Walls come tumbling down; Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway
Ice from the crashes into the sea a phenomenon known as “claving.” Climate change is warming the planet’s waters, with an especially dramatic impact in the polar regions.

Photograph by Michael Melford


Sossusvlei, Namibia:
On Earth, not Mars
In the Namib Desert, the Sossusvlei region’s name, a combination of Afrikaans and the native Nama words meaning “dead-end marsh,” derives from its having no natural outfall for rains.

 

 

Luzon Island, Philippine Islands
To fish is to live: Villages are built over river waters to have access to fish. Life revolves around the sea on many of the 7,100-plus islands of the Philippines.
Photograph by Bruce Dale

 

Monument Valley, Utah
A study in contrasts: Sand ripples at dawn below the park’s well-known tower of the Totem Pole. Monument Valley is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of vast sandstone buttes, the largest reaching 1,000 feet above the valley.
Photograph by Erik Harrison