1986, Menlo Park, California, USA --- Seismogram showing measurement of an earthquake on a roll of paper. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
1998, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia --- Whitehaven Bay reveals the patterns of pure white sand moved by tidal currents.Whitsunday Islands are in the central part of the Great Barrier Reef. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
1998, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA, USA --- Visitors to Yellowstone National Park stroll along a boardwalk near the edge of Grand Prismatic Spring, a natural hot spring. At the center of the pool is 93 degrees C. mineral water, which cools as it nears the edges of the pool. The different colors are caused by bacteria which live in different temperatures of water. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
Star dunes spread out like fingers in the remote Omani part of the Empty Quarter near Wadi Mitan. This is the edge of the world's largest sand sea, covering an area the size of France without a single permanent habitation.
01 Nov 2003, Iran --- The Great Salt Desert in Iran --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
14 Apr 2007, Bolivia --- First light of dawn hits Isla Pabellon (el. 3925m.), a volcanic islet in the Salar de Uyuni. The island has been terraced with ancient shore lines from wetter times when the Salar de Uyuni was a lake. The Salar is the largest salt flat in the world, covering some 10,500 sq. km. and containing over 10 billion tons of salt. It was formed by evaporating runnoff that became trapped between two branches of the Andes without any outlet to the sea. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
19 Apr 2007, Eduardo Avaroa Andean Fauna National Reserve, Bolivia --- The water of Laguna Colorada is colored brick orange due to natural hot springs which provide nutrients for red algae to bloom. The birds feed on diatoms less than 1mm in diameter. The lake has a number of small islets of borax, as well as the largest population of flamingos of any Altiplano lake. There are three species of flamingos here: Andean, Chilean, and James's. There are only 50,000 James's flamingos in the world and 30,000 of them nest here each summer. They predominate on this lake at 4,300 meters due to their ability to survive on a diet of diatoms and algae. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
03 Oct 2006, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China --- Karez subterranean irrigation canals just outside Axia village in the Turpan Depression. The idea for this ancient form of irrigation originated in Iran and traveled along the silk road. Now these karez are being abandoned for pumping and open air canals which deplete water at a nonrenewable rate. The water for these subterranean aqueducts originates in the Tian Shan mountains, which rise some 6,000 meters above the Turpan Depression, which is both below sea level and the lowest point in Asia. The holes seen here were used to clean out the canals (some 10-20 meters deep) from falling debris and mineralization. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
10 Oct 2006, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China --- Dr. Zhibao Dong, research scientist with the Chinese Academy of science collecting sand samples in the Kumtag Desert near the SW edge of Lop Nur. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
14 Oct 2006, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China --- Sand dunes and yellow populus diversifolia trees along the lower part of the Talimu River (south of Yuli) where it turns southeast and forms the border of the Taklimakan dune field. The river is heavily used for irrigation upstream, primarily for growing cotton. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
29 Oct 2006, Yunnan Province, China --- Aerial views of terraced farms of Naxi people just upstream from Judian at 6,500ft.. Corn is put up on roofs of buildings to dry, ground is terraced for growing millet, cabbage, corn and wheat without irrigation, on a tributary of Yangtze River. Many of the fields are dotted with piles of manure mixed with straw ready to be mixed in to soil before planting crops. Terraces here are plowed with water buffalo and small tractors. | Location: near Judian, Yunnan Province, China. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
29 Aug 2006, Jamestown, Virginia, USA --- Jamestown Island --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
01 Feb 2004, Yemen --- Two-thousand-year-old patterns of irrigation are still well preserved at Shabwah, Yemen, a testament of how little rain falls near this abandoned city, once one of the most important centers in southern Arabia. At its peak it had several thousand hectares under cultivation via an elaborate irrigation system that controlled water from flash floods in distant mountains. It was also a major stopping point for caravans of camels carrying frankincense from Oman to the Mediterranean. Now the city is largely abandoned and the fields fallow. | Location: Shabwah, Yemen. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
February 2002 --- Dunes and Khwar Hamidan Springs --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile --- Dirt road leading to Laguna Miscanti, one of the many high altitude salt lakes in the Chilean Andes. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
2002 --- Complex barchan dunes of moving sand snake their way across the salt flats in this remote part of Saudi Arabia near the border of Oman. This desert is known as the Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter, and is one of the hottest places on earth, with summer temperatures nearing 50C. | Location: Saudia Arabia. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
Sand dunes in the Empty Quarter, the world's largest sea of sand. Near the small oasis of Fasad in Oman.
10 Oct 2005, Antarctica --- Nose of the Barne Glacier where it meets the sea ice and causes fracture. The nose of the Barne Glacier was called "the ramparts" by early explorers. Strong winds from the south have shaped the sea ice here into a form called "sastrugi". --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
01 Nov 1999, Bougainville Island, Papua New Guinea --- Mount Bagana, 1730m, an active volcano on Bougainville spewing sulphurous gases. This picture was taken on a six-week trip by private sailboat through the seldom-visited islands north of New Guinea, in an area of the South Pacific known as the Solomon Sea. Most of the islets here have no airport or regularly scheduled boat services, and their way of life is traditional by economic necessity. The region is also one of the most volcanically active in the world. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
25 Apr 2007, Bolivia --- The Salar is the largest salt flat in the world, covering some 10,500 sq. km. and containing over 10 billion tons of salt. It was formed by evaporating runnoff that became trapped between two branches of the Andes without any outlet to the sea. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
Paracas, Ica Region, Peru --- Waves of water meet waves of sand in this aerial view of the Pacific Coast of Southern Peru. The beach sand has formed crescent-shaped barchan dunes, which are caused by strong winds always oriented in the same direction. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
12 Oct 2006, Qinghai Province, China --- Twisted folds of sedimentary rocks and sand dunes near Laomangya (Mangnai) village in the western part of the Chaidamu Basin in Quinghai Province, China. This is the western edge of the largest field of Yardangs (wind eroded rocks) in China. | Location: Qinghai Basin, China. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
29 Oct 2006, Deqin, Yunnan Province, China --- Aerial view of Lisu relocation village occupied by farmers who were encouraged by the government to move out of highland areas. They were encouraged to resettle at edge of forest, closer to Weixi and more modernized facilities . | Location: weixi, China. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
03 Mar 2007, Luoping County, Yunnan Province, China --- The rape seed is harvested for cooking oil, the rape stalks are turned into housing insulation, and honey is produced from the flowers by hives of bees brought in by migratory beekeepers. About eight years ago the local government started promoting Luoping as a tourist destination, and at sunrise when these photos were taken, there were ten tour buses parked on the nearby highway and some 80 amateur photographers taking photos of the scene from the two government-designated photo hilltops, with a costumed flutist playing atop a white water buffalo with a bow in its horns. Almost every hotel in town is fully booked for the government organized rape flower festival. | Location: Luoping, Yunnan, China. --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis
Saudi Arabia --- Complex barchan dunes take on the shape of a giant egg crate near the Saudi oilfield of Shaybah --- Image by © George Steinmetz/Corbis