in water droplets. They never cease to amaze and inspire. Pictured here, a plane flies past one on its approach to Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport.
Classed as the largest waterfall in the world by width – 5,604 feet (1,700m) or just over a mile – Victoria Falls, located on the Zambia and Zimbabwe border, is overwhelming in terms of its size and power. The sight of it is made even more majestic in this stunning photo with the help of a rainbow, which has formed above the cascade.
Want to really feel small? The Milky Way (of which the Earth is a part of) contains several hundred billion stars. It’s possible to observe the Milky Way with the naked eye, given the right conditions. Here it's captured over the Black Sea and framed by the jaw-dropping Perseids meteor shower.
Turkey’s mineral-rich thermal pools are a stunning natural phenomenon. This natural spa in the town of Pamukkale features 17 hot water springs and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. Looking like an artist's impression of Heaven or a particularly pleasant dreamscape, the temperature of the springs here ranges from 35°C (95°F) to 100°C (212°F).
When fire meets water: this photo captures fresh lava from Hawaii’s Kīlauea volcano flowing into the Pacific Ocean. While lava flows can help to create new land, they can destroy anything – or anyone – caught in their wake. This is Hawaii's youngest and most active volcano, usually erupting every two to three years. As these photographs of it demonstrate, its fearsome nature can also be strangely beautiful.
Located in the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, USA, the Horseshoe Bend is a beautiful natural wonder. So-named after the horseshoe-shaped meander in the Colorado River, which underlines the power of water to find a way, it's particularly stunning when captured at sunset.
Formed by tectonic plates pushing against each other more than 60 million years ago, Mount Everest is the world’s highest mountain above sea level. It measures a staggering 29,029 feet (8,848m) in height. People are still dazzled by its epic size to this day, with adventurers continuing risking their lives to stand on its legendary summit. This fascination people feel towards it has led to long and dangerous queues forming on the mountain during climbing season. The enormous rock is the ultimate reminder of nature's power and scale.
If you need reminding of nature’s inherent beauty, head to Australia’s algae-rich Lake Hillier. This vibrantly pink saline lake, located off the south coast of Western Australia, is the dictionary definition of stunning. Safe to swim in, it's considered to be one of Australia’s most amazing natural wonders.
As a gateway to both the River Douro and the Atlantic Ocean, Felgueiras Lighthouse in Porto gets its fair share of swell and flotsam, especially on windy days. In fact, Portugal is renowned for its wild waves – the freakishly tall 'monster waves' that tower above the shores of Nazare are especially popular with daredevil surfers.
If you've ever wondered what the Earth would look like if all the people suddenly disappeared, Houtouwan, an abandoned fishing village in China's Shengsi Islands, gives us a pretty good idea. Once home to more than 2,000 fishermen, this remote settlement is now overgrown with ivy and other lush green vegetation after the local population moved away during the early 1990s in search of better employment prospects on the mainland. This place reminds us just how thin that line separating civilisation from the way the world used to be really is.
To behold the giant sequoias of California in person is to bear witness to nature in its most epic form. Standing at the foot of the largest trees in the world, which grow along the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, will quickly have you questioning your own significance in the grand scheme of things. These titans of the great outdoors can live for over 3,000 years, develop diameters of more than 30 feet (9m) and hit heights of over 300 feet (91m).
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