Amazing Landscapes of Our Planet Earth – At the first look, it’ll be hard to believe these landscapes really exist on earth. And while they don’t make a specific good habitat for the majority of life, they do make for some rather amazing examples of our planet’s extreme terrain.
Just like to take the example of Ethiopia’s alien-looking Danakil depression – the hottest place on earth with a year-round average of 34.4C – which is home to sulfurous springs that produce a kaleidoscope of natural colors. Ethiopia’s Erta Ale shield volcano is home to one of the few lakes of everlasting molten lava on Earth.
Moreover, the Richat Structure, a protuberant circular formation in the largest African Sahara desert that is so idiosyncratic from space, it has become a landmark for Nasa astronauts. Therefore, in a certain light, America’s Grand Canyon mountain ranges could be straight out of a science-fiction movie, too, as could Australia’s vast uninhabited Outback.
Here is a catalog of some of the fabulous locations around the world you definitely wouldn’t want to hang around in but are more than worthy of some other-worldly admiration. Moreover, The Door to Hell in Turkmenistan is a natural gas chamber that has been burning continuously for decades. And the Haughton crater on Canada’s Devon Island has actually been used to conduct Mars-related research.
This natural gas crater in Turkmenistan is known as The Door to Hell and has been burning continuously since geologists set it on fire in 1971 to prevent the spread of methane gasThis astonishing formation in Nevada is known as the Fly Geyser and was accidentally created during well drilling in the 1960sThe Wadi Rum (pictured) is also known as the Valley of the Moon, distinctive for its sandstone mountains and barren landscapeThe sun rises over Bolivia’s 4633-square-mile Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world – remnants of a prehistoric lake that dried up long agoThe Haughton crater on Canada’s Devon Island, which is so other-worldly, scientists (pictured) have set up camp there to conduct Mars-related researchTanzania’s Lake Natron a salt lake fed by mineral-rich hot springs that is the only regular breeding area in East Africa for the 2.5 million lesser flamingoesThe Formica Leo, a relatively small volcanic crater on the French Indian Ocean island of Réunion surrounded by empty landThe Grand Canyon mountain ranges, most of which lie in Arizona, are one of nature’s proudest displays of geological history, seen here from the Cape Royal North RimThe Grand Prismatic Spring in the Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, gets its vivid hues from the heat-loving bacteria that live in its simmering coreThe Great Blue Hole a large submarine sinkhole off the coast of Belize, over 300m across and 124m deep.Peeking above the clouds, this is Hawaii’s astronomical observatory on Mount Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano which is one of the best places on EarthLake Baikal in Siberia is the oldest and deepest freshwater lake in the world and reaches a teeth-chattering −19C during the winterEthiopia’s Erta Ale shield volcano, located in one of the world’s hottest places, is home to one of the few lakes of permanent molten lava on Earth and while popular with travelersDeep in the South Australian Outback lie the Painted Hills, so desolate and little-known that only a few hundred people have seen them in real life over the past 50 yearsBrightly-coloured landforms at China’s Zhanhye National Geopark, located in the Gansu Province are the result of mineral deposits over a staggering 24million yearsAfrican Sahara desert known as the Richat Structure – a deeply eroded geologic dome – is actually so distinctive from Space, that it has become a landmark for Nasa astronauts.A few smatterings of green life amid seemingly endless stretches of arid dust in the Tengger Desert in Inner Mongolia, China. This is a truly amazing landscape on planet earth
