Visions of Earth Photo Gallery (9 Amazing Photos)

Photograph by Zig Koch

Butterflies spatter the shoreline of the Juruena River in Brazil’s new 4.7-million-acre (2-million-hectare) Juruena National Park. Several different species flock to the riverbanks to sip mineral salts from the sand.

Photograph by Manu San Felix

A school of snorkelers struggles to keep pace with a whale shark—the world’s biggest fish, which can grow more than 60 feet (18 meters) long. These rare sharks glide along swiftly, exhausting even fit swimmers within minutes.

Photograph by Juhani Kosonen

On a window in Kotka, a slightly battered mosquito sits silhouetted against a mosaic of water drops, each reflecting spring sky and the crayon colors of nearby buildings.

Photograph by Magnus Lundgren, Wild Wonders of Europe

Near the Azores, just below the sunlit Atlantic surface, sperm whales float in vertical repose. Scientists think "drift dives" are a form of communal slumber. This species may sleep the least of any mammal.

Photograph by Heidi and Hans-Jurgen Koch

The see-through skin of an inch-long (2.5-centimeter-long) glass frog reveals her eggs. Native to Venezuela, the frogs lay eggs in bushes and trees overhanging streams. Tadpoles hatch, then tumble into the current to be swept away.

Photograph by Paul Nicklen

The 22-ton stainless steel propellers on the icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent pause in their work pushing the Canadian vessel through frozen waters—allowing a diver to venture near.

Photograph by Jordi Busque

Moonlight sets mist aglow on the Patagonian peak of Mount Fitz Roy, known to local people as Cerro Chaltén, or "smoking mountain," because its summit is often capped in clouds.

Photograph by Jeff Kroeze

More than 3,000 wind turbines bristle across the hills of the Tehachapi-Mojave Wind Resource Area, generating enough electricity to serve a quarter million homes each year.

Photograph by Magnus Elander

The facial disk of feathers circling this great gray owl's eyes channel forest-floor sounds back to its ears, helping the bird pounce on a vole and carry it away.

National Geographic