The Most Compelling Photos of Earth
Published 20 Aug 2018, 12:16 BST, Updated 22 Apr 2019, 11:45 BST
A startling sunset reddens the Lemaire Channel, off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The continent’s coastal ice is crumbling as the sea and air around it warm.
Photograph by Camille SeamanA California sea lion hunts for fish on a kelp paddy at Cortes Bank, a seamount off San Diego. It’s a trove of marine life that deserves protection, conservationists say.
Photograph by Brian SkerryInspired by images on Instagram, Jonathan Farrar and Marty Castro ventured outside and discovered a love for nature and camping. They drove up the West Coast, visiting national parks, including Crater Lake in Oregon, the country’s deepest lake.
Photograph by Corey ArnoldFurrows of artificial light lend an otherworldly aura to Westland, the greenhouse capital of the Netherlands. Climate-controlled farms such as these grow crops around the clock and in every kind of weather.
Photograph by Luca LocatelliUtah’s Bonneville Salt Flats comprise some 46 square miles of hard, white crust west of Great Salt Lake. The flats and the lake are remnants of Pleistocene-epoch Lake Bonneville.
Photograph by Carolyn DrakeComplex, ever changing patterns of water and land support the bountiful wildlife and vegetation of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. By opening trails that become channels, elephants add to the dynamism. This photo originally published in “Inside the Mission to Save Africa’s Okavango Delta.”
Photograph by Cory RichardsThe trademark of moorland is heather, a perennial that blooms in shades of pink and white as well as purple. This expanse unfurls down to the Dee River at Mar Lodge Estate in Aberdeenshire. Now owned by the National Trust for Scotland, Mar Lodge is pursuing a programme of forest restoration.
In Gasa, Bhutan, monks play a volleyball match against the local police. This photo originally published in “World's Happiest Country Also Has No Carbon Emissions.”
Photograph by Ciril JazbecCemeteries and camps of Afari nomads sit amidst lava flows partially buried in clay near the Awash River Delta in Ethiopia. This photo originally published in “A Photographer's Eye From the Sky.”
Photograph by George SteinmetzDuring a geomagnetic storm, a neon green ribbon of aurora australis danced over Earth in this 2010 photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station. This photo originally published in “20 Stunning Shots of Earth From Space.”
Photograph by NASA and NASA Earth Observatory