Nature - Dusky's Wonders

The lava lake of the continuously active volcano Erta-Ale, Ethiopia

The color coming out of this lava crack has nothing to do with lava or fire. It’s actually flowers called red hot poker or torch lily.

An eruption creates a mountain of ash and smoke over Calbuco Volcano near Puerto Varas, Chile. Photograph and caption by Cote Baeza via National Geographic

Russian Alexey Trofimov captured this image of cracks hundreds of yards long in the ice of Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake in Siberia.

These beach boulders are located at Moeraki, New Zealand and occur naturally.

Cold and windy winter weather of the midwestern US has transformed frozen sand on the shore of Lake Michigan in St. Joseph, MI into a sea of tiny wind-sculpted towers. By Joshua Nowicki.

Balancing Rock on Long Island at Digby Neck, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Image by Joan Anderson on flickr. Standing for thousands of years balancing rock defies erosion. It’s about 30 feet or 9 meters in height.

A snow donut is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which large snowballs are formed naturally as chunks of snow are blown along the ground by wind, picking up material along the way, in much the same way that the large snowballs used in snowmen are made. They’re very rarely seen because of the number of weather conditions that need to be just right for them to form – including wind, temperature, snow, ice, and moisture.

Tumbleweeds are actually invasive plants from Russia and are causing a lot of problems. The image is from California. Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel.

A very determined tree.

A determined dandelion.

A human determined to have his cigarette.

This tropical plant has very large floating leaves up to 3 meters or one yard in diameter and it is native to the shallow waters of the Amazon river basin.

This tropical plant has very large floating leaves up to 3 meters or almost 10 feet in diameter and it is native to the shallow waters of the Amazon river basin.

Rhodochrosite, mineral also known-as the rose of the inca.

Dr. Gary Greenberg invented the high-definition 3D microscopes that he uses to take pictures of sand magnified 300 times it’s size.

more sand

Spiral aurora borealis

Asperatus clouds were only classified in 2009. as a result we know little about them other than that they look amazing.

Time lapse of a vine growing.

A geyser right before eruption

Brinicles form beneath ice when a flow of saline water is introduced. It’s like an underwater icicle.

This unedited image was taken with a tripod mounted in the Pacific Ocean during a winter sunset in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada. Taken at the moment a rock was thrown into the water by Rob Leslie via National Geographic.

Catatumbo lightning occurs only over the mouth of the Catatumbo River where it empties into Lake Maracaibo in Venezuala, 140 to 260 nights a year, 10 hours per day and up to 280 times per hour.

Julieanne Kost spent several days floating between icebergs around Black Head, Cuverville Island, and Pleneau Bay in Antarctica, on a small boat in order to experience ice at eye level.

The Valley of the Moon in Argentina is a 223 square mile park that is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area once held lush lands and plenty of water but that is now classified as full desert. It is here that the world’s oldest dinosaur fossils were found while wind and water erosion over millions of years have also given way to stunning formations including fossilized ferns and petrified tree trunks.

By Florian von der Fecht

By Jose Ferreyra

An infrared photo of a garden. This is how a bee sees, via National Geographic

In this “happy face”, the two eyes are actually very bright galaxies and the misleading smile lines are actually arcs caused by an effect known as strong gravitational lensing. Taken by the Hubble telescope and published by NASA.

Thanks to: Wim, George, John, Murray, Patty (aka Patricia) and National Geographic.

34 thoughts on “Nature”

Dusky: Once again, you have put me into wonder and touched my heart with your amazing photo offerings…I can only hope you continue, as this is such a wonder-full world, and not everyone can just go out and experience it in person! Keep it up, with all my best wishes…Lia

As usual, just speechless!! Thank you so much. Lana

Truly stunning Dusky…Many mahalos for keeping our sense of pure wonder alive.

You have shared a treasure trove of priceless photographs. Thank you.

Absolutely lovely. Thank you.

I so look forward to your site ……….amazing and beautiful , thank you . Joy

I cannot tell you how much joy you have brought to me since my dear “sister of the heart” (who is an amazing artist) introduced me to your site. I eagerly await each gift you give to all of us who are fortunate enough to subscribe to Dusky’s wonders. Kudos and many thanks.

Thanks Again !!! Great stuff !

I always look so forward to the next Dusky’s!! Love them… Thank you!

What’s the pic that looks like a weird honeycomb in a frame?

Thank you for sharing with us some of the wonders that God has created

absolutely stunning! Very memorable.

How lucky we are to have you. Thank you so much for showing us things we would never be able to see…and sometimes even if we were looking straight at it!

Amazingly beautiful and beautifully amazing!

Bonnie Reynolds Johnson on October 17, 9:32 am said:
I especially appreciate all the information about virtually every photo. Make their unique and wondrous beauty all the more memorable.
Thank you!

Janice,
I wish I knew. I lost the info I copied when I found it. I tried googling honeycombs and didn’t see anything like it.

Cornelia,
Yes, that thought touches me too–so many wonders we just walk past, take for granted. Once I was walking near the water in San Francisco, a man was taking a picture of a sea gull. He was from another country and I saw the bird through his eyes and it was wonderful. Taught me a lesson. 🙂

Bonnie, Yes, for this post I happened to have a lot of information compared to other times when the images are magnificent even if they leave me (us) wondering and wanting more info.

I am 78 years young and always look forward to your posts which are always truly amazing. What a wondrous world we live in and how fortunate we have you to permit us to see some of the wonders that would otherwise be lost to us. I do find myself looking intently at my surroundings now when I have a moment and reflect on how lucky I am to have seen these amazing things. Makes me appreciate what I myself am seeing of my world. Thank you so much, look forward to next time.