THE MULTICOLORED ICEBERG Photograph by Øyvind Tangen In this remarkable capture we see a multicolored striped iceberg spotted somewhere near Antarctica, about 2,700 km south of Cape Town, South Africa. This image along with a series of other amazing photos of icebergs and glaciers were the subject of popular email forwards many…
THE SUN – ONE YEAR, ONE IMAGE Photograph by NASA/GSFC/SDO In the three years since it first provided images of the sun in the spring of 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has had virtually unbroken coverage of the sun’s rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year…
THE SEASIDE TOWN OF VERNAZZA Photograph by Christopher Schoenbohm Portfolio | Travel Blog | Tumblr | YouTube | Flickr Vernazza is a town and commune located in the province of La Spezia, Liguria, northwestern Italy. It is one of the five towns that make up the Cinque Terre region. Vernazza is the…
Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn’s north pole. Scientists say the hurricane’s eye is about 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the…
China Danxia is a UNSECO World Heritage Site and the name given in China to landscapes developed on continental red terrigenous sedimentary beds influenced by endogenous forces (including uplift) and exogenous forces (including weathering and erosion). The inscribed site comprises six areas found in the sub-tropical zone of south-west China. They are characterized by…
MALETSUNYANE FALLS, LESOTHO Photograph by BagelBelt Maletsunyane Falls is a 192 meter (630 ft) high waterfall in the Southern African country of Lesotho. It is located near the town of Semonkong. Lesotho, officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, completely surrounded by its only neighbouring country, South Africa.…
THE ROCKY WAVE Photograph by G.A. KOUT | gakout.tumblr.com The Wave is located on the Colorado Plateau, near the Utah and Arizona border. The area is a gallery of twisted sandstone, resembling deformed pillars, cones, mushrooms and other odd creations. Deposits of iron claim some of the responsibility for the unique blending…
NORTHERN PARADISE Photograph by STEPHANE VETTER | nuitsacrees.fr In this breathtaking photograph we see a stunning aurora over an icy Gullfoss waterfalls in southwest Iceland. The photograph was taken in late March. The auroras followed a M-1 class solar flare and powerful coronal mass ejection (CME) two days prior. Also visible is…
THE ANCIENT BANYAN TREE Photograph by JAMES BRANDON | Prints available Taken on Hawaii’s Big Island, this beautiful photograph of an ancient Banyan tree was sent to the Sifter by professional photographer James Brandon, who recalls: “This massive banyan tree is located at Rainbow Falls on the Big Island of Hawaii. I…
Root-Over-Rock Trident Maple Photograph by Peggy Greb, USDA Part of the penjing collection at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, this trident maple, Acer buergerianum, has its roots growing over a rock and its foliage and stems trimmed in the shape of a dragon. Penjing, also known as penzai, tray landscape, potted…